Los disparates

Title and ordering

Although Goya did not name the series, the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando published eighteen prints in 1864 under the name "Proverbs." Vicente Carderera and Jaime Machén, who first worked on these plates, referred to them as "Caprichos" or "Fantastic Caprices." Later, the name "Proverbs" came up, and Carderera referred to the series in 1863 as "Dreams," perhaps due to the dreamlike nature of many of the prints. However, in Goya's artist's proofs, many of the prints contain titles including "Disparates," the name by which the series is most commonly known today.

The academic edition of 1864 used a random sequence, as there was no way to establish the intended ordering of the series.

Dating

Los disparates have been dated to between 1815-1824, the year Goya left Spain. It is thought that the series had twenty-five prints, of which only twenty-two remain. The first would have to have been made immediately upon the completion of La Tauromaquia, since in the drawing album that the critic Cean Bermudez had (and which is preserved in the British Museum), the state proof of Disparates no. 13 (A way of flying) appears after the last of La Tauromaquia. In addition, the investigations of Jesusa Vega confirm that the copper plates and type of paper used to make Los disparates are the same and belong to the same batch as those used in La Tauromaquia.

Valeriano Bozal and other authors, such as Dr. Vega herself, dated the series to between 1815 or 1816 and 1819. During that later year, due to suffering from a serious illness, Goya interrupted his work — which he would not resume — and dedicated himself completely to the Black Paintings at his country home in the Quinta del Sordo. Although it cannot be ruled out that Goya continued working on the Disparates between 1819 and 1823, it has been claimed that working on both projects simultaneously would have involved an excessive burden of work for the artist, who was over seventy years old. On the other hand, the satirical charge, violence, and buried sexuality of these prints would collide with the Fernandian absolutism of the restoration between 1814 and the Liberal Triennium of Rafael del Riego in 1820. All this leads critics to think that the painter was not able to or did not consider it convenient to publish them, and that he must have kept the plates and abandoned the continuation of the series. In any case, it was difficult for such work to bring him significant economic benefits, given that La Tauromaquia (a series with a more popular theme and therefore with greater commercial possibilities) did not sell as well as expected.

The plates of Los disparates remained in the hands of Goya's descendants until the mid-19th century. In 1854, Román Garreta bought eighteen, looking to make them public. Two years later, they were in the possession of Jaime Machén, who in 1856 attempted to sell them to the Spanish administration. This was not achieved until 1862, when these eighteen were acquired by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, which they published in 1864 in a circulation of three hundred and sixty copies in the workshop of Laurenciano Poderno, under the title of Proverbs. Four more plates, belonging to the same series and not published by the Academy, were the property of Eugenio Lucas Velázquez since at least 1856; they later went to France, where they were published in L'Art magazine in 1877. In July 2011, those four copper plates entered the prints and drawings department of the Louvre.

Analysis

Preparatory drawings in gouache have been conserved of fifteen prints, for the most part preserved in the Prado. Six other drawings are also known that were not made into prints, giving us a total of twenty-one preparatory drawings from Los disparates. The changes introduced between the drawing and the final print are greater than in the rest of Goya's graphic work. For example, in the preparatory drawing for Cruel folly (#6), a soldier appears, expelling a group of people with his rifle at a military sentry box. In the final picture, the soldier is a civilian, the sentry box has disappeared, and the rifle has become a pike which pierces the face of a man. File:Disparates 06.jpg|Los Disparates no.6 File:Dibujo preparatorio al Disparate 6. Disparate furioso.jpg|Preparatory drawing for Los Disparates no.6 For many scholars, the work's enigma lies in possible iconographic interpretations. Critics such as Charles Yriarte (among others), saw the series as a continuation of Los Caprichos and with the latest prints of The Disasters of War, the so-called "emphatic caprices." Beyond the semantic relationship between "folly" and "caprice," the recovery of the element of political and social satire, as a common space, was emphasized. Almost all the authors, however, emphasize as characteristic and somewhat exclusive elements of the Disparates, the high degree of fantasy, the presentation of nightmare scenes, the grotesque and monstrous aspect of the characters that inhabit it, together with their lack of logic, or at least a logic different from traditional sanity. All this has made this work be considered closer to the Black Paintings.

