Los Caprichos (The Caprices) is a set of 80 prints in aquatint and etching created by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya in 1797–1798 and published as an album in 1799. The prints were an artistic experiment: a medium for Goya's satirizing Spanish society at the end of the 18th century, particularly the nobility and the clergy. Goya in his plates humorously and mercilessly criticized society while aspiring to more just laws and a new educational system. Closely associated with the Enlightenment, the criticisms are far-ranging and acidic. The images expose the predominance of superstition, religious fanaticism, the Inquisition, religious orders, the ignorance and inabilities of the various members of the ruling class, pedagogical shortcomings, marital mistakes, and the decline of rationality.
Goya added brief explanations of each image to a manuscript, now in the Museo del Prado, which help explain his often cryptic intentions, as do the titles printed below each image. Aware of the risk he was taking, to protect himself, he gave many of his prints imprecise labels, especially the satires of the aristocracy and the clergy. He also diluted the messaging by illogically arranging the engravings. Goya explained in an announcement that he chose subjects "from the multitude of faults and vices common in every civil society, as well as from the vulgar prejudices and lies authorized by custom, ignorance or self-interest, those that he has thought most suitable matter for ridicule."
Despite the relatively vague language of Goya's captions in the Caprichos, Goya's contemporaries understood the engravings, even the most ambiguous ones, as a direct satire of their society, even alluding to specific individuals, though the artist always denied the associations.
The series was published in February 1799; however, just 14 days after going on sale, when Manuel Godoy and his affiliates lost power, the painter hastily withdrew the copies still available for fear of the Inquisition. In 1807, to save the Caprichos, Goya decided to offer the king the plates and the 240 unsold copies, destined for the Royal Calcography, in exchange for a lifetime pension of twelve thousand reales per year for his son Javier.
The work was a tour-de-force critique of 18th-century Spain, and humanity in general, from the point of view of the Enlightenment. The informal style, as well as the depiction of contemporary society found in Caprichos, makes them (and Goya himself) a precursor to the modernist movement almost a century later. Capricho No. 43, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, has attained iconic status in particular.
Goya's series and the last group of prints in his series The Disasters of War, which he called "caprichos enfáticos" ("emphatic caprices"), are far from the spirit of light-hearted fantasy the term "caprice" usually suggests in art.
Thirteen official editions are known: one from 1799, five in the 19th century, and seven in the 20th century, with the last one in 1970 being carried out by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.
Los Caprichos have influenced generations of artists from movements as diverse as French Romanticism, Impressionism, German Expressionism or Surrealism. Ewan MacColl and André Malraux considered Goya one of the precursors of modern art, citing the innovations and ruptures of the Caprichos.
Contents
History
In 1799, a collection of eighty prints of whimsical subjects etched by the painter Francisco de Goya, who was 53 years old, was put up for sale. Through ridicule, extravagance, and fantasy, these engravings criticized the society of Spain at the time.
To understand the genesis of the Caprichos, it is necessary to consider the years preceding them. In the 1780s, Goya began to interact with some of the most important intellectuals in the country, Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, Juan Meléndez Valdés, Leandro Fernández de Moratín and Juan Agustín Ceán Bermúdez, who introduced him to the ideals of the Enlightenment. He shared their opposition to religious fanaticism, superstition, the Inquisition, and religious orders. They aspired to fairer laws and an educational system based on the individual.
In 1788, Charles IV came to the throne. After the coronation of Charles IV, Goya portrayed the king with his wife, Queen María Luisa, subsequently being named Court Painter.
The period of the French Revolution had repercussions in Spain. Charles IV suppressed Enlightenment ideas and removed the most advanced thinkers from public life. Goya's enlightened friends were persecuted, and the threat of the prison of Cabarrús, as well as the exile of Jovellanos, must have worried Goya.
On a trip from Madrid to Seville in January 1793, Goya fell ill, perhaps from an attack of apoplexy. To convalesce, he was taken to Cádiz, to the home of his enlightened friend Sebastián Martínez, availing of the good doctors of the Faculty and the benevolent climate of the city. Though it is unclear what illness Goya had, several hypotheses have been suggested: venereal disease, thrombosis, Ménière's syndrome, Vogt–Koyanagi–Harada disease and, lately, lead poisoning. Goya became deaf. At first, he couldn't see well either, and found it difficult maintaining balance while walking. Illness kept him in Cádiz for almost half a year. After Goya returned to Madrid, he was unable to resume his normal activities for a long time. Thus, in March 1794, the director of the Fábrica de Tapices (Tapestry Factory) believed that Goya was unable to paint because of his illness. In April 1797, Goya resigned as Director of the Academy due to prolonged convalescence from his ailments.
