Los Caprichos

Los Caprichos
Title	Los Caprichos
Artist	Francisco de Goya
Year	1797–1799
Medium	Etching and aquatint
Catalogue	Goya: Los Caprichos (80 prints)
Location	Museo del Prado (many plates), private collections

Los Caprichos is a series of eighty etchings by Francisco de Goya created between 1797 and 1799 that critique contemporary Spanish Crown institutions and social practices. Commissioned within the late Bourbon Reforms era and produced during the reign of Charles IV of Spain, the work responds to scandals involving the Spanish Inquisition, the decline of the Habsburg dynasty legacy, and intellectual currents from the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Goya presented the series in a folio that invoked earlier print traditions from Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Giovanni Battista Piranesi while addressing subjects linked to the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País, the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, and prominent contemporaries such as Manuel Godoy.

Background and Context

Goya produced the series during a tumultuous period shaped by the aftermath of the Seven Years' War consequences in Europe, the influence of Enlightenment reformers like Voltaire and Denis Diderot, and the political ascendancy of figures including Manuel Godoy and reactionary clergy allied to the Spanish Inquisition. The artist’s own life intersected with courtly networks at the Royal Palace of Madrid and institutions such as the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, and his hearing loss after an illness placed him among other ailing contemporaries like Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven in period discussions about creativity and infirmity. Intellectual debates over superstition and reason echoed pamphlets circulated by societies modeled on the Royal Society and the Académie des Sciences, while diplomatic ruptures linked to the French Revolutionary Wars and later the Peninsular War framed the broader reception climate.

Description and Themes

The eighty plates employ satirical allegory to attack corruption in the Spanish Inquisition, abuses by the clerical orders and nobility, marital infidelity exposed in salons frequented by adherents of the Royal Court of Spain, and legal hypocrisy of tribunals like the Council of the Indies. Recurring motifs reference witches and capricious spirits from Iberian folk belief, visual allusions to iconography used by painters such as Diego Velázquez and Peter Paul Rubens, and moralizing tropes found in works by writers including Francisco de Quevedo and Jorge Juan. The prints meditate on themes of reason versus superstition tied to thinkers like Immanuel Kant and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and they satirize elites including ministers associated with Charles IV of Spain and cultural figures linked to salons led by the Countess of Chinchón.

Technique and Production

Goya executed the plates with a combination of etching, aquatint, and drypoint techniques inherited from printmakers such as Rembrandt van Rijn and Francisco de Zurbarán, while adapting tonal possibilities championed by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. The aquatint wash effects create chiaroscuro reminiscent of oil works by Diego Velázquez and the tonal gradations found in prints by William Hogarth, enabling nuanced textures for garments associated with subjects like Manuel Godoy and masks invoking theatrical traditions from Commedia dell'arte. Production involved collaboration with print publishers and workshops connected to the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and dealers linked to collectors such as Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos and other members of the Spanish intelligentsia.

Individual Prints

Several plates stand out for their vivid indictments: the witch and caprice images recalling trials presided over by the Spanish Inquisition; scenes of seduction and masquerade that evoke courtly scandals involving figures in the entourage of Charles IV of Spain and Queen Maria Luisa of Parma; and grotesques that critics have linked with private caricatures circulated among members of the Cortes and reformist clubs inspired by the Society of Friends of the Country (Spain). Specific plates use iconography paralleling prints by Hogarth and narrative tableaux like those in works by Gérard de Lairesse, while some compositions echo portrait poses from Diego Velázquez and the moralizing prints of William Blake.

Reception and Legacy

Initial reactions ranged from praise among reformers like Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos to censure by conservative clerical orders and intermediaries connected to the Spanish Inquisition, prompting Goya to withhold public exhibition and later offer the plates for private sale to collectors including members of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. The series influenced 19th‑century artists such as Édouard Manet, Honoré Daumier, Édouard Detaille, and later printmakers in the tradition of Käthe Kollwitz and James Ensor, while scholars at institutions like the Museo del Prado and universities including the University of Madrid have positioned the work as pivotal in debates about modernity, censorship, and political satire.

Influence and Cultural References

Los Caprichos informed visual satire in 19th‑ and 20th‑century movements, from Romanticism critiques by artists affiliated with academies like the Accademia di San Luca to Modernist experiments by figures associated with the Salon des Indépendants. Its iconography recurs in exhibitions curated at the Museo del Prado, the Museum of Modern Art, and the National Gallery (London), inspiring poets and writers such as Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Mariano José de Larra, and later commentators in the tradition of Roland Barthes and Walter Benjamin. Filmmakers and visual artists from schools linked to the Surrealist movement and the Spanish Civil War memorial culture have repeatedly referenced Goya’s images in works engaging with the legacies of the Peninsular War and debates over political repression led by institutions like the Francoist State.

Category:Print series Category:Works by Francisco de Goya