Strange Devotion!, plate 66 from The Disasters of War
1815/20, published 1863
Medium
Etching and burnished aquatint or lavis on ivory wove paper with gilt edges
Dimensions
Image: 15 × 19.4 cm (5 15/16 × 7 11/16 in.); Plate: 17.5 × 22 cm (6 15/16 × 8 11/16 in.); Sheet: 24 × 33.8 cm (9 1/2 × 13 5/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
124919
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
By depicting a skeleton in a glass coffin, possibly a reference to the Snow White fairy tale, Goya questioned the continued relevance of relics in the Roman Catholic faith. While the bowed heads of onlookers suggest that the box contains the body of an important saint, the donkey carrying it is one of Goya’s favorite embodiments of folly, underscoring the artist’s satirical intent.
About the Artist
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes · 1746–1828
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was born on March 30, 1746, in the small Aragonese village of Fuendetodos, Spain, to José Benito de Goya, a master gilder, and Gracia de Lucientes. The fourth of six children in a modest lower-middle-class family, Goya received a basic education before beginning his artistic training at age 14 under the local painter José Luzán y Martínez in Zaragoza, where he sp...