Plate 23 from "Los Caprichos": These specks of dust (Aquellos polbos)
Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) Spanish
Not on view
This image of an auto-da-fé, a ceremony of judgment before execution, is a direct reference to the Inquisition. The accused wears a conical hat decorated with references to his or her crimes and a sleeveless scapular, a sign of penance, over a long garment. Goya’s caption is taken from the first part of a Spanish proverb that alludes to the magnitude of the consequences of apparently minor or unimportant events. The target of his satire is not the accused, who is represented as a defenseless victim, but the sinister figures in the pulpit—the Inquisitors responsible for public spectacles like this one.
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