Prisoners in irons; page 80 from the "Images of Spain" Album (F)

Prisoners in irons; page 80 from the "Images of Spain" Album (F)

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of the most striking drawings from the album, this work shows a frightened child being comforted by an adult, perhaps his father. Goya conceived a symmetrical composition divided into two distinct tonal levels, a dark and a light section. A shaded demarcation of the step at right and a triangle of light in the window above mirror each other. The geometric rigidity of the underground chamber makes a severe background that underscores the prisoners’ vulnerability. The edge of the step, the chain, and the two windows direct the eye and empathy to the pair standing shackled over a stain of pitch-black shadow.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Prisoners in irons; page 80 from the "Images of Spain" Album (F)Prisoners in irons; page 80 from the "Images of Spain" Album (F)Prisoners in irons; page 80 from the "Images of Spain" Album (F)Prisoners in irons; page 80 from the "Images of Spain" Album (F)Prisoners in irons; page 80 from the "Images of Spain" Album (F)

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.