This drawing and D4278 are preparatory studies for two etchings dated around 1799 and thus almost contemporary with the Caprichos. The realistic effect of some elements may indicate that these views were sketched from life, albeit from an unusual viewpoint, as the strange mass of the rock and its location imply. The difference in size between the massive peak and the small human figures with their horses aligns these landscapes with the notion of the sublime central to literature and art of the last third of the eighteenth century. Goya used the motif of the crag in the backgrounds of cabinet paintings that emanate a mood of tragic tension, such as The Shipwreck of 1793 (private collection) and Making Bullets from the period of the War of Independence (Madrid, Patrimonio Nacional).

Matilla, J.M. Mena M.B., Goya: dibujos. Solo la voluntad me sobra, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2019, p.319 nº212