Theme
Los Caprichos lack an organized and coherent structure, but they have important thematic nuclei. The most prevalent themes are: the superstition around witches, which predominates after Capricho No. 43 and serves to express ideas about evil in a tragicomic way; the life and behavior of friars; erotic satire relating to prostitution and the role of the matchmaker; and to a lesser extent, social satire of unequal marriages, the education of children, and the Inquisition.
Goya criticized these and other evils without following a rigorous order. In a radically new way, he showed a materialist and dispassionate vision, in contrast to the paternalistic social criticism carried out in the 18th century that directed its efforts towards reforming the erroneous behavior of man. Goya limited himself to showing apparently everyday dark scenes conceived in strange and unreal settings.
In the first half, he presented his most realistic and satirical engravings, criticizing the behavior of human beings from the perspective of reason. In the second part, he showed fantastic engravings that abandoned the rational point of view, and following the logic of the absurd, he painted delirious visions with strange beings.
In the first part, one of the largest and most autobiographical groups is dedicated to erotic satire. His bitter disappointment in love with the Duchess of Alba is presented in several prints where he mainly criticizes women's inconstancy in love and impiety towards their lovers. Femininity is presented as a lure where the woman seduces without compromising her heart. Furthermore, and as a counterpoint, the confidante and guide of female lovers, the old matchmaker, appears in the background.
A second group criticizes social conventions, which Goya does by deforming to the point of exaggeration traits that embody human vices and blunders. Contemplation of these individuals leaves no room for doubt; the ferocity with which they are presented inevitably leads us to condemn them out of hand. Marriages of convenience and male lasciviousness are criticized in the images presented below.
There are also several cases where two prints are related to each other, either because one is a chronological continuation of the other or because they present the same topic in a different way.
Technique
The engravings of Goya and Rembrandt have been compared; it is known that the Aragonese painter had prints by the Dutchman. The differences between the two are pointed out by M. Paul-André Lemoisne: Rembrandt mastered the craft of an engraver, usually beginning his sketches directly on the plate, just as painter-engravers do. Goya, on the other hand, first drew the subject on paper. Goya's drawings are generally meticulous; when he engraved them, he simplified and lightened them, thus his etchings are brighter than the drawings. Goya seems to have limited his engraving technique without trying to develop it. He did not use the cross carving of the etching, and used a single type of aquatint to uniformly fill the entire background of the print
This is how Félix Boix characterized Goya's style: the peculiar and original effect of the Caprichos plates is achieved by associating the etching with flat and uniform aquatints, often very intense, especially in the backgrounds and with degraded aquatints to achieve different tones in the modeling of clothing, figures and accessories. The highlights in the washes were achieved with the burnisher, achieving stain and chiaroscuro effects more quickly than with etching alone.
To transfer the drawing to the plate and avoid making it inverted, Goya placed the moistened drawing on the copper and pressed it, leaving on the copper the main lines marked and leaving on the paper the ink slightly smudged around its contour, an appearance perceptible today.
The form of lighting is totally arbitrary in these prints. Goya used light effects to highlight areas of maximum expressiveness, resulting in totally artificial and inaccurate lighting. Using aquatints he achieved very strong contrasts in the composition, since his blacks violently highlight the lights, producing highly dramatic effects. He also used aquatints to give each figure different emotional effects through different intonations of gray, thus grading the emotional effects of each character in the group.
The drawing
Preparatory drawings were created in a three-phase process, though some drawings did not involve all three phases and others used all three phases on the same drawing. The first phase, the idea or inspiration, was developed with a wash brush, either in black or red. In the second phase, the expressions and details were specified and intensified with red pencil. The third phase consisted of a detailed sketch with pen, with all the precise shading and features.
The transition to engraving does not have a uniform method either, but Goya systematically retouched, seeking to highlight his message. To do this, he sometimes deleted characters and accessories from the drawing; other times he augmented and elaborated them. With respect to drawing, he always intensified the expressions of the figures and the effects of chiaroscuro and tried to transform the anecdotal and occasional nature of the initial drawing into a general and universal theme.
The ethings are very similar to the original sketches. The use of a burin allowed Goya to faithfully replicate all the features of the original sketches.
