Masquerading asses being whipped; folio 93 (recto) from the Madrid Album "B"

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is the last known sheet from Goya’s second album, and the captions are among the longest he wrote, reflecting an urge to clarify complex scenes. Here, an oil vendor discovers that the well-dressed asses are impostors and, much to their chagrin, canes them. Without the complicated inscription, the scene would be impenetrable. The young woman in the drawing on the reverse side of the sheet throws a tantrum while Father Pichurris ("Father Whoever"), who has commented on her appearance, stands in the background. The idea is that she is so vain that remarks made even by an unknown priest are enough to provoke her fury.

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