Goya’s Caprichos

This book provides a detailed analysis of Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos, a series of eighty etchings published in 1799, by examining the artistic principles that animate these remarkable images and considering the complex way they relate to the particular historical moment in which the prints were created and first received. In discussing the perceptual tensions in Los Caprichos, Andrew Schulz reevaluates the relationship between Goya’s etchings and the Spanish Enlightenment and reconsiders Goya’s career during the 1780s and 1790s. His contention is that notions of vision and perception – key leitmotifs of the Enlightenment that became problematic in the years around 1800 – are fundamental to the poetics of Los Caprichos. By positioning Los Caprichos in the interstices between Neoclassicism and Romanticism, he reaffirms their crucial position in the history of European art.

Andrew Schulz teaches at Seattle University. He has contributed articles to The Art Bulletin, Art History, and Eighteenth-Century Studies. He is an adviser and contributor to the exhibition Spain in the Age of Exploration, 1492–1819 (Seattle Art Museum and Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, 2004–5).

Goya’s Caprichos

AESTHETICS, PERCEPTION, AND THE BODY

Andrew Schulz

Seattle University

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Cambridge University Press
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Information on this title: www.cambridge.org / 9780521821056

© Andrew Schulz 2005

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2005

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Schulz, Andrew.
Goya’s Caprichos : aesthetics, perception, and the body / Andrew Schulz.
p.   cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-521-82105-3
1. Goya, Francisco, 1746–1828. Caprichos.  2. Goya, Francisco, 1746–1828 – Criticism and interpretation.
I. Goya, Francisco, 1746–1828.  II. Title.
NE2062.5.G6S355   2005
769.92 – dc22         2004051841

ISBN-13  978-0-521-82105-6 hardback
ISBN-10  0-521-82105-3 hardback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for
the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or
third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this book
and does not guarantee that any content on such
Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

In memory of my brother,
Carl

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

All works are by Goya unless otherwise noted.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My deepest debt of gratitude is to Janis Tomlinson, whose seminar on Goya at Columbia first sparked my interest in Los Caprichos. Janis was everything one could hope for in a dissertation adviser, and she has been an important mentor and friend in subsequent years. Other faculty at Columbia who shaped my approach to art history include Jonathan Crary, Johanna Drucker, David Freedberg, and David Rosand. They will find reflections of their diverse theoretical approaches in the pages that follow. I also wish to thank members of the department of art history at Dartmouth College – particularly Jim Jordan, Joy Kenseth, Bob McGrath, and the late Jake Jacobus – for introducing me to the wonders of the discipline. Hilliard Goldfarb taught me the value of print connoisseurship, lessons on which I continue to rely.

   Aspects of this book have been presented over the past decade at numerous conferences, particularly those of the College Art Association and the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, as well as at invited lectures. I thank the organizers and participants of those sessions and events, who provided me with important opportunities for developing aspects of this study, and the countless audience members who helped me sharpen them.

   I am grateful to my colleagues in Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture for having created such a rich intellectual environment in which to examine the art of the period. Among my many friends in eighteenth-century studies, I wish to single out Christopher Johns, Mary Sheriff, and, above all, Kate Nicholson for their interest in my work and the support they have given it.

   In Madrid, the staffs of the Biblioteca Nacional, the Calcografía Nacional, the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, and the Museo del Prado have provided me with invaluable assistance over the years. At the Prado, Rocío Arnaíz allowed me the unforgettable experience of studying the museum’s unmatched collection of Goya drawings in its entirety. In the early stages of this project, Juan Carrete, former director of the Calcografía Nacional, and Jesusa Vega shared with me important insights on Goya and Spanish printmaking. I also benefited greatly from the generosity of the staffs of the print departments of the British Museum, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, who facilitated access to their collections.

   For their support and understanding as I worked on this project, I thank my colleagues in the Department of Fine Arts at Seattle University, as well as my art history and early modernist colleagues at the University of Oregon, where I spent a most enjoyable year. Thanks also to the students in the graduate seminars on Goya that I have taught at the University of Washington and the University of Oregon, who came to share my passion for the artist and his work.

   Beatrice Rehl at Cambridge is the editor of every art historian’s dreams. The anonymous readers whom she commissioned offered many important insights that they will find incorporated into my manuscript. On the production end, Zach Dorsey exhibited considerable patience as I struggled to meet his deadlines.

   Finally, I thank my parents for their love, patience, and support, and Lise Nelson, whose love nourished me during the final stages of this project. I look forward to repaying her in kind.

PRELIMINARY NOTE

TRANSLATIONS

All translations are my own, unless otherwise noted. Spelling and punctuation of eighteenth-century texts, often at variance with modern usage, have been preserved. This includes the engraved titles that appear on Los Caprichos and the handwritten captions on the artist’s drawings.

FIGURES

Figures reproducing the Sueños drawings and Los Caprichos have been cropped in such a way that captions and numbers are not visible.

ABBREVIATIONS

I have used the following abbreviations in the notes, bibliography, and index:

Diplomatario Angel Canellas López (ed.). Francisco de Goya. Diplomatario. Zaragoza: Institución Fernando el Católico, 1981.

Dist. de los premios Distribución de los premios concedidos por el rey nuestro señor a los discípulos de las tres nobles artes. Madrid: R.A.B.A.S.F., 1754–1832.

G-W, followed by a number A work of art cataloged in Pierre Gassier and Juliet Wilson. The Life and Complete Work of Francisco Goya. New York: Morrow, 1971.

R.A.B.A.S.F. Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando