Two brothers killing their sister's lover in her presence; folio 77 (recto) from the Madrid Album "B"

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A number of drawings from this album address relations between the sexes. Here, to avenge their sister’s honor, one of two brothers crosses swords with her lover, and the other aims a pistol at him. On the other side of the page (35.103.15), Goya’s caption makes explicit what is shown, a satire on piety. Two women have adopted the appearance of nuns. Although the caption identifies the man as a confessor—a role normally associated with a religious figure—his clothes give him away as a majo (a confident, well-dressed young man from the Spanish lower classes). As such, he is clearly visiting the women at their behest to indulge in improper activity.

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