1 Esto si que es leer (This is certainly reading), plate 29 of Los Caprichos, 1799.

Rosenwald
Collection, ß 2000 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

ß Association of Art Historians 2000

Art History ISSN 0141-6790 Vol. 23 No. 2 June 2000 pp. 153±181

Satirizing the Senses: The Representation of

Perception in Goya's Los Caprichos

Andrew Schulz

A fashionably dressed man, his form distinctly highlighted against a background

of coarse-grained aquatint, provides the compositional focus of Esto si que es leer
(This is certainly reading, plate 1), plate 29 in Los Caprichos, the series of eighty
aquatint etchings published by Francisco Goya early in 1799.1 Two younger men,
confined to the aquatint shadows, attend to this seated figure: one powders his
hair, while the other helps with a shoe. The principal figure holds a book, but
closer examination reveals that his heavily lidded eyes would prevent reading. In a
preliminary red chalk drawing, visible pupils indicate that Goya had originally
imagined him with open eyes,2 suggesting a wilful decision to close them in the
final image and to place visual inadequacy at the semantic heart of this print. The
lack of sense perception is underscored by the sarcastic tone of the caption, which
emphasizes the privileged position occupied by the viewer, as it draws attention to
our own engagement in the act of reading. One of the anonymous manuscript
commentaries, written shortly after the prints were published, reads the scene in
political terms.3 Its anonymous author describes the image as a satire of
government officials whose vanity causes them to be more concerned with
physical appearance than with affairs of state and, consequently, to be blinded by
hair powder as they are reading reports.
This print is one of numerous instances in Los Caprichos in which figures
unable to see engage in activities requiring vision. Indeed, in contrast to the
occasional depictions of visual inadequacy in the tapestry cartoons that Goya
executed from the mid-1770s until the early 1790s, blindness is a recurrent theme
in these prints.4 Although references to visual insufficiency most often take the
form of closed or dysfunctional eyes,5 the viewer also encounters states of
perceptual loss (such as sleep and drunkenness);6 optical instruments that point to
visual debility;7 allusions to the necessity of a faculty of judgement in order to
interpret sense data;8 and depictions of the blinding effects of superstition.9 As the
case of Esto si que es leer illustrates, not only is sensory inadequacy represented in
the images; it also is referred to in the captions, as well as in the contemporary
manuscript commentaries. Moreover, these repeated allusions to deficiencies of
sight heighten the viewer's awareness of his own visual faculties.
Another print in the series, Los Chinchillas (The Chinchillas, plate 2), reveals
that the depiction of the senses is not limited to vision, but also includes hearing

ß Association of Art Historians 1999. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 153

108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
2 Los Chinchillas (The Chinchillas), plate 50 of Los Caprichos, 1799. Rosenwald Collection,
ß 2000 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

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 SATIRIZING THE SENSES

and taste. In this work two monstrous figures wear strange heraldic tunics that
identify them as members of the aristocracy. A strong light falling across the
shallow foreground space draws attention to their heavily lidded eyes and the
padlocks that appear in place of ears. Their mouths, by contrast, are clearly open,
and they incline hungrily toward the highlighted spoon clutched by a donkey-
eared figure wearing a blindfold. As is often noted in the literature on this print,
Goya relies here on well-known iconographic conventions, as the background
figure is borrowed directly from the emblematic tradition, where its attributes are
associated with ignorance and error.10 Discussion of the representation of the
senses in Los Caprichos usually ends there ± with brief mention of pictorial
traditions that the artist might have known in print form. Interpretations of these
works then move on to thematic questions, examining the relation between the
topoi depicted in Goya's prints and those addressed by his literary contemporaries
± criticisms of the idleness of the nobility in the case of Los Chinchillas.11 The
explicitly stated goal of such an approach is to suggest that a coincidence of theme
indicates that Goya shared the profound interest in enlightened reform that
animated the work of writers such as Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, Juan
MeleÂndez ValdeÂs and Leandro FernaÂndez de MoratõÂ n. But allusions to the senses
in the contemporary manuscript commentaries suggest that, for viewers who saw
the prints at the time of their publication, the representation of perception was
instrumental in the creation of meaning in them. This essay will argue that Goya's
depiction of the sense organs ± particularly eyes and mouths ± is a central, but
neglected component of the mechanics of satire in Los Caprichos. The
representation of perception in the prints clearly relies on time-honoured visual
and verbal sources, such as manuals of iconography and popular proverbs. But at
the same time, the repeated attention drawn to the senses has a particular late
eighteenth-century inflection, as it echoes the emphasis on sense perception in
Enlightenment epistemology. The arguments that follow will consider Goya's
depiction of the senses in relation to contemporary discourse regarding the
connection between perception and knowledge. The aim of this approach is to
examine the intellectual tools that Goya's enlightened contemporaries would have
brought to bear on the images and, in so doing, to re-evaluate the artist's relation
to the Spanish Enlightenment. Although Goya's creative process is not a principal
focus, attention will be paid to the evolution of the representation of the senses in
the drawings and proofs that led to the final prints.
In order to begin to excavate the particular implications that the depiction of
the senses in Los Caprichos would have had at the end of the eighteenth century,
we must begin by considering the relation between sense perception and the
dominant issue of the Enlightenment: the origins, nature and limits of human
knowledge. Although linking the senses with knowledge is part of a much older
Western philosophical tradition that has its roots in the writings of Aristotle,12 a
new epoch began in 1690 with the publication of John Locke's Essay Concerning
Human Understanding. This treatise theorized a necessary connection between
sense perception and knowledge, thereby setting the tenor for epistemological
investigation during the following century. Bringing together the philosophical
empiricism of Francis Bacon and the experimental method of Isaac Newton,
Locke argued against the Cartesian emphasis on innate or received ideas. He

