A man breaking up a fight; page 82 from the "Images of Spain" Album (F)

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This belongs to a group of drawings about an abusive figure identified as Constable Lampiños (see35.103.49). The depiction of the protagonist’s aggression accords with Goya’s inscription on the adjacent drawing, which refers to the officer’s maltreatment of prostitutes and students. Goya emphasized the constable’s authority by dividing the composition diagonally into two almost equal halves and effectively separating him from the fighting men. The arrangement of the figures that ascend from bottom right to upper left also amplifies his gesture of whipping with the vara, or staff. The empty space surrounding the figures increases the effect of violence and movement.

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