‘Nightmare’; an old woman carrying figures on her back; page 20 from the Witches and Old Women Album (D)

Description

Nightmare presents an unsettling figure from Francisco de Goya’s Witches and Old Women Album: an elderly woman bends beneath two thin men carried on her back. Their tangled limbs and contrasting expressions turn the group into an improbable human tower. Broad washes and spare marks place the strange encounter against a largely empty sheet.

Made around 1819–23, this drawing combines black and gray ink and wash with touches of black chalk. Goya replaced an earlier caption with the Spanish word for nightmare, connecting the image with the burden and unease of a disturbing dream. The woman’s grin adds another ambiguity: the scene can feel comic at first, then oppressive as the weight of the figures becomes apparent.

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