Mattia Jona, Master Drawings and Prints, Japanese Prints - Piazzetta Guastalla 5, 20122 Milan, Italy, tel (+39) 02 8053315

FRANCISCO GOYA (Fuendetodos 1746 - Bordeaux 1828) ) DISPARATE GENERAL (General Folly)
Etching and burnished aquatint, plate 9 from 'Los Proverbios' (c.1816-1824); Harris 256, III, 1. A fine impression from the first edition (1864), limited to 300 copies, printed in black ink on heavy wove paper. With margins, some minor defects at top corners, verso, from previous mounting; otherwise in very good condition. To the platemark 245 x 350 mm, the entire sheet measuring 276 x 380 mm.

Of Goya's four main print series, the series of etchings known as 'Los Proverbios' or 'Los Disparates', is the last and the most enigmatic of his oeuvre; these strikingly powerful etchings are full of the terror of nightmare visions. The eighteen prints in the original set were left hidden in Spain after Goya's flight into exile in 1824. They were first published in 1864 by the Academy of San Fernando under the title 'Los Proverbios'. But although some can be related to popular Spanish proverbs, the meaning of others remains obscure to this day. Proofs of thirteen of the plates bear captions in Goya's hand including the word 'Disparate' (folly).