Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...

sueño de la razón? A more thorough discussion of Goya’s El sueño de la razón
and its relationship to surrounding verbal discourses will provide a better basis for
answering these questions.
WORD AND IMAGE IN GOYA’S CAPRICHOS AND THE SUEÑO DE LA RAZÓN
The term “capricho” that gave the title to this series came into vogue in the
eighteenth century as an espousal of subjectivity, fantasy, and imagination. The
term is also used in the Diario de Madrid advertisement, which introduces the
works as a collection of prints on “asuntos caprichosos” (“imaginary subjects”).
This usage emphasizes the fantastical nature of the collection as well as its artistic
license, its “transgress[sion] of accepted artistic conventions” (Schulz 101). In
fact, the Dictionary of the Academia de Bellas Artes in Goya’s times explained
the term “capricho” by emphasizing the uncommonness of ideas: “Idea o
propósito que uno forma sin razón, fuera de las reglas ordinarias y comunes”
(“Idea or proposition that one forms without reason, outside of ordinary and
common rules”), and “Obra de arte en que el ingenio rompe con cierta gracia o
buen gusto la observancia de las reglas” (“Work of art in which the imagination
breaks the observation of the rules with a certain grace or good taste”). 92 While
the term was used by artists before Goya, such as Jacques Callot (Capricci di
varie figure [sic.], 1617), Stefano della Bella (e.g. Caprice, c. 1642; Diversi
Capricii, c. 1648; Raccolta di varii Cappricii, 1646), Giambattista Tiepolo
92 The Spanish definitions are cited in F. J. Sánchez Cantón, Los Caprichos de Goya y sus dibujos
preparatorios (Barcelona: Instituto Amatler de Arte Hispánico, 1949), 8. The English translations
are mine.
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