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Merry Folly, from Disparates, published as plate 12 in Los Proverbios

A work made of etching, burnished aquatint, and drypoint in brown-black on ivory wove paper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of etching, burnished aquatint, and drypoint in brown-black on ivory wove paper.

Date:

1816–19, published 1864

Artist:

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
Spanish, 1746-1828

About this artwork

In his early 70s Goya made a series of enigmatic prints whose titles and imagery have long been the subject of debate. Printed four decades after the artist’s death, the Spanish Royal Academy of Fine Arts devised the title Los Proverbios (Proverbs) in an attempt to assign a theme to the group. A handful of early trial proofs were later discovered on which the artist had inscribed Disparate, which roughly translates as folly, nonsense, absurdity, or fantasy.
As he aged Goya began to depict elderly people with greater frequency. In this print, three old men with castanets, one slightly aroused with bulging trousers, cavort with three shapely young women.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

Title

Merry Folly, from Disparates, published as plate 12 in 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 1816–1819

Medium

Etching, burnished aquatint, and drypoint in brown-black on ivory wove paper

Dimensions

Image: 21.4 × 32.4 cm (8 7/16 × 12 13/16 in.); Plate: 24.4 × 35.3 cm (9 5/8 × 13 15/16 in.); Sheet: 33.1 × 49.7 cm (13 1/16 × 19 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

The Charles Deering Collection

Reference Number

1927.3321

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/44902/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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