Plate 77 from ‘Los Caprichos’: What one does to another (Unos á otros.)

Description

In What One Does to Another, Francisco Goya turns a bullfight into an absurd game of people carrying people. Two riders sit on their companions’ shoulders and direct long lances toward a wicker bull held by another figure. Elegant clothing and grotesque faces make the participants seem both distinguished and ridiculous. Their precarious arrangement exposes the labor supporting a spectacle of apparent mastery.

Published as plate 77 of Los Caprichos in 1799, the image uses playacting to question social roles and the exercise of power. Those who command depend visibly on those beneath them, while the artificial bull makes their bravery doubtful. Goya’s etched detail gives the parody the precision of a real event. The title broadens the joke into a view of human relationships, where people continually exchange the parts of rider, bearer and target.

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