'Poor Folly' from the 'Disparates' (Follies / Irrationalities)

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

ca. 1815–19 (published 1864) · Etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint · Drawings and Prints

A two-headed woman runs into a building, possibly a church, her breasts bare and arms outstretched. She stands at the threshold, turning one head to look at two men behind her, one of whom seems to scream, his hair blown by the wind. A figure with two faces was a popular motif in Spain in the years following the Peninsular Wars; here, it could refer to the country facing both the tumultuous recent past and an uncertain, dismal future. That the country ought to look backward and forward at the same time would also be the implication of the proverb traditionally associated with this print, "Two heads are better than one." From the posthumous first edition published by the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid in 1864 under the title 'Los Proverbios'.

Artist

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

Date

ca. 1815–19 (published 1864)

Medium

Etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. Henry J. Bernheim, 1936