Funereal Folly, from "The Disparates" (Follies / Irrationalities)
Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) Spanish
Not on view
The meaning of this image remains elusive. It has been interpreted as the nightmare of the figure on the ground, whose being hovers spectrally above. Like other prints from the series, this one has been connected with phantasmagorias, popular spectacles that took place in Madrid in which frightening images of the supernatural were projected onto screens in a darkened theater. Goya’s use of aquatint to blur the outlines of his figures and to wrap clarifying details in shadows might be explained by his continued interest in the state of suspension between perception and imagination, which he earlier explored in the Caprichos.
From the posthumous first edition published by the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid in 1864 under the title 'Los Proverbios'.
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