Proverbios

Accession Number
2008/1.153.1

Title
Proverbios

Artist(s)
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

Object Creation Date
1864

Medium & Support
etching and aquatint

Dimensions
9/16 in x 18 3/4 in x 13 1/16 in (1.43 cm x 47.63 cm x 33.18 cm);9/16 in x 18 3/4 in x 13 1/16 in (1.43 cm x 47.63 cm x 33.18 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Kurt Delbanco in honor of Nicholas Delbanco, and partial purchase with the funds from the W. Hawkins Ferry Fund

Label copy
March 28, 2009
This series, also known by Goya’s title of Los Disparates (or Follies) is another examination into the disquieting aspects of human nature. Much darker even than the Caprichos, these scenes of cruelty and manipulation are joined to frightening imagery of giants with grotesque smiles and figures in sacks, for example. By the time he began work on this series, Goya had lived through the horrors of Napoleon’s occupation of Spain in the Peninsular War (1808–1814) with its guerrilla warfare and harsh reprisals—events he chronicled in his series The Disasters of War. The Disasters remains one of the most powerful indictments of war on record with images that, to this day, are difficult to look at. The pessimism that pervades that series is also evident in Los Proverbios.

Primary Object Classification
Bound Work

Primary Object Type
book

Additional Object Classification(s)
Print

Collection Area
Western

Rights
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6 Related Resources

Art of the Enlightenment Era
(Part of 2 Learning Collections)
Decadence
(Part of 5 Learning Collections)
Social Justice
(Part of 3 Learning Collections)
Social Justice and Art in the 19th Century
(Part of 3 Learning Collections)
CRC Classroom Resource: Art Books 
(Part of: CRC Classroom Resources)

& Author Notes

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