Slide 1
Los Caprichos turns human folly into unsettling images
Goya's Los Caprichos uses unsettling and sometimes fantastic imagery to examine human folly. The series makes social behaviour a subject of visual criticism.
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Published in 1799, the set contains eighty prints. Its extended format allowed different scenes to build a wider world of criticism rather than relying on one isolated joke.
Slide 2
Captions guide the image without removing every ambiguity
Words beneath a print can guide its reading while leaving room for ambiguity. Goya's image and caption work as a pair.
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Satire can depend on a gap between what is said and what is shown. A title need not function as a neutral description; it may add irony or a second voice.
Slide 3
The sleep of reason produces monsters gives the series a famous image
The sleep of reason produces monsters shows a slumped figure surrounded by strange creatures. It is one of the best-known plates in Los Caprichos.
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The print combines etched lines with aquatint, a printmaking method that creates areas of tone. Those tonal passages help establish the darkness in which the disturbing figures gather, extending the effects available from lines alone.
Slide 4
Earlier drawings helped develop the printed criticism
Goya made satirical drawings that contributed to the development of Los Caprichos. The printed series emerged from an extended process of invention.
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He was already an accomplished artist when this satirical work developed. His career joined courtly commissions and critical imagery, complicating a simple division between official artist and outsider.
Slide 5
Fantastic creatures can criticize real habits
Imaginary creatures can address real habits and beliefs. Their strangeness gives satire a way to make familiar behaviour appear disturbing.
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The presence of fantasy does not identify a single target automatically. Historical interpretation must connect a particular print to evidence about its language and context, rather than assigning every monster a fixed real person.
Sources
- The Caprices plates 1–80
Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Infinite Jest: Caricature from Leonardo to Levine
Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The sleep of reason produces monsters
Metropolitan Museum of Art