Preparatory drawings and Capricho No. 10, El amor y la muerte (Love and death) and Capricho No. 12, A caza de dientes (Out hunting for teeth) (Details)
Preparatory drawings and Capricho No. 17, Bien tirada está. (It is nicely stretched.) and Capricho No. 8, ¡Que se la llevaron! (So they carried her off!) (Details)
Throughout the series, Goya's skill in transferring drawing to engraving improved. As Goya grew skilled in the engraving technique, drawing precision was abandoned and became increasingly free and spontaneous, no longer a conscientious initial work that would serve as a basis for later works. Progressively, Goya acquired great freedom of execution.
For the Caprichos Goya was inspired by many themes and compositions from the drawings in Albums A and B (Album A, or Small Notebook from Sanlúcar, was made in the residence of the Duchess of Alba in 1796. Album B, from Sanlúcar-Madrid, was also made in 1796, though other authors believe it made in 1794).
The engraving
As described previously, Goya made considerable progress from his prior experience engraving Velázquez's paintings. He used aquatint for the backgrounds.
Etching consists of spreading a small layer of varnish on the copper plate, then using a chisel or a steel tip like a pencil to lift the varnish from the areas where the tip passes. Then the acid, or etching is spread, attacking only the areas not protected by the varnish that were lifted with the tip. Then the plate is inked, with ink only penetrating the acid-burned areas; a damp paper is placed on the plate; and the paper is passed through the rollers, leaving the stamp engraved.
Aquatint is a different technique, consisting of spreading a layer of resin powder on the copper plate. As more or less resin is dropped, lighter or darker tones emerge. When heated, the resin adheres to the copper, and when introduced into the acid, the thinner part is burned by the acid with greater intensity, while the rest is attacked more weakly.
The Aquatint technique allowed Goya to treat the engraving as if it were a painting, transferring the colors to the entire range from white to black through all the intermediate shades of gray (or red if the engraving is done with red or sepia ink).
Goya did many tests on the condition of the engravings, and when the result did not satisfy him, he retouched the etching or aquatint again and again until he found it satisfactory.
Tomás Harris, artist and critic, contributed his specialized knowledge to describe how Goya made his engravings:
"...first he engraved the copper plate, and when he took it out of the acid bath, he took one or two samples of the freshly burned plate. He sometimes retouched these tests with a pen, pencil, or charcoal to guide him in the additions he intended to make on the plate...he took condition tests before and during the aquatint burnishing...he retouched with the drypoint or the burin during each of the steps... Goya used the burnisher and the scraper with extraordinary ease, removing (if it did not please him) from a plate such large areas of aquatint that their original existence is only known to us by an artist's proof... Few test prints have survived, although it is evident that when he used mixed media, he must have taken state tests in the course of engraving."
The legends
In the Caprichos, the visual conveys the basic concept the prints are intended to depict; however, the images contain texts greatly relevant for understanding the visual messages. In addition to the suggestive titles of the prints, Goya and his contemporaries left numerous annotations and comments written in proofs and first editions. We also know that in the beginning of the 18th century it was common in gatherings to comment on collections of satirical prints. Some of these opinions have been preserved in the form of handwritten explanations. Thanks to these comments, we know Goya's contemporaries’ opinions about the prints, and therefore the interpretation of them at the time. Almost a dozen handwritten comments are known.
The most important, personal, and defining comment on the engravings, shown below, reflect Goya's thinking. In a comprehensive, yet concise and energetic way, the comments summarize a situation or a topic. Goya's aphorisms follow Gracián's style; they are cutting and abrasive with a foundation of cruel mockery. Sometimes these titles are as ambiguous as the themes, offering first a literal interpretation and second a violent criticism through word games extracted from the jargon of the picaresque.
As to contemporary manuscripts, the most popular ones are referenced below. The manuscript called “Ayala,” owned by that playwright, is perhaps the oldest and least discreet because it does not hesitate to point out professional groups or specific people, such as the queen or Godoy, as objects of the satire. In the Prado manuscript, an unknown hand wrote on the first page: this "explanation of Goya's Caprichos is written in his own hand." However, the literary style of the Prado manuscript does not match the lively and sharp character of Goya's letters, so its authorship is doubted. Cardedera, the first collector of his graphic work, thought that the Royal Calcography was considering printing the Prado’s explanation along with the engravings, but did not do so because the commentary openly criticized the vices of the Court. There is a relationship between the Ayala and Prado manuscripts, since thirty explanations share phrases or expressions verbatim or with small variations. In all probability, one version derives from the other and it may be that Ayala's is the one derived from the Prado's. Both series have been copied and altered over time, resulting in other versions. The manuscript from the National Library that Edith Helman published for the first time in her book Trasmundo de Goya seems to incorporate in parentheses material from the addendums to the Prado manuscript. According to Camón Aznar, the Prado manuscript distorts the Goyaesque intention and serves as a smoke screen that hides the transcendence of the prints, and Ayala's manuscript is markedly anticlerical.
