'Flying Folly' from the 'Disparates' (Follies / Irrationalities)
ca. 1815–19 (private printing ca.1854)
Medium
Etching, aquatint
Dimensions
Plate: 9 5/8 × 13 7/8 in. (24.5 × 35.2 cm) Sheet: 10 9/16 × 14 3/4 in. (26.9 × 37.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1932
Accession Number
32.78.3
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Flying Folly** is a captivating print from Francisco de Goya y Lucientes's enigmatic series *Disparates (also known as *ollies* or *Irrationalities*), created around 1815–19. In his late career, the Spanish master—renowned for his Romantic intensity and satirical bite—crafted these 22 etchings private meditations on human absurdity, superstition, and societal madness. Unlike his earlier *Caprichos*, the *Disparates* remained unpublished during Goya's lifetime, with a limited private printing around 1854, adding to their aura of mystery. This work, featuring human figures in surreal flight, embodies the series' theme of irrational folly, inviting viewers to ponder the follies of the human condition amid Spain's turbulent post-Napoleonic era. Goya's virtuoso use of etching and aquatint techniques shines here, with aquatint providing velvety tonal depths and dramatic contrasts that evoke dreamlike shadows and textures. Measuring about 9⅝ × 13⅞ inches on the plate, the print's intimate scale draws us into its bizarre world, showcasing Goya's innovative printmaking that pushed beyond mere reproduction to psychological depth. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1932), *Flying Folly* highlights Goya's enduring legacy as a critic of folly. Its posthumous release underscores how these "proverbial" visions—tied to Spanish idioms of madness—continue to resonate, blending dark humor with profound cultural commentary for modern audiences.
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 ...