Description
Francisco Goya’s Trials turns a lesson in flight into a bizarre struggle between master and pupil. A naked witch pulls at her apprentice’s ear as he clings to her, while a large goat presides from behind. Cats and scattered objects occupy the ground around the pair. The sharply defined bodies make their improbable action feel physically awkward rather than effortlessly magical.
Plate 60 of Los Caprichos, published in 1799, treats the practice of witchcraft with the same skeptical eye Goya applies to human institutions elsewhere in the series. The title suggests repeated attempts and imperfect learning, making this supernatural initiation resemble a foolish human apprenticeship. Detailed etching anchors the fantasy in recognizable gestures and anatomy. The result is both comic and uneasy, exposing irrational behavior through an image that seems to obey its own strange rules.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Goya collection.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.