Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...
Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...
Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...
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the sarcasm <strong>of</strong> his drawings more <strong>by</strong> adding the captions. But as he is working on<br />
these etchings, he learns th<strong>at</strong> his best friend, Martín Zap<strong>at</strong>er, with whom he stayed<br />
in Zaragoza, has died. Overcome with pain, he gets into a raving fit, blaming<br />
altern<strong>at</strong>ively Zap<strong>at</strong>er for deserting him, and himself for his friend’s de<strong>at</strong>h. He then<br />
realizes th<strong>at</strong> he has been prey to the demons within him and it is now th<strong>at</strong> he<br />
composes the Sueño de la razón as a self-portrait surrounded <strong>by</strong> the demons:<br />
Da saßen sie [die Dämonen] um ihm, gräßlich greifbar, in seine<br />
Taubheit hinein drang ihr Gekrächz, Geknurr, Gekreisch, er spürte ihren<br />
furchtbaren Atem. […]<br />
Er wird fertig mit dem Gezücht, er zwingt es aufs Papier. Zeichnet.<br />
Zeichnet sich selber, übern Tisch geworfen, das Gesicht in den Armen<br />
verbergend, und um ihn herum hockt es, das wüste Getümmel der Nacht,<br />
K<strong>at</strong>zengetier, Vogelgetier, Ungeheuer, Eulen und Fledermäuse, riesig, ihn<br />
bedrängend. Aus nächster Nähe bedrängen sie ihn: hockt ihm nicht eines<br />
der Ungeheuer schon auf dem Rücken? Aber nur an ihn heran dürfen sie,<br />
in ihn hinein dürfen sie nicht mehr. Denn einem der wilden, scheußlichen<br />
Vogelgeister h<strong>at</strong> er einen Stichel in die Krallen gezwungen, einen Griffel.<br />
Dienen müssen sie ihm, die Gespenster, müssen ihm selber das Werkzueg<br />
reichen, die Waffe, sie zu exerzieren, sie aufs Papier zu bannen, dahin, wo<br />
sie nicht mehr schaden können (Goya 487-88). 171<br />
This interpretive ekphrasis <strong>of</strong> the Sueño de la razón again emphasizes the<br />
artist’s power to banish the monsters, to exorcize them <strong>by</strong> “banning them onto<br />
paper.” Giving his mental demons a visible shape and form, the artist gains<br />
control over them. Goya’s aqu<strong>at</strong>int, then, represents for Feuchtwanger Goya’s<br />
171 “<strong>The</strong>y [the demons] s<strong>at</strong> around him, horribly palpable, their croaking, growling, and shrieking<br />
penetr<strong>at</strong>ed his very deafness, he felt their dreadful bre<strong>at</strong>h. […]<br />
He will get the upper hand <strong>of</strong> the brood, force it down onto paper.<br />
He drew. Drew himself, thrown across the table, hiding his head in his hands while around him<br />
they squ<strong>at</strong>ted, the hideous brood <strong>of</strong> the night, c<strong>at</strong>-cre<strong>at</strong>ures, bird-cre<strong>at</strong>ures, monsters, owls and<br />
b<strong>at</strong>s, gigantically oppressing him. <strong>The</strong>y crowd right in upon him – is not one <strong>of</strong> the monsters<br />
already on his back? But they can only come up to him, they can no longer get inside him. For into<br />
the claws on one <strong>of</strong> the bird-specters he forced a tool, a graver. <strong>The</strong>y must serve him, these ghosts,<br />
must hand him his tools, the weapons he needs to exorcise them, to consign them to paper where<br />
they no longer had power to harm” (This Is 443).<br />
144