Francisco de Goya

After vice comes fornication (Tras el vicio viene el fornicio), Plate 4 of Los disparates

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About this artwork

Unlike Goya’s other series of prints, Los Disparates were not directed against a particular social or political evil, but were largely pessimistic comments on human life in general - its follies and absurdities. This strange image possibly alludes to the idea that if we could see our vices, they would be ugly and terrifying to us. In the foreground a petrified man cowers behind a woman who is scared rigid. The large figure towering over them is smiling and playing the castanets, looking foolish and vulgar. He is accompanied by nightmarish howling creatures and perhaps represents a personification of the couple’s own vice and depravity.

Updated before 2020

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Francisco de Goya

Francisco de Goya