After Goya

Engraving of one of the "Caprichos"; FRANCISCO DE GOYA Y LUCIENTES (Fuendetodos, Zaragoza, 1746 - Bordeaux, France, 1828).
"Ni así la distinguue", nº7.
Engraving.
Signed in plate.
Presents restored tear.
Measurements: 20 x 14,5 cm (print); 30 x 20,5 cm (paper) and 45 x 34 x 2 cm (frame).

This print belongs to the Caprichos series, a collection of 80 prints engraved with etching, aquatint, burin and point and bound in leather. In the words of the Prado Museum, "Goya addresses the theme of the inability of understanding between man and woman through an iconography related to sensory perception. The author satirizes this situation by relating it to the representation of the incroyable or Parisian petimetres, who, with their refined manners and very different from the customs of the Spanish nation, had been adopted by the court, but made the people laugh".

"Los Caprichos" is a series of 80 engravings that represent a satire of the Spanish society of the time, especially the nobility and the clergy. They were made, in a technique combining etching, aquatint and drypoint, at the end of the 18th century, and the series was first published in 1799, although it was soon withdrawn for fear of the Inquisition, and was only on sale for fourteen days. There is currently no real consensus about the interpretation of these engravings by Goya, and in fact there are several contemporary manuscripts that explain the plates of "Los Caprichos". The one in the Museo del Prado is considered to be Goya's autograph, but it seems to be rather misleading and to seek a moralizing meaning that conceals more risky meanings for the author. The other two, the one that belonged to Ayala and the one in the National Library, enhance the most lurid part of the plates.