Description
In Bravo!, a monkey plays a guitar before a donkey, bringing performer and audience together in an absurdly earnest musical encounter. Francisco Goya’s Bravo! turns applause into a question about judgment. The scene retains the recognizable form of artistic appreciation while its animal participants make that appreciation difficult to take at face value.
Published in 1799 as plate 38 of Los Caprichos, the etching and burnished aquatint give the musician and listener a substantial presence. Goya’s satire concerns the relationship between skill, taste and the desire for approval. A response can be enthusiastic without being discerning, and the image makes that distinction visible through its improbable company. Its humor lies in the mutual seriousness of the exchange, where a performance receives acclaim from an audience whose capacity to evaluate it is itself in doubt.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Goya collection.
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