In the 20th century, avant-garde and expressionist artists, such as Paul Klee or Emil Nolde, highlighted the "modernity" of the Disparates, although their interpretations were highly subjective. Attempts have been made to analyze Los Disparates in the light of psychoanalysis, emphasizing their sexual and violent character. It has also been proposed to return to the title of Proverbs of the 1864 edition, in this sense of analyzing the series as "an illustration of proverbs or sayings," as happens in the satirical paintings of the Netherlands (such as in the work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder).

Nigel Glendinning relates many of the motifs to the Spanish tradition of Carnaval, Glendinning observes that one of Carnaval's traits is that of subversion of everything that represents authority — institutions such as marriage, the army, and the clergy. Almost all of the works in Los disparates show how the representation of power is overthrown, humiliated, ignored, or ridiculed. In Clear folly (#15), a man in a military outfit appears to be thrown out of a scenario that a group of people are struggling to cover with a tarp. In Feminine folly (#1), a doll thrown by women wears a military uniform. In Fearful folly (#2), a soldier runs away in terror from someone who has disguised himself in large, ghost-like sheets. Despite the fact that the face peeking out from a sleeve gives him away, the military man does not notice it. This satire of the establishment, perhaps a simple Goyesque mockery, is repeated in Carnaval folly (#14) where a military man is seen in the center of the crowd asleep, possibly drunk or unconscious, but unquestionably presented as ridiculous.

Several critics insist on the leading role of the ridiculed marriage sacrament, and venture possible allusions to the marriage of Leocadia Zorrilla with her husband and the relationship she had with Goya until the painter's death. The exhortations (#16), has been interpreted as a reflection on infidelity in which a woman holds a man who is leaving, who in turn is advised or rebuked by a character who appears to be dressed as a priest. The woman, on the other hand, is drawn by the arm of an old woman towards two characters with triple and double faces. Another episode of fleeing or escape is presented in Poor folly (#11), or at least the flight of a beautiful young woman from a pale character — which has been suggested as a representation of death — and another with tousled hair. The young woman seeks refuge in what appears to be the porch of a church populated by old women, cripples, and beggars. The background, between light and dark with burnished aquatint, seems unreal, and gives the print a light from another world. Relations between women and old wretches reappear in Merry folly (#12), where an old man with a huge truss dances in a circle of women with large breasts.

The prints that suggest satire of vice are equally enigmatic and abound in the absence of logical parameters that allow us to decipher the subject of the prints. Flying folly (#5) shows a strange flying mythological animal or being, perhaps a hippogriff, whose haunches are ridden by a man and a woman. She seems to struggle as if she has been taken against her will, or she has eloped with her lover and her uneasiness is an allegory of sexual debauchery. Another equine parable, in Kidnapping horse (#10), shows a woman snatched by a horse's mouth, an animal symbolically associated with sexual potency.

