Dream of consummate witches

1796 - 1797. Pencil, Iron gall ink, Black chalk lines on dark yellow laid paper. Not on display

This is a preparatory drawing for the etching Blow (G02157), which is Capricho 69. Together, the twenty-six pen-and-ink drawings that constitute the basis for The Caprichos are known as The Dreams. The first, Dream 1, The Author Dreaming, became number 43 in the Caprichos. This was a common subject during that period and is related to preparatory drawing, Dream 6. Witches’ Proclamation… (D04156), as Goya presents the witch holding a child in a similar fashion. (…) The initial idea for Capricho 69, Blow, already appears in drawing 57 of Album B, and its descriptive title, Aunt Oilstains lights the Hearth, Witches to Gather Up, conferred a greasy echo to the name of the head witch who uses a child as the bellows for fanning the fire in their den. A second pen-and-ink drawing (D04192), which Goya titled Dream of Consummate Witches, presents the definitive scene, in which supreme mastery is presented as the domination of children, bending them to one’s will in order to obtain the desired results—in this case, the precise aim needed to direct air at the flames. In the final print, the witch’s skill is conveyed by her boastful expression. She has succeeded under the admiring gazes of the other witches and warlocks. In the air, a flying witch directs a look of almost motherly tenderness at two very young children that she has brought to the conclave, while another extends her powerful owl’s wings and turns her grateful gaze to the heavens (…). Blow is one of the prints in which Goya used witches and their diabolical acts as a metaphor for human evil. It is one of the most refined and technically complex works in this series, and includes something rarely seen in these works: the artist’s signature. This may indicate that it was one of the first engravings. The Museo del Prado has a series of works related to Dream 7 (D04156/D04155/G02157/G00643), and there is a steel-plated copper plate from the same series at Madrid’s Calcografía Nacional (214 x 152 mm, 559.84 g. No. 3495), as well as a preliminary drawing in India ink from Album B, 57 in a private collection (235 x 145 mm). The mark of the plate is visible on the drawing as a result of its tracing on the copper plate (214 x 150 mm), as well as 25-26 mm vertical laid lines.