Plate 26 from ‘ Los Caprichos’:They’ve already got a seat (Ya tienen asiento.)

Description

In They’ve already got a seat, women balance chairs on their heads, turning the idea of having a seat into an absurd form of display. Francisco Goya’s They’ve Already Got a Seat makes the furniture conspicuous while withholding its ordinary usefulness. The figures’ poised appearance intensifies the joke, as though the arrangement should be accepted as perfectly reasonable.

Published in 1799 as plate 26 of Los Caprichos, the etching and burnished aquatint exploit the caption’s play on bodily posture and social sense. Goya transforms a familiar object into an emblem of misplaced priorities, allowing outward presentation to defeat practical judgment. The image’s wit lies in that reversal: something intended to support a person has become a burden carried for others to see. Its clarity makes the impossible scene immediately readable as a criticism of empty show.

Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Goya collection.