THE CAPRICES (LOS CAPRICHOS)
A set of eighty engravings in aqua-fortis and aqua-tinta, executed between 1796 and 1812. A facsimile edition was published by the Artistic Library of Barcelona in 1885, and another by Messrs. Boussod and Valadon at Paris in 1888:—
1. Francisco Goya y Lucientes, Painter.
2. El sí pronuncian....
‘They say yes, and give their hand to the man that first presents himself.’
3. Que viene el Coco.
4. El de la Rollona.
A lackey with a man dressed as a child in leading-strings. Believed to symbolise the helplessness and dependence of the rich on their servants.
5. Tal para qual.
‘Birds of a feather flock together.’
6. Nadie se conoce.
Masked persons in conversation. Supposed to suggest that in this world we know each other only by appearances, which are really misleading.
7. Ni así la distingue.
‘Not thus can he distinguish her.’ A gallant scanning a young woman through an eye-glass. Similar meaning to preceding.
8. Que se la llevaron.
‘Kidnapped!’ A woman carried off by masked and hooded men.
9. Tántalo.
‘Tantalus.’ A man, wringing his hands, supports a swooning woman. Possibly points the same moral as the saying, Si vieillesse pouvait....
10. El amor y la muerte.
‘Love and death.’ A woman supporting a dying man.
11. Muchachos al aíro.
Four Andalusian brigands seated round a tree.
12. A caza de dientes.
‘Tooth-hunting.’ A woman trying to extract the tooth of a man hanging.
13. Están calientes.
‘They are hot.’ Monks at table. An ironical suggestion in the title.
14. Qué sacrificio!
‘What a sacrifice!’ Young girl bestowed in marriage on an ugly old man.
15. Bellos consejos.
‘Good counsel.’ Duenna gives worldly advice to a young girl, who listens with attention.
16. Dios la perdone....
‘May God pardon her—it was her mother.’ Young lady turns scornfully from a beggar-woman. A rebuke to upstarts, forgetful of the ties of kindred.
17. Bien tirada está.
Girl drawing up her stocking in presence of an aged duenna.
18. Y se le quema la casa.
‘And his house is burning.’ Old man, seemingly drunk, does not perceive that his house is on fire.
19. Todos caer.
‘All will fall.’ Women pluck a bird which has a man’s head. Similar fowls hovering above. Suggests that men of all classes, undismayed by the fate of others, fall a prey to women.
20. Ya van desplumados.
‘They are already plucked. Young women, encouraged by old men, chasing birds furnished with men’s heads.
21. Qual la descañonan.
‘How they pluck her!’ Lawyers, in feline shape, plucking a bird provided with a woman’s head.
22. Pobrecitas!
‘Poor little things!’ Two women, hooded, escorted or annoyed by two cloaked men.
23. Aquellos polvos.
‘Dust and Ashes.’ A female victim of the Inquisition listening to the sentence read by a familiar of that tribunal.
24. No hubo remedio.
‘There was no remedy.’ A woman, stripped to the waist and mounted on an ass, is led away by the officers of the Inquisition.
25. Si quebró el cántaro.
‘Because he broke the pitcher.’ Mother chastising her boy.
26. Ya tienen asiento.
‘Now they have seats.’ Two women, nude from the waist downwards, carry their chairs on their heads. Meaning obscure.
27. Quién más rendido?
‘Which is the more bored?’ A gallant paying his oft-repeated compliments to a lady, who is weary of such empty homage.
28. Chitón!
‘Hush!’ A lady of fashion makes a sign to an old dame leaning on a stick. Allusion to the fashion in Spain of confiding billets doux to beggars at the church doors.
29. Esto sí que es leer.
‘This is what he calls reading.’ A man of fashion reads in a desultory manner, while his valets attend to his toilette. Possibly a skit on some minister of state.
30. Porqué esconderlos?
‘Why hide them?’ A miser, possibly an ecclesiastic, endeavours to hide some bags of money from four persons who deride him. May be intended as a skit on the clergy, whose wealth was a matter of common knowledge.
31. Ruega por ella.
‘She prays for her.’ Girls at their toilette, and an old woman praying. Meaning obscure.
32. Porque fué sensible?
‘Why was she sensitive?’ A young girl weeping in a dungeon. This may imply that people of excessive sensibility carry their own prison or torture-chamber with them.
33. Al Conde Palatino.
‘To the Count Palatine.’ A richly dressed charlatan extracting teeth. Allusion, probably, to the practice of such gentry of representing themselves as physicians to foreign potentates.
34. Las riende el sueño.
‘Sleep comforts them.’ Women asleep in prison.
35. Le descañona.
‘They shave him.’ Young man shaved by girls.
36. Mala noche.
‘A bad night.’ Women out in a stormy night.
37. Si sabrá más el discípulo?
‘Will the pupil know more [than the master]?’ A donkey, of dignified demeanour, teaching a little ass.
38. Brabisimo!
‘Bravissimo!’ A donkey applauds a monkey who plays on the guitar. Possibly a skit on Charles IV. and Godoy.
39. Asta su abuelo.
‘As far as his grandfather.’ An ass contemplates the portraits of other asses. Satire on those who seek to establish long pedigrees for themselves.
40. De qué mal morirá?
‘Of what will he die?’ An ass feels a dying man’s pulse. Perhaps a reflection on the faculty was intended.
41. Ni más ni menos.
‘Neither more nor less.’ A donkey sits for his portrait to a monkey, who is painting a horse. Satire on artists who paint pictures of those whom they have never seen.
42. Tú que no puedes.
‘Thou who canst not....’ Two men staggering under the weight of two asses. The men represent the people, the asses perhaps the governing classes.
