Self-Portrait; Plate 1 from "Los Caprichos"
Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
In the first plate from the Caprichos, Goya presents himself as a sardonic observer of contemporary society; even nineteenth-century commentaries describe his censorious, somewhat pained expression as satirical. The image has been said to embody observation as a "model of artistic endeavor," in contrast with imagination, the subject of a second self-portrait in the Caprichos, hanging nearby. After transferring the preparatory red chalk drawing to the copperplate (1972.118.295), Goya made various corrections before applying aquatint in two layers to achieve the tonal values of a wash drawing. Goya was one of the first Spanish artists to use the aquatint process, which produces tiny etched channels that, when inked, print as a veil of tone. Los Caprichos was published in Madrid in 1799. The series deal broadly with superstition and human folly. They were the artist’s personal declaration that the chains of social backwardness had to be broken if humanity was to advance, attesting to his political liberalism and his contempt for ignorance and intellectual oppression. Goya’s expression and elegant attire provide a compelling introduction to the series, announcing him as the creator while revealing the gravity of his personality and his intentions.
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.