Rejoice, Carnival, for Tomorrow Thou wilt Be Ashes, plate 14 from Los Proverbios

Prints and Drawings

1815/24

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
Spanish, 1746-1828

This group of leering figures in masks refers to the Roman Catholic festival Carnival, which (then, as now) precedes the more contemplative season of Lent. Goya used the common proverb of the title to compare the festival’s unsustainable indulgence and ritual pomp with the fate of Catholicism itself. In his art Goya frequently criticized the hypocrisy of the Spanish national religion, specifically its clergy. Both his Proverbs series and the Disasters of War, several etchings of which are also on view in this gallery, were published after his death.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
Title: Rejoice, Carnival, for Tomorrow Thou wilt Be Ashes, plate 14 from Los Proverbios
Place: Spain (Artist's nationality)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1815–1824
Medium: Etching and aquatint printed in sepia ink on ivory wove paper
Dimensions: Image: 21.1 × 32.4 cm (8 5/16 × 12 13/16 in.); Plate: 24.5 × 35.8 cm (9 11/16 × 14 1/8 in.); Sheet: 35.1 × 48.7 cm (13 7/8 × 19 3/16 in.)
Credit Line: The Charles Deering Collection
Reference Number: 1927.3306
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/44879/manifest.json

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