Plate 42 from "Los Caprichos": Thou who canst not (Tu que no puedes)

Plate 42 from "Los Caprichos": Thou who canst not (Tu que no puedes)

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This plate is captioned with the first part of a Spanish proverb, "Thou who canst not / carry me on your back," represented by two men, each struggling under the weight of a content donkey. Their footwear identifies the men as peasants or laborers. The print has been interpreted as a satire on the uselessness of the nobility and the clergy, whose upkeep had become a financial burden for the impoverished working population. In other prints from the Caprichos, the ass appears as a device to ridicule ignorance in professions such as medicine, education, and the law.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate 42 from "Los Caprichos": Thou who canst not (Tu que no puedes)Plate 42 from "Los Caprichos": Thou who canst not (Tu que no puedes)Plate 42 from "Los Caprichos": Thou who canst not (Tu que no puedes)Plate 42 from "Los Caprichos": Thou who canst not (Tu que no puedes)Plate 42 from "Los Caprichos": Thou who canst not (Tu que no puedes)

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.