Loyalty, Plate 17 from ‘The Proverbs’
Spain, about 1816
Etching with aquatint and drypoint
244 X 357 MM
Goya’s final series of etchings, The Proverbs (Los Proverbios), also known as Disparetes or Absurdities, remain his most mysterious and enigmatic.
Featuring a group of monks and friars, Loyalty appears to be concerned with the licentious behaviour of those in religious orders. This strange group evokes a sense of the carnivalesque, a world turned upside down, though the exact meaning remains unclear. The series was not printed during the artist’s lifetime.
Purchased 1956 (No. 56.13)