43. El sueño de la razon produce monstruosos.
‘The sleep of reason induces monstrous thoughts.’ Bats and owls fly round a sleeping man, and place a pencil in his hand wherewith to reproduce his vision.
44. Hilan delgado.
‘They spin linen.’ Old women spinning.
45. Mucho hay que chupar.
‘There is a lot to taste.’ Around a basket full of new-born children sit three topers. Meaning obscure.
46. Corrección.
‘Correction.’ Fantastic figures with heads of birds and animals. Said to be an allusion to the Holy Office.
47. Obsequio à el maestro.
‘Homage to the master.’ Wizards and witches offering a new-born infant to their chief.
48. Soplones.
‘Blowers.’ Devil on a cat is rousing some sleeping monks.
49. Duendecitos.
‘Little ghosts.’ Three monstrous beings in clerical garb. Attack on the clergy.
50. Los chinchillas.
Two persons with costumes heraldically decorated, their eyes closed, and with padlocks on their ears, are being fed by a third, blindfolded, and with ass’s ears. Allusion to the aristocracy, represented to be the victims of superstition and ignorance.
51. Se repulen.
‘They polish each other’s nails.’ Three demons clawing each other.
52. Lo que puede un sastre!
‘What a tailor can do!’ Devotees prostrate themselves before an ecclesiastical vestment hung on a tree. The meaning is obvious.
53. Que pico de oro!
‘What an Orator!’ A parrot preaching to friars and others.
54. El vergonzoso.
‘How shameful.’ A man is eating from a dish held by another person. The suggestion does not lend itself to explanation.
55. Hasta la muerte.
‘Till death.’ A hideous old crone trying on a head-dress before a mirror to the amusement of a number of spectators.
56. Subir y bajar.
‘Ascent and fall.’ A monstrous satyr, representing Vice, is holding up a manikin [Godoy], while other figures are falling headlong.
57. La filiación.
‘Well mated.’ An espousal ceremony. The bride has an animal’s head, and carries her own face in her lap. The bridegroom is a hideous and repulsive-looking dwarf. A woman makes an entry in a book. Meaning obscure.
58. Trágala, perro.
‘Swallow that, dog!’ A monk threatens with an enormous syringe a kneeling priest surrounded by other monks.
59. Y aun no se van!
‘And yet they do not go!’ Two withered wretches uphold a slab of stone which threatens to overwhelm them. Not impossibly this may symbolise the determined clinging to life of even the most wretched.
60. Ensayos.
‘Essays.’ An enormous goat surveys a nude man and woman who are rising in the air. Meaning obscure.
61. Volaverunt.
A handsome young woman flying through the air supported by three crouching figures. Said to represent the Duquesa de Alba.
62. Quien lo creyera?
‘Who would believe it?’ Two naked wretches fighting in mid-air are falling into the jaws of monsters.
63. Miren que grabes!
‘How grave they are!’ Men with the heads of birds and donkeys riding on grotesque-looking beasts.
64. Buen viaje!
‘Bon voyage!’ Winged monsters or witches flying through the darkness.
65. Donde va mamá?
‘Where is mamma going?’ A fat woman carried through the air by three demons, one of whom rides an owl. A cat holds a parasol over the group.
66. Allá va eso.
‘Beware!’ A man and a woman with outspread wings flying in the company of a cat and a serpent.
67. Aguarda que te unten.
‘Wait till you have been anointed!’ A goat leaps upwards while two grotesque wretches endeavour to anoint its hoofs. Alleged by some to be a derisive allusion to the sacrament of extreme unction.
68. Linda maestra!
‘Pretty mistress!’ Two witches preceded by an owl.
69. Sopla.
‘She blows!’ Woman using a child as a bellows.
70. Devota profesion!
‘Devout profession!’ A woman with ass’s ears, seated astride a satyr, recites from a book at the direction of two ecclesiastics.
71. Si amanece, nos vamos.
‘The dawn is breaking, we’ll be off.’ Breaking up of a witches’ party.
72. No te escaparás.
‘You will not escape.’ A girl trying to elude winged creatures with men’s heads.
73. Mejor es holgar.
‘It’s better to do nothing.’ A man assists a woman to disentangle a skein. Girl stands by amused.
74. No grites, tonta.
‘Don’t grizzle, idiot.’ A girl alarmed at two comical monkish phantoms. A variation of the artist’s favourite theme of bogeys raised by monks.
75. No hay quién nos desate?
‘Will no one set us free?’ A man and a woman tied to the same tree. Satire on marriage.
76. Esta Vmd? pues, como digo, etc....
‘Are you there? Well, then, as I say.... Well, be careful! If not....’ Nonsensical orders issued by a fat, ridiculous-looking officer.
77. Unos á otros.
‘From one to the other.’ Old dotards attacking a third who is playing at ‘ball.’ May be intended to convey a satire on the aged who pretend to the activities and energy of youth.
78. Despacha, que despiertan.
‘Be quick, they waken.’ An old woman apparently awaking her fellow-servants.
79. Nadie nos ha visto.
‘Nobody has seen us.’ Monks drinking in a cellar.
80. Ya es hora.
‘It is the hour.’ Monks stretching themselves and yawning.
Sometimes included in Los Caprichos are the following:—
81. Sueño de la mentira y de la inconstancia.
‘A dream of falsehood and inconstancy.’ In the collection of Don V. Carderera.
82. Women lamenting, while a Man gives a Dog some Medicine.
Very rare.
83. Woman sleeping in a Prison, her Feet chained to the Wall.
Very rare.