The works of the series

The prints of the plates that are displayed below were published in 1864 (first edition) and are part of the collection of the Museo Nacional del Prado. The dimensions given refer to the size of the image (also called the platemark) rather than the sheet, as the printed image remained the same size while the size of the sheet varies with different versions. The images are available on the website of the museum which is the source of the dimensions and the Spanish titles of the works mentioned in this article. The source of the English titles is goya.unizar.es. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 01 - Disparate femenino.jpg|'*Νο. 1: Disparate femenino''' * (Feminine folly)'' 24.3 x 35.3 cm Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 02 - Disparate de miedo.jpg|'*Νο. 2: Disparate de miedo''' * (Fearful folly)'' 24.4 x 35,3 cm. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 03 - Disparate ridículo.jpg|'*Νο. 3: Disparate ridículo''' *(Ridiculous folly)'' 24.5 x 35.3 cm. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 04 - Bobalicón.jpg|'*Νο. 4: Bobalicón''' *(Simpleton's folly)'' 24.3 x 35.2& cm. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 05 - Disparate volante.jpg|'*Νο. 5: Disparate volante''' *(Flying folly)'' 24.4 x 35.2 cm. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 06 - Disparate cruel.jpg|'*Νο. 6: Disparate cruel''' *(Cruel folly)'' 24.3 x 35.1 cm. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 07 - Disparate desordenado.jpg|'*Νο. 7: Disparate desordenado''' *(Disordered folly)'' 24.4 x 35.2 cm. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 08 - Los ensacados.jpg|'*Νο. 8: Los ensacados''' *(Folly in sacks)'' 24.4 x 35.1 cm. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 09 - Disparate general.jpg|'*Νο. 9: Disparate general''' *(General folly)'' 24.1 x 35.1 cm. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 10 - El caballo raptor.jpg|'*Νο. 10: El caballo raptor''' *(Kidnapping horse)'' 24.4 x 35.3 cm. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 11 - Disparate pobre.jpg|'*Νο. 11: Disparate pobre''' *(Poor folly)'' 24.4 x 35.2 cm. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 12 - Disparate alegre.jpg|'*Νο. 12: Disparate alegre''' *(Merry folly)'' 24.3 x 35.2 cm. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 13 - Modo de volar.jpg|'*Νο. 13: Modo de volar''' *(A way of flying)'' 24.4 x 35.3 cm. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 14 - Disparate de carnaval.jpg|'*Νο. 14: Disparate de carnaval''' *(Carnaval folly)'' 24.2 x 35.2 cm. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 15 - Disparate claro.jpg|'*Νο. 15: Disparate claro''' *(Clear folly)'' 24,3 x 35,2 cm. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 16 - Las exhortaciones.jpg|'*Νο. 16: Las exhortaciones''' *(The exhortations)'' 24.4 x 35.3 cm. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 17 - La lealtad.jpg|'Νο. 17: * La lealtad''' *(Loyalty)'' 24.4 x 35.1 cm. Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1864) - No. 18 - Disparate fúnebre.jpg|'*Νο. 18: Disparate fúnebre''' *(Funereal folly)'' 24.3 x 35.2 cm.

The 4 works which were added later

Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1877) - Disparate de toritos.jpg|Disparate de toritos, 24,3 x 35,5 cm. (platemark)/30,6 x 44,5 cm. (sheet) Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1877) - Disparate de bestia.jpg|Disparate de bestia, 24,3 x 35,5 cm. (platemark)/30 x 42,8 cm. (sheet) Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1877) - Disparate conocido.jpg|Disparate conocido, 24,2 x 35,6 cm. (platemark)/30,1 x 44,1 cm. (sheet) Image:Prado - Los Disparates (1877) - Disparate puntual.jpg|Disparate puntual, 24,6 x 35,6 cm. (platemark)/30,2 x 43,8 cm. (sheet)

Preparatory drawings for the series

Goya produced gouache drawings for fifteen of the prints. All drawings except for Modo de Volar are from the collection of the Prado Museum. File:Goya Disparate femenino drawing.jpg|Drawing for Disparate femenina File:Goya Disparate de miedo drawing.jpg|Drawing for Disparate de miedo File:Goya Disparate ridículo drawing.jpg|Drawing for Disparate ridículo File:Goya Bobalicón drawing.jpg|Drawing for Bobalicón File:Goya Disparate cruel drawing.jpg|Drawing for Disparate cruel File:Goya Disparate desordenado drawing.jpg|Drawing for Disparate desordenado File:Goya Los ensacados drawing.jpg|Drawing for Los ensacados File:Goya Disparate general drawing.jpg|Drawing for Disparate general File:Goya El caballo raptor drawing.jpg|Drawing for El Caballo raptor File:Goya Disparate pobre drawing.jpg|Drawing for Disparate pobre File:Goya Disparate alegre drawing.jpg|Drawing for Disparate alegre File:Francisco de Goya y Lucientes - Ways of Flying - Google Art Project.jpg|Drawing for Modo de Volar File:Goya Disparate claro drawing.jpg|Drawing for Disparate claro File:Goya Las exhortaciones drawing.jpg|Drawing for Las exhortaciones File:Goya La lealtad drawing.jpg|Drawing for La lealtad

