Plate 78 from ‘Los Caprichos’: Be quick, they are waking up (Despacha, que dispiertan.)

Description

Francisco Goya’s Be Quick, They Are Waking Up shows three hunched, robed figures occupied with household tasks. One cleans a plate while another stands close with a broom; a third tends the fire farther back. Their cramped positions and pointed features give these familiar activities a furtive air. Soft shadow binds the scene together, turning an ordinary interior into something secretive and strange.

Plate 78 of Los Caprichos was first published in 1799. Goya makes the boundary between friars and mischievous household spirits deliberately slippery, allowing the scene to satirize hidden indulgence as well as superstition. The urgent title suggests that this work must be completed before others wake and discover it. Domestic gestures become evidence of a concealed life, and the print’s humor depends on how recognizable its fantastic participants remain.

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