Art Institute of Chicago

Until Death, plate 55 from Los Caprichos

Date

1797/99

Medium

Etching and aquatint in warm black on ivory laid paper

Culture

Spain

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Goya’s Caprices series scathingly attacks the hypocrisy and superstition the artist saw throughout contemporary Spanish culture. Glued to her dressing table mirror, the crone in this image sees only her fashionable trappings, not her wrinkled visage. In the background, young courtiers mock her futile vanity with shielded laughs and amused glances. And yet, though the shortsighted pathetic creature may have one foot in the grave, it is encased in an elegantly exposed stocking.

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