The editions
Understanding of the Caprichos can only be achieved by contemplating each print as its creator intended. To this end, it is necessary to show and analyze each of them.
There are discrepancies among catalogers of Goya's graphic work regarding the number of Caprichos editions, especially those produced in the 19th century. From the second edition onwards, all were made by the Royal National Chalcography, the second according to Carderera being printed between 1821 and 1836; the third in 1853; the fourth and fifth in 1857; the sixth in 1860/1867 and the rest in the 19th century in 1868, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1876, 1877 and 1881.
Two other editions cited by Vindel of 200 copies between 1881-1886 and another 230 copies between 1891-1900 cannot be confirmed, since no documentation exists either for or against.
In the 20th century, an edition was made between 1903 and 1905; a second between 1905 and 1907; a third between 1908 and 1912; a fourth between 1918 and 1928; a fifth in 1929; and the sixth in 1937 during the Government of the Republic. Therefore, in total, there is evidence of twenty editions: one in the 18th century, twelve in the 19th, and seven in the 20th.
The color of ink has varied: slightly reddish in the first edition, and in the following editions sepia, black, or blue was used. The quality and size of the paper varies; in the first edition the sheets were 220x320mm, while some editions of 300x425mm exist.
As editions have been made, scratches and deterioration have appeared on the plates, the aquatints being especially worn.
Modern technology means that it is no longer necessary to print from metal plates to reproduce the images. The copper plates themselves, on which the artist worked directly, were restored in advance of an exhibition in 2024 at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.
Facsimile editions of variable fidelity and quality, not from the original plates, have been made by publishers outside the National Chalcography. Three of the best known or most widespread are: those of the Artistic Editorial Center of Barcelona by M Seguí y Riera in 1884, the French publishing house Jean de Bonnot from 1970, and the Spanish publishing house Planeta from 2006.
Influence
Los Caprichos have influenced generations of artists from movements as diverse as French Romanticism, Impressionism, German Expressionism or Surrealism.
André Malraux is among the critics who considered Goya one of the precursors of modern art, citing the innovations and ruptures of the Caprichos.
The set has been very influential, not only in the visual arts. Its influence can be seen, for example, in:
Granados' piano suite Goyescas, a work which has entered the standard piano repertory since its two parts were premiered in 1911 and 1914 respectively. It includes a number called El amor y la muerte (a title shared with Capricho No. 10.)
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's guitar work 24 caprichos de Goya, Op. 195 (1961)
In 1825 there were several copies of the Caprichos in England and France, with only Goya's engraved work known. Delacroix studied and copied many figures from one of these copies in 1824, contributing to the image of Goya as satirical and critical of the hierarchy and moral values of Spanish society that spread in the French romantic period.
Baudelaire's perception of the Caprichos represented a considerable advance in the understanding of Goya. His conception of the modernity of the Spanish painter achieved great dissemination. His article on the Caprichos was published in Le Present (1857), in L'Artiste (1858) and in the collection Curiosités Esthétiques (1868):
"In Spain, an extraordinary man has opened new horizons to the spirit of the comic... sometimes he allows himself to be carried away by violent satire, and sometimes, transcending it, he presents an essentially comic vision of life... Goya is always a great artist and often a terrifying artist...he contributed to that Spanish satirical spirit, fundamentally happy and humorous, which had its day in the time of Cervantes, something much more modern, a quality highly appreciated in the current era, a love for the indefinable, a sense of violent contrasts, of the terrifying nature, of human traits that have acquired animal characteristics... it is strange that this anticlerical should have dreamed so frequently of witches, covens, black magic, children cooking on a spit, and many other things: all the orgies of the world of dreams, all the exaggerations of hallucinogenic images, and in addition, all those young Spanish women, thin and white, that the inevitable witches wash and prepare for their secret pacts or for nocturnal prostitution. The coven of civilization! Light and darkness, reason and unreason, confront each other in all these grotesque horrors! Charles Baudelaire on Goya's Caprichos in Le Present."
Gallery
As Sánchez Cantón points out in his book on the Caprichos, knowledge of their preparation and the environment in which they were created will enhance enjoyment, hidden or obscure aspects may be examined, and their value as historical documents noted.