Cleveland Museum of Art
Aesop
Francisco de GoyaLinkedCulture matchlcp-dc200867e871
- Date
- 1778
- Medium
- etching
- Culture
- Spain, late 18th-early 19th century
- Department
- Prints
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 152248
From LinkedCulture
Goya chose to portray Aesop not as a noble ancient sage but as a rumpled, world-weary drifter in worn boots, clutching a heavy book at his side. This 1778 etching reproduces Velazquez's painting from the Spanish royal collection, and the word "AESOPVS" sits plainly in the upper corner above that broad, shrewdly watchful face. Goya made this as part of a series after Velazquez, and the project sharpened his mastery of etching while revealing both painters' shared belief that wisdom belongs to outsiders, not palaces.
Written by LinkedCulture for its video on this object. Machine-generated (claude-sonnet-4-6), not yet reviewed by a person. It is not part of the museum’s record.
What the image shows
A figure dressed in a long robe stands against a dark background.
Generated by LinkedCulture from the photograph alone, without the museum’s catalogue text (Qwen/Qwen2.5-VL-7B-Instruct), and not yet reviewed by a person. It describes the picture, not the object’s history, and it is not part of the museum’s record.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Gift of the Print Club of Cleveland in memory of Leona E. Prasse
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