He who does not like thee will defame thee in jest, plate 17 from Los Proverbios
Medium
Etching and burnished aquatint on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 21.8 × 32.3 cm (8 5/8 × 12 3/4 in.); Plate: 24.5 × 35.2 cm (9 11/16 × 13 7/8 in.); Sheet: 33.2 × 49.7 cm (13 1/8 × 19 5/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
129709
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
A figure with a frog-like face sits at center of this print with hands folded in prayer and eyes closed. From underneath the figure, a small dog – a symbol of loyalty- barks at the encircling crowd that points and jeers. Like all of Goya’s prints in this series, this etching’s moral lesson is tinged with both absurdity and dread.
About the Artist
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes · 1746–1828
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was born on March 30, 1746, in the small Aragonese village of Fuendetodos, Spain, to José Benito de Goya, a master gilder, and Gracia de Lucientes. The fourth of six children in a modest lower-middle-class family, Goya received a basic education before beginning his artistic training at age 14 under the local painter José Luzán y Martínez in Zaragoza, where he sp...