Humility versus Pride; a young man imploring an older man with other figures in front of them; folio 75 (recto) from the Madrid Album "B"

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The captions referring to contrasting moral conditions on either side of this sheet form a linguistic bond. As with many of Goya’s captions, however, they relate to the images obliquely, generating questions rather than describing. The haughty man at right here has been identified as Napoleon Bonaparte. He approaches a group of figures who adopt various attitudes: obsequiousness, humiliation, fear, and curiosity. The other drawing on the other side of the sheet (35.103.12) depicts what appears to be a pawn shop. In the foreground, a woman opens her mantle to reveal her elegant dress, while a young man secures a bundle. To whom the generosity and greed of the caption apply is not clear.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art