Plate 62 from "Los Caprichos": Who would have thought it? (Quien lo creyera!)
Medium
Etching, burnished aquatint, burin
Dimensions
Plate: 8 7/16 × 5 15/16 in. (21.5 × 15.1 cm) Sheet: 11 9/16 x 8 5/16 in. (29.4 x 21.1 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of M. Knoedler & Co., 1918
Accession Number
18.64(62)
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Plate 62 from *Los Caprichos*:Who Would Have Thought It? (Quien lo creyera! by Francisco de Goya Lucientes (1799)** This striking etching from Goya's revolutionary series *Los Caprich* captures a surreal encounter between a lion and a male nude, evoking shock and irony through its title. Published amid Spain's turbulent late 18th century, 80-print suite boldly satirized societal vices, superstitions, and human folly during the Enlightenment era. Plate 62 exemplifies Goya's dark humor, prompting viewers to question unlikely alliances or hidden truths in a world of deception. Goya masterfull...
About the Artist
Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) · 1746–1828
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) was a Spanish painter and printmaker considered the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Rising from modest provincial origins to become First Court Painter to Charles IV, Goya's career spanned the Enlightenment's optimism and the brutal Napoleonic invasion that shattered it. A mysterious illness in 1793 left him permanently deaf and ...