'Dancing Giant' from the 'Disparates' (Follies / Irrationalities)
ca. 1815–19 (published between 1854–63)
Medium
Etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint
Dimensions
Plate: 9 5/8 × 13 3/4 in. (24.5 × 35 cm) Sheet: 14 5/8 × 19 15/16 in. (37.2 × 50.6 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1921
Accession Number
21.54.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
Francisco de Goya’s “Dancing Giant,” created around 1815–19, belongs to his enigmatic “Disparates” (Follies) series. This late body of work explores the irrational forces that shape human behavior, blending the grotesque with the sublime. The towering central figure, surrounded by smaller men who appear both compelled and terrified, embodies the series’ fascination with fear and collective folly. Though never published in Goya’s lifetime, the prints were issued decades later, allowing later generations to confront their haunting vision of unreason. Goya rendered the scene through etching, bur...
About the Artist
Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) · 1746–1828
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) was a Spanish painter and printmaker considered the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Rising from modest provincial origins to become First Court Painter to Charles IV, Goya's career spanned the Enlightenment's optimism and the brutal Napoleonic invasion that shattered it. A mysterious illness in 1793 left him permanently deaf and ...