Drawings not turned into prints

File:Goya Los elefantes (Disparate de bestia) drawing.jpg|Los elefantes (Disparate de bestia) File:Goya La desesperación de Satán drawing.jpg|La desesperación de Satán File:Goya El tragafuego drawing.jpg|El tragafuego File:Goya Dos personajes asomándose a una salida luminosa drawing.jpg|Dos personajes asomándose a una salida luminosa File:Goya Personajes trepando sobre un gigante acostado drawing.jpg|Personajes trepando sobre un gigante acostado File:Goya El pavo real vanidoso drawing.jpg|El pavo real vanidoso

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Bozal, Valeriano (2005). Francisco Goya, life and work II. 2 vols. Madrid: Tf Editores. pp. 199-217. .
• Bozal, Valeriano (1994). Goya (1994 edition). Madrid: Alianza Editorial. pp. 57-60. .
• Carrete Parrondo, Juan; Centellas Salamero, Ricardo; Fatás Cabeza, Guillermo (1996). Goya ¡Qué valor! V. Disparates. Zaragoza: Caja de Ahorros de la Inmaculada. .
• Glendinning, Nigel (1993). "Francisco de Goya", Art and its creators. Cuadernos de Historia 16 (30). D.L.34276-1993.
• Gómez de la Serna, Gaspar (1969). Goya and his Spain. Madrid: Alianza Editorial. .
• Gómez de la Serna, Ramón (1958). "VI.5". Goya (Austral collection edition). Espasa Calpe. pp. 95-101. . «El ‘Deseado’ y otros disparates».

References

1. Hughes, (1990), 63
2. Ives, Colta Feller & Susan Alyson Stein (en inglés): [https://books.google.com/books?id=naiVsFHNQz4C&q=Follies ''Goya in the Metropolitan Museum of Art'', pp. 26-8. Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) 1995.] [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
3. [http://www.artmuseum.arizona.edu/events/event/goyas-mastery-in-prints-los-disparates The University of Arizona Museum of Art]
4. Bozal, (2005), Vol. II, pp. 200-03
5. (2009). "Pinturas negras de Goya". Machado Grupo de Distribución SL.
6. (2005). "El comercio de estampas en Madrid durante la Guerra de la Independencia. Mísera humanidad, la culpa es tuya: estampas de la Guerra de la Independencia". Calcografía Nacional y Caja de Asturias.
7. "Estampas de Goya - Introducción".
8. Bozal, (1994), p. 57
9. Gaspar Gómez, (1969), pp. 239-41
10. (1996). "Goya ¡Qué valor! V. Disparates". Caja de Ahorros de la Inmaculada.
11. "Estampas de Goya - La Tauromaquia".
12. "los disparates".
13. "Disparate furioso. Francisco de Goya".
14. Gaspar Gómez, (1969), p. 237
15. "LA SEÑAL DE GOYA Los Disparates en la Escuela".
16. Bozal, (1994), pp. 57-58
17. Gaspar Gómez, (1969), pp. 240-41
18. "Disparates".
19. (2015). "Historia de la locura en la época clásica, II". Fondo de Cultura Económica.
20. (1992). "Francisco de Goya grabador: instantáneas. Disparates". Casser/Turner.
21. a line of research suggested by [[Ramón Gómez de la Serna]].Ramon Gómez, (1958), pp.95-101
22. Glendinning, 1993
23. "Disparate claro".
24. "Disparate femenino".
25. "Disparate de miedo".
26. "Disparate pobre".
27. "Disparate alegre".
28. "Disparate volante".
29. "El caballo raptor".
30. (2010). "Goya". Machado Grupo de Distribución SL.
31. (1991). "Diccionario de Símbolos". Editorial Labor.
32. "Disparates".