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SATIRIZING THE SENSES

insisted, rather, that the mind begins as a tabula rasa to be written on by

observation and experience, with their range setting limits on the scope of human
understanding. At the same time, Locke reserved a place in cognitive processes for
a set of purely mental operations, calling this faculty `reflection'.
During the course of the eighteenth century sensationalism (or sensualism)
spread across Europe as others took up and extended the epistemological
problems raised by Locke, leading to a wholesale questioning of traditional beliefs
and authorities, which had profound consequences for disciplines as varied as the
natural sciences, medicine, political theory, education and aesthetics.13 Locke's
ideas had a particularly swift and lasting effect in France, and concepts articulated
by the English philosopher pervade the EncyclopeÂdie (1751±72).14 After mid-
century it was the cleric and philosophe Etienne Bonnot de Condillac (1714±80)
who became the most important proponent of Lockian sensationalism.15
Condillac's Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines (1746), which was
subtitled in its English translation as an extension of Locke's thought, expanded
upon and modified the Englishman's philosophical system.16 In essence, the AbbeÂ
de Condillac sought to eliminate the duality found in Locke's epistemology,
proposing a more purely materialist model.17 This approach is epitomized by his
most famous work, the Traite des sensations (1754), which is constructed around
the image of a statue that gains cognition by acquiring one sense at a time.18 In
describing the experiences of this sentient statue, Condillac seeks to demonstrate
not only that the senses provide the source and define the limits for human
knowledge, but also that all mental functioning is reducible to sense data. In the
`PreÂcis' Condillac writes, `[A]ll our knowledge and all our faculties come from the
senses . . . and the mind draws, from the sensations that modify it, all its
knowledge and all its faculties.'19
It has often been noted that the economic, political and social conditions in
Spain during the second half of the eighteenth century differed dramatically from
those in England and France.20 As a result, the Spanish Enlightenment was
characterized not by abstract philosophical speculation, but rather by attempts at
pragmatic reform in fields such as fiscal policy and education. Furthermore,
details regarding the philosophical developments taking place elsewhere reached
Spain only sporadically. This intellectual isolation resulted largely from the
activities of the Inquisition, which regulated foreign ideas through intimidation,
censorship and outright banning, often as a matter of official government policy.21
More generally, the Catholic Church remained until the end of the century the
single most powerful social force.22
But in spite of these impediments and limitations, sensationalist principles did
become widely accessible to the Spanish reading public during the second half of
the century, and particularly during its final quarter.23 One important source for a
variety of foreign intellectual developments, including those of Locke and
Condillac, were multi-volume works that presented these ideas in reÂsume form.24
The periodical press also played an important role in spreading and debating
sensationalist ideas.25 Moreover, the 1780s witnessed the translation of major
works expounding sensationalist doctrines. Since writings by Locke did not begin
to appear in Spanish until the late 1790s, it was primarily through translations of
Condillac's thought that Spaniards gained first-hand knowledge of sensationalist

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 SATIRIZING THE SENSES

precepts.26 Condillac's La logique ou les premiers deÂveloppements de l'art de

penser ± a textbook published in 1780 at the behest of the Polish government ±
appeared in a Spanish edition in 1784.27 Although not as central to Condillac's
legacy as the Traite des sensations, La Logique summarizes his philosophical
position, presenting sense perception as the basis of knowledge.28 A second
printing appeared in 1788, and during the following decade La Logique was so
popular that RamoÂn Campos relied on it (without citation) in his Sistema de
loÂgica.29 In 1794 ValentõÂ n de Foronda, one of the leading figures of the Spanish
Enlightenment, issued Condillac's La Logique in a dialogue form, designed to be
easier for students to understand.30
Writings on natural history also reflect the impact of sensationalist doctrines
in Spain. El hombre fõÂsico, published in 1800 by the former Jesuit Lorenzo HervaÂs
y Panduro, is a prime example. A major section of this work is devoted to the
`Sensory Economy' of the human body, and at one point HervaÂs provides a litany
of similes to describe the importance of the senses for human cognition:

They are, among other things, so many sentinels that attentively keep
watch in our service, like windows through which our mind observes
sensible objects, like spies that nature has put into the body in order to give
notice of the sensible to the mind, like couriers that bring to [the mind]
news of what happens in the sensible world, and ultimately, they are
antechamber servants that serve by bringing messages from the material
world, allowing it to communicate with the mind.31

In the same work, HervaÂs emphasizes the superiority of vision among the senses:
`It would seem that one is unable to begin speaking about the marvellous sense of
sight without breaking out in expressions of sublime admiration and ecstatic
amazement.'32 In doing so, he consciously echoes a long tradition that extends
back to the ancients and was central to eighteenth-century meditations on the
human, such as the Histoire naturelle de l'homme by Georges-Louis Leclerc,
Comte de Buffon (1707±88), which had been translated into Spanish in 1773. In
this seminal work, Buffon refers to sight as `the most noble and admirable' of the
senses,33 and he suggests elsewhere that the eye

belongs to the soul more than any other organ; it seems in perfect contact
with it, and to participate in all its movements. . . . The eye receives and
reflects at once the light of thought and the warmth of feeling; it is the
sense of the mind, and the tongue of intelligence.34

In general, vision occupied a central position in Enlightenment inquiry. Numerous

scientific treatises were devoted to describing and explaining optical phenomena,
beginning with Newton's Opticks (1704) and continuing through Goethe's
BetraÈge zur Optik (1791).35 Following the lead of scientific investigation,
Enlightenment epistemology favoured sight over the other senses: not only did
sense perception provide the foundation for cognitive functioning, but vision
served as its principal agent.36 In addition, eighteenth-century writers repeatedly
proposed optical models for the mind, drawing connections between sight and

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SATIRIZING THE SENSES

3 Count of Floridablanca, 1783.

Banco de EspanÄa, Madrid. (Photo:
Institut Amatller d'Art HispaÁnic,
Barcelona)

mental faculties. Locke's Essay on Human Understanding, for example, contains

numerous optical analogies, the most famous being his comparison of the mind to
a camera obscura.37
Goya's ambitious portrait of the Count of Floridablanca, painted in 1783
(plate 3), embodies the eighteenth-century belief in the primacy of sight and
intimates its connection with both cognitive faculties and the exercise of power.
Jose MonÄino y Redondo, Count of Floridablanca (1721±1808), was one of the
leading proponents of the economic reforms that lay at the heart of the Spanish
Enlightenment. After beginning his career as a lawyer and judge, he served as
Ambassador to Rome and then as First Minister, occupying this post under Carlos
III (reigned 1759±88) and, until 1792, under his son Carlos IV (reigned 1789±
1808).38 In Goya's somewhat overloaded composition, Floridablanca's
unwavering gaze directly confronts the viewer.39 Painted highlights emphasize
his sparkling blue eyes, lending them an intensity that contrasts with the slightly
turned head and less focused gaze of the figure behind him, and his sight is further

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 SATIRIZING THE SENSES

underscored by the quizzing glass he holds poised in his right hand, with which he
has apparently been scrutinizing a canvas held for his inspection by the artist
himself.
Goya includes his own likeness at the left in a lower, foreground position. He
looks attentively in the direction of Floridablanca, suggesting his eagerness for the
approval of a man who could provide a substantial boost for his aspirations to
receive lucrative court patronage. Behind the Count, a figure whose identity
remains uncertain looks up from his work on engineering diagrams that spill over
the desk. Legible inscriptions indicate that the drawings are plans for the AragoÂn
canal, an important effort to improve infrastructure in which Floridablanca took a
keen interest. These plans ± together with the canvas Goya holds ± provide
attributes for the Count's role both as protector of the Royal Academy of San
Fernando and as advocate of enlightened economic reform. This duality is
underscored by the presence of Antonio Palomino's seminal treatise on painting,
PraÂctica de la pintura (1724), in front of the mechanical drawings. These objects
inform the viewer that the Count is equally conversant with mechanical and
artistic systems of visual representation. Furthermore, given his position as
Protector of the Royal Academy, a more particular meaning emerges for this
ambidexterity, as a major component of the Academy's activity was promoting
ties between the fine arts and industry, a goal carried out through the
establishment of drawing schools in the provincial capitals that were open to
both aspiring artists and artisans.40
In light of the placement of the surrounding figures, the emphasis on the
Count's visual acuity takes on political connotations, with connoisseurship
serving as a metaphor for his close attention to the affairs of state. Carlos III,
present once-removed in the painting-within-the-painting on the back wall of the
depicted space, gazes down benevolently in the direction of his First Minister. The
red and blue of their respective costumes visually reinforces Floridablanca's role
as the monarch's surrogate, mapping a political order in which reform occurs
under the watchful eye and active direction of First Minister and within the
institutional structure of enlightened despotism. Thus, the canvas enunciates a
rational and effective power structure with Floridablanca's unwavering gaze at its
nexus.
The emphasis on vision in the portrait of Floridablanca contrasts pointedly
with the frequent references to visual inadequacy in Los Caprichos, published
some fifteen years later. Given the importance of the senses ± and particularly
vision ± for Enlightenment theories of knowledge, the late eighteenth-century
connotations of visual insufficiency begin to come into focus. In the case of Los
Chinchillas (plate 2), the closing of the noblemen's eyes and ears indicates that
observation and experience are inaccessible to these grotesque figures. In place of
sense perception, the spoon-feeding suggests their passive acceptance of received
ideas based on tradition and social position, which are rendered graphically by the
restrictive garments, as well as by the rosary beads clutched by one figure and the
sword worn by the other. A passage from Condillac's La logique could serve as a
worthy commentary for this scene: `If you want to know the bad habits of the
human mind, observe people's different opinions. Observe the ideas ± false,
contradictory, absurd ± that superstition has spread everywhere, and judge the

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SATIRIZING THE SENSES

force of habits by the passion that leads us to respect error much more than
truth.'41 Therefore, in addition to relying on time-honoured graphic and verbal
traditions that connect blindness and ignorance, such images would have been
read as satirical within a historically specific horizon of expectations that
construed knowledge as inexorably dependent upon the accumulation and
interpretation of sense data.
The contemporary commentators found multiple layers of meaning in the
depiction of the senses in Los Chinchillas. They identified the background figure
as a traditional personification of ignorance, but glossed the scene in
sensationalist terms by drawing connections between the absence of sense
perception and a lack of knowledge. Four of the commentaries describe these
monstrous figures as having minds that are literally locked or closed, and as being
fed by ignorance. The Prado manuscript directly links sensory inadequacy and
stupidity: `He who hears nothing, knows nothing and does nothing, and belongs
to the numerous family of the Chinchillas that has never been good for any-
thing.'42 Thus, in the eyes of Goya's contemporaries, this print operates on two
planes: in addition to the readily apparent critique of the idle nobility, it provides
a more general commentary on the importance of sight and hearing for human
understanding.
Other plates that depict perception ± or, more precisely, its malfunctioning ±
possess a similar semantic duality. In Ni asi la distingue (Even thus he cannot
make her out, plate 4), a young dandy employs a quizzing glass to examine a
woman from absurdly close range. The use of such optical instruments was
fashionable throughout Europe in the later years of the eighteenth century and
was frequently the target of visual satire.43 But in contrast to the many English
and French prints depicting such scenes, Goya's image is more than a critique of
the absurdity of this contemporary affectation. In the course of censuring the
foolishness of those who use quizzing glasses, his etching also comments on the
nature of cognition. In this instance the caption plays an important role in
establishing this more universal meaning by suggesting that sight alone is
insufficient without the proper application of mental faculties. The young fop
appears to possess normal vision, as indicated by the clearly delineated eye that is
visible to the viewer, as well as by his absorption in the act of looking. But even
with the aid of an optical instrument, he is unable `to make her out'; that is, he
fails to understand that the object of his gaze ± and, by implication, his desire ± is
a prostitute, as is suggested by the author of the Biblioteca Nacional manuscript.
This and other commentaries describe the print as a critique of relations between
the sexes, as well as a comment on the nature of cognitive faculties, interpreting it
as drawing a distinction between the collection of sense data and the exercise of a
faculty of judgement. The Prado manuscript, for example, asks, `How can he
make her out? A quizzing glass is not enough to know what she is; one needs
judgement and experience of the world, and these are precisely what the poor
gentleman is lacking.'44 The Biblioteca Nacional manuscript offers a slightly
different interpretation, combining the philosophical with the topical by
proposing that the young man's faculties have been impaired by desire: `Lustful
men blind themselves to such a degree that even with a glass they do not perceive
that the woman to whom they pay court is a prostitute.'45

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4 Ni asi la distingue (Even thus he cannot make her out), plate 7 of

Los Caprichos, 1799. Rosenwald Collection, ß 2000 Board of Trustees,
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

Drawings and proofs for this work demonstrate that the meditation on
perception and knowledge contained in the final print evolved over the course of
the artist's working process. The initial idea for the image occurs in drawing
Album B and is generally dated to 1796±7. This sketch depicts the couple and a
single standing onlooker in an indefinite space and bears no accompanying text. A
pen-and-sepia image (plate 5) executed a year or so later as part of the artist's
planned series of SuenÄos (Dreams) ± his initial idea for a series of satirical prints ±
repeats the forms of the two protagonists but places them before a crowd of

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SATIRIZING THE SENSES

5 Por aberle yo dicho, q.e. tenia buen mobimiento no puede ablar sin colear
(Just because I told her she moves nicely, she cannot talk without wiggling),
SuenÄo 21, 1797. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

onlookers and a landscape containing distant architecture. The wealth of detail

lends this drawing an anecdotal tone that is complemented by a lengthy caption,
written in the first person, which translates as `Just because I told her she moves
nicely, she cannot talk without wiggling.'46 The final print reduces the number of
observers to two seated women who gaze intently at the courting ritual enacted
before them. A working proof for the print raises epistemological issues for the
first time, as it bears the handwritten caption Ya la percivo (Now I see what she
is), implying that with the aid of the quizzing glass the man's perceptual faculties

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 SATIRIZING THE SENSES

have been sufficiently heightened.47

The final caption, however, inverts
this message and, as with the
inclusion of closed eyes in Esto si
que es leer (plate 1), it suggests that
the artist's decision to utilize sen-
sory deficiency as a satirical device
arose during the lengthy working
process that preceded the publica-
tion of the series. Moreover, within
the context of the final caption, the
intent gazes and physical detach-
ment of the secondary figures place
them in the role of surrogates for the
viewer before the image. In mirror-
ing our own visual inspection of the
print, they suggest the viewer's
ability to avoid this poor man's folly
and make overt the cognitive im-
balance upon which satire depends.
Another, more metaphorical
type of blindness is represented in
Lo que puede un Sastre! (What a
tailor can do!, plate 6). As in Ni asi
la distingue, the open eyes and
riveted gaze of the principal figure 6 Lo que puede un Sastre! (What a tailor can do!),
signify that she enjoys normal sight. plate 52 of Los Caprichos, 1799. Rosenwald
However, her devout pose indicates Collection, ß 2000 Board of Trustees, National
an inability to see beneath the cloth- Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
ing to the true, arboreal identity of
the object of her reverence, which is made plain by the branches that emerge from
the sleeves. Her cognitive faculties have been rendered inoperative by religious
ecstasy ± or superstition, as the winged figures hovering above seem to suggest ±
and she pays homage to the trappings of religion.48 The woman's misguided piety
contrasts ironically with the fear of the child behind her, who is equally unable to
penetrate beneath the surface, apparently believing this huge figure to be some
sort of monster or ghost. This print, then, also functions on two semantic planes,
one topical and the other epistemological. Although ostensibly about religious
fanaticism (a favourite target of the ilustrados), it conveys this message by raising
more far-ranging concerns about the danger of relying on appearances in forming
judgements. The author of the Prado manuscript follows this second line of
interpretation, seeing the work as a universal commentary on perception: `How
often a ridiculous creature is transformed suddenly into a ghost that is nothing
and looks like a lot. That is what the skill of a tailor can do and the stupidity of
those who judge things by their appearances.'49
The presence of the frightened child in this print calls attention to the thematic
importance of education and child rearing in Los Caprichos, a fact noted in the first

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SATIRIZING THE SENSES

known review of the series, written in 1811 by Gregorio GonzaÂlez Azaola.50 A

glance through the prints reveals that several images directly address pedagogical
issues, and do so by underscoring the dangers and consequences of invoking
authority, tradition and superstition as educational principles.51 In addition,
relations between teachers and pupils are the focus of images depicting scenes of
witchcraft,52 as well as those portraying prostitutes and celestinas.53 Although
often shrouded in fantasy, these critiques of educational practices reflect
widespread concerns in late eighteenth-century Spain, as pedagogical reform was
a central concern of the proponents of the Enlightenment.54 Beginning in the late
1760s, a variety of efforts at educational modernization took place, often under
royal leadership. These changes varied widely, ranging from the inclusion of
modern philosophy in university curricula to the establishment of vocational
education for the idle poor, and from the founding of new schools for astronomy
and medicine to the creation of one for deaf-mutes.55 In addition to actual reforms,
much was written about education, and the polemics between the ilustrados and
their conservative opponents frequently revolved around pedagogical issues.56
In keeping with the pragmatic spirit of the Spanish Enlightenment, it is within
these debates ± which centred on attempts to replace scholasticism with modern
observational and analytical methods ± that one finds the most palpable impact of
sensationalism. Locke and Condillac had written important tracts on education,
each arising from practical experiences.57 As in their theoretical texts, both
authors advocated a model of education based on observation and experience,
rather than one grounded in tradition and accepted belief. Although Locke's Some
Thoughts Concerning Education had been known much earlier in the century, it
was translated into Spanish during the late 1790s as EducacioÂn de ninÄos and
advertised on 24 January 1797 in the Gazeta de Madrid.58 The preliminary
discourse of Condillac's Cours d'eÂtude pour l'instruction du prince de Parme was
translated in 1786, appearing in a volume that also included Maupertuis's Essai de
philosophie morale.59 As Condillac believed that students learn best if they are
first presented with a theory of knowledge, his text begins with a lucid declaration
of sensationalist doctrines.
Juan MeleÂndez ValdeÂs and Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos were among the
many Spanish intellectuals interested in educational reform, and both were deeply
influenced by sensationalist ideas. MeleÂndez, a poet and jurist, was explicit about
his intellectual debt to Locke, writing in a letter dated 3 August 1776, `To the
Essay Concerning Human Understanding I owe and shall owe all my life the little
I know about how to reason.'60 Jovellanos, who was the recipient of this letter,
was closer in his own thought to Condillac than to the English philosopher.61 In a
letter of 1796±7, he argued, `Man receives all his first ideas through his senses. His
soul perceives and compares them and operates on them.'62 Elsewhere, on the
subject of logic, Jovellanos proposed the following lineage: `Locke restored
[logic], if, indeed, he did not found it; Condillac simplified its principles; [Charles]
Bonnet improved them; and in my opinion our [Antonio] Eximeno purified and
perfected them.'63 Both MeleÂndez and Jovellanos were familiar with the
pedagogical writings of Locke and Condillac, as well as with Rousseau's Emile,
and they echoed these writers in their opposition to corporal punishment, rote
learning and scholasticism. In addition, they emphasized the limits of human

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knowledge and the importance of observation and experience in its acquisition.

Moreover, each was involved with education on a practical level: MeleÂndez at the
University of Salamanca, and Jovellanos in establishing the Royal Asturian
Institute, which opened in GijoÂn on 7 January 1794.64 The importance of sense
perception for progressive thought on education is made plain in an oration that
Jovellanos delivered at the Institute on 2 June 1794. In this address, he exhorts the
assembled students to engage in `the study of nature' and urges them to:

direct your eyes to this great book which Providence opened before all
men, in order that they might continuously read it. Seek out in its immense
volume the pages that the finger of truth has marked. Augment this still
small, but very precious patrimony; and this shall be the aim of your tasks,
this your ambition and your goal.65

Given his keen interest in education, the appointment of Jovellanos as Minister of

Justice in 1797 may have been motivated by First Minister Manuel Godoy's desire
to foster pedagogical reform.66
Goya's portraits of these and other ilustrados, dating from the 1780s and
1790s, are cited frequently to suggest that he shared their interest in enlightened
reform.67 Although little evidence exists regarding the artist's political beliefs, his
views on education can be glimpsed from his participation in the initial stages of
the debates on pedagogical reform that would occupy the Royal Academy of San
Fernando for much of the 1790s.68 Goya's opinions on the subject are expressed in
the brief address he presented to his fellow academicians on 14 October 1792, in
response to a call by Bernardo de Iriarte, Vice-Protector of the Academy, for the
proposal of reforms.69 In addition to advising specific modifications to the
Academy's curriculum, this document contains sweeping educational principles
that reflect sensationalist currents. For example, Goya emphasizes the importance
of careful observation in the imitation of nature, using terms that suggest the
impact of sensory-based epistemology: `What a profound and impenetrable
arcanum is encompassed in the imitation of divine nature, without which there is
nothing good, not only in Painting (that has no other task than its exact imitation)
but in the other sciences.' On a more pragmatic level, Goya expresses opposition
to the prescription of fixed periods for mastering individual subjects, as well as to
the imposition of a monolithic system of study. He goes so far as to claim that
`there are no rules in Painting, and that the oppression, or servile obligation of
making all study or follow the same path, is a great impediment . . .' As an ideal
learning environment, he cites the informal academy of Annibale Carracci, which
left each student `to proceed following the inclination of his spirit, without
determining for any to follow his style, or method'.
Goya satirizes precisely the opposite kind of relationship between teacher and
pupils several years later in a double-sided sheet that contains two red chalk
drawings probably designed in the late 1790s as studies for an unexecuted plate in
Los Caprichos (plate 7).70 These sketches, which are mirror images with slight
variations, portray a pedagogue surrounded by students whose wide-eyed stares
and open mouths intimate their awe at his wisdom. One of these drawings bears
the caption De todo (Concerning everything), alluding to the superficial nature of

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SATIRIZING THE SENSES

7 De todo (Concerning
everything), 1797±99. Museo del
Prado, Madrid.

the dilettante's learning, which is figured visually by his asinine form. Although
never transformed into a plate for Los Caprichos, this sheet might have provided
the initial idea for Que pico de Oro! (What a golden beak!, plate 8). This print
satirizes blind reverence to authority by imaging an assembly of gruesomely
visaged old men who gaze up with closed eyes in the direction of a parrot perched
on a podium above them, its claw raised as if mimicking a rhetorical gesture.
Among the commentaries written in response to this print, the Prado manuscript
speculates that these grotesque figures might be attending some sort of academic
meeting, perhaps one relating to medicine. In contrast to the sketches just
mentioned, the open mouths of several of the figures might indicate boredom in
the form of snoring rather than awe.
The cavernous mouths in Que pico de Oro! point to another important
dimension of the representation of the senses in Los Caprichos, one which was
alluded to at the outset in discussing Los Chinchillas (plate 2). A quick look
through the series reveals that in contrast to the frequent portrayal of closed or
dysfunctional eyes, mouths operate conspicuously in many of the plates, with
images and captions containing allusions to swallowing, blowing, vomiting,
sucking, yawning, shouting, snoring, and most commonly, eating and drinking.71

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 SATIRIZING THE SENSES

8 Que pico de Oro! (What a golden

beak!), plate 53 of Los Caprichos,
1799. Rosenwald Collection, ß 2000
Board of Trustees, National Gallery
of Art, Washington DC.

As with blindness, numerous iconographic precedents could be cited for the

depiction of eating and drinking as vehicles of ridicule. Such actions often take on
moralizing and sarcastic connotations in Northern Renaissance art, as is the case
in Hieronymus Bosch's depiction of gluttony in his Table with the Seven Deadly
Sins, which had been in the Spanish royal collection since it was acquired by Philip
II in the second half of the sixteenth century. Moreover, graphic works depicting
the sin of gluttony are legion. Pieter Bruegel the Elder's famous engraved image,
which features imbibing figures set in a chaotic landscape, is an example that
immediately comes to mind. In addition, representations of eating and drinking
are stock elements in eighteenth-century British satire, appearing in the works of
Hogarth, Gillray, Rowlandson and countless others. But regardless of possible
visual precedents or sources, images of mouths take on a specific coloration in
Goya's prints. Crucial to their meaning in Los Caprichos, and in the drawings
leading up to the series, is the repeated juxtaposition of active mouths with
inoperative eyes, as in Los Chinchillas. In order to suggest how this sensory
imbalance might have been intended and understood at the end of the eighteenth
century, we should return for a moment to the concept of the hierarchy of the
senses.

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SATIRIZING THE SENSES

Whereas eighteenth-century theorists associated vision (and to a lesser extent

hearing) with cognitive faculties, the senses of taste and smell were linked
repeatedly with the needs and desires of the body.72 In an article on `Beauty' in
the first volume of the SuppleÂment to the EncyclopeÂdie, Marmontel contends that
`. . . the eye and the ear are exclusively the two organs of beauty, and the reason
for this extraordinary and very plain exclusion is evident: from impressions made
on the senses of smell, taste and touch, come no higher ideas, no higher
feelings.'73 Moreover, in his Essays on Physiognomy, Johann Caspar Lavater
(1741±1801) describes the mouth as `[performing] all the functions in common to
me with the brute',74 while in Condillac's Traite des sensations smell is the first
sense given to the sentient statue, since, Condillac argues, it contributes the least
to human understanding. Lorenzo HervaÂs echoes and summarizes these
commonly held attitudes in El hombre fõÂsico, seeking to reconcile them with
Catholicism:

The senses of smell, taste, and touch are the most material and serve
animals as much as man in the nutrition and conservation of the body. The
sense of sight is less material and serves man more than a little in order to
rectify his ideas; but the sense of hearing is most necessary to him, making
man a member of religion and of rational society.75

In another passage HervaÂs suggests that taste is `the sense in which man most
closely approaches the animals, since it is the most material of all and is solely
directed toward the food and nourishment of the body; and these things are as
necessary for the animal as for man.'76
In Goya's print series Los Chinchillas (plate 2) represents the paradigmatic
example of the inversion of this sensory hierarchy. The opposition of gaping
mouths with closed eyes and padlocked ears emphasizes the lower, bodily senses
at the expense of those associated with mental faculties. Moreover, Goya uses
graphic techniques to connect eating with carnal desires, as the highlighted bulges
between the legs of these aristocrats (achieved through stopping-out) forges a
pictorial association between gluttony and other needs of the body. By subverting
the normal order of the senses, this print furnishes a purely material conception of
the human condition, and in doing so, it blurs the closely guarded line between the
human and the animal that is fundamental to the Enlightenment conception of
`man'. `The constitution of man is not in the body, in which man is not
distinguished from the beasts,' states an article satirizing the idle nobility
published in the periodical El Censor. `He who does not use his reason, he who
does nothing but eat, defecate, sleep, vegetate, and propagate, is a beast with two
or four legs.'77 These monstrous figures are such purely physical beings, and
situating them within the context of late eighteenth-century thought on the senses
reveals that while this depiction of the body can be viewed within a graphic
tradition that includes Bosch and Breugel, it also has specific cultural meanings
that would have led its intended audience to read it as satirical. Indeed, the
manuscript commentaries suggest that the sensory dichotomy embodied in this
work was central to contemporary interpretations of it. The Ayala commentary,
for example, states, `Fools that pride themselves on their nobility surrender to

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 SATIRIZING THE SENSES

9 Estan calientes (They're hot),

plate 13 of Los Caprichos, 1799.
Rosenwald Collection, ß 2000
Board of Trustees, National
Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

indolence and superstition, and they seal off their understanding with padlocks
while being grossly fed by ignorance.'78
A similar, albeit less overt association between eating and corporeal
functioning is intimated in Estan calientes (They're hot, plate 9). The
conspicuous mouths of these gorging figures serve as pictorial signs of ravenous
appetites, and the focus on the body is underscored by the heavily lidded eyes,
which indicate a diminishment of cognition. Ironically, the plates before them
appear to be empty, suggesting that the hunger of these grotesque creatures will
not be satisfied, or perhaps that it is insatiable. As in Ni asi la distingue (plate
4), the caption interacts with the image to sharpen its attack. The text contains
a double meaning, alluding equally to the temperature of the plates and to
sexual arousal, intimating that the desires of these men extend to carnal
pleasures. The emphasis on physical gratification took on a specific coloration
in the eyes of the contemporary commentators, as they interpreted the flowing

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SATIRIZING THE SENSES

10 Caricatura alegre (Merry

caricature), Album B.63, 1796±97.
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

robes as signs that these men are monks, whose gluttony points to their interest
in physical gratification, rather than in the spiritual matters with which they
should be concerned.79
The relationship between eating and sexuality that is imbedded in Estan
calientes had been explicit in a remarkable drawing from Album B that preserves
the initial idea for the image and bears the inscription Caricatura alegre (Merry
caricature, 1796±7, plate 10).80 The figure on the left in this wash drawing
possesses an unmistakably phallic nose, the staggering proportions of which
demand a crutch for support. The nose, in turn, suggests an alternative
identification for the round and open mouth into which he shovels food. Thus,
the inversion of the senses implied in the final print by the closed eyes and open
mouths (as well as by the verbal connection between eating and arousal) had been
coupled in the drawing with a somatic inversion that literally overturns the
Enlightenment architecture of the body. HervaÂs refers to the head as `the upper

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 SATIRIZING THE SENSES

11 Soplones (Blasts of wind),

plate 48 of Los Caprichos, 1799.
Rosenwald Collection, ß 2000
Board of Trustees, National
Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

and principal part of the human body'.81 Here, it becomes conflated with sexual
organs, which, as the Comte de Buffon had suggested, are the parts of the body
least susceptible to the control of reason, `being the most animal organs of the
human body and operating in effect according to a kind of instinct the true causes
of which we are ignorant'.82 Therefore, the distortion of facial features, which are
at the same time sense organs, transforms the head from the seat of mental
operations into the site of corporeal functioning. Estan calientes is less
transgressive in its depiction of the face, as the overtly sexualized features are
sublimated into savagely distorted ones.83
Other prints, often depicting supernatural figures and events, invert the body
by linking mouths and anuses. One of these, captioned Soplones (Blasts of wind,
plate 11), portrays three robed figures with closed eyes and covered ears
surrounded by an assortment of fantastic creatures. A winged monster rides a cat-
like beast across the sky above them, emitting a blast of air that is rendered in
etched lines. In the background bent-over bodies, whose upper halves are cut off
by the edge of the image, also discharge visible blasts of air that are directed
toward the ear of one of the robed figures. The similar graphic rendering of breath

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SATIRIZING THE SENSES

12 Sopla (Blow), plate 69 of Los

Caprichos, 1799. Rosenwald
Collection, ß 2000 Board of
Trustees, National Gallery of Art,
Washington DC.

and flatulence suggests a conflation of mouth and anus, an identification that is

further reinforced by the ambiguity of the caption, which might allude to either
form of wind. The contemporary commentaries written in response to the print
disagree over the target of its satire, some understanding it as a ridiculing of
religious confessions, others reading it as a depiction of witches.84 In addition to
indicating the polysemic nature of the image, these commentaries reveal the
importance of the depiction of mouths, gluttony and somatic actions for the
inscription of satire in the prints, as monks were expected to deny the material
realm, while witches were thought to enact unnatural and forbidden pleasures of
the flesh.
Several plates in Los Caprichos are unequivocally depictions of witchcraft that
portray such taboos. Interestingly, references to eating ± often in the form of
bundles of babies ± are present in many of these works.85 In Sopla (Blow, plate 12)
the action revolves around an emaciated male figure, naked from the waist up,
who holds a baby by the wrists and ankles. This child serves as a bellows, its
visible flatulence fanning a flame upon which others will be roasted. A group of

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 SATIRIZING THE SENSES

haggard figures looks on in the foreground, while another witch arrives in the
background with a fresh load of infants. As in the images already discussed, this
print blurs the boundary between the upper and lower zones of the body, for the
caption might be construed as referring to both the baby's flatulence and the act
being performed by the figure on the ground, directly below its buttocks. The
manuscript commentaries propose a variety of readings that embellish this
complex image: the Prado commentary alludes to eating; others draw connections
between witchcraft and sexuality, referring to homosexuality and child abuse in
particular.86
In addition to the depiction of mouths and somatic inversions, a more general
emphasis on the body characterizes Los Caprichos. One finds carnal themes
portrayed throughout the series, and many of the prints revolve around the
regulation, control and torture of bodies.87 What is more, in almost every image
the artist has distorted face and figure into obese, emaciated, decaying, or
misshapen forms. In many instances, this disfigurement of the human form crosses
over into the monstrous. Monstrous bodies are especially prevalent in the second
half of Los Caprichos, and most notably in the images that follow El suenÄo de la
razon produce monstruos (The sleep [or dream] of reason produces monsters,
plate 13). The best-known print in the series, it depicts the sleeping artist
surrounded by owls, bats and a lynx, their prominent eyes serving as reminders of
their ability to see at night. This image grew out of a design for the first of the
SuenÄos drawings, intended to be the frontispiece in Goya's initial conception for a
series of satirical prints.88 In that context, the image of the slumbering artist
would have framed the subsequent prints as originating in his dreams, a model
established by the Golden Age writer Francisco de Quevedo in his SuenÄos, which
had first appeared in 1627.89 However, in light of its placement in the middle of
Los Caprichos as plate 43, it is possible to propose an interpretation of this print
that centres not on the genesis of the images in the artist's dreams, but rather on
the deformed figures in the images that follow it.90
The evolution of the caption provides the key to reading the print within the
sequence of the series. As with many of the plates in Los Caprichos, the final text
seems to have emerged rather suddenly, in contrast to the protracted development
of the image. The final caption derives not from the lengthy text written on the
SuenÄos frontispiece, but rather from that on another unnumbered SuenÄos drawing
(plate 14), which reads La enfermedad de la razon (The sickness of reason).91 This
caption implies that the deformed physical appearances of the figures in the
drawing are bodily symptoms of the dysfunctional mental powers that have
rendered them helpless. Significantly, this drawing became, through a process of
pictorial distillation typical of Goya's working methods, the print captioned Los
Chinchillas (plate 2), a work emblematic of the connection between ignorance and
monstrosity. In the final series this image appears as plate 50, part of the sequence
of monstrous bodies that directly follows El suenÄo de la razon produce monstruos.
Taken as a whole, Los Caprichos suggest that in the absence of reason, which
in progressive circles was considered to be predicated on sense perception, the
body loses its human form. The sleep of reason, in other words, produces
monsters. Or, to put it another way, monstrosity operates as a pictorial sign for
the absence of mental activity and, thus, functions as a central element in Goya's

ß Association of Art Historians 2000 173

13 El suenÄo de la razon produce monstruos (The sleep of reason produces monsters), plate 43
of Los Caprichos, 1799. Rosenwald Collection, ß 2000 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of
Art, Washington DC.

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 SATIRIZING THE SENSES

14 La enfermedad de la razon (The sickness of reason), SuenÄo drawing, 1797. Museo del Prado,
Madrid.

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SATIRIZING THE SENSES

semiotics of satire. This iconography of the body suggests an intense pessimism

about the possibility of reforming human action, an attitude that is echoed in the
famous notice advertising the prints, which appeared in the Diario de Madrid in
early February 1799.92 That text describes the artist's goal as calling attention to
`the multitude of follies and blunders common in every civil society', implying that
the vices and weaknesses depicted are universal and chronic. While such an
attitude distinguishes Goya from the emphasis on reason and the more hopeful
outlook characteristic of his enlightened contemporaries, it also marks the
essential modernity of his vision. Indeed, by asserting that humans are ruled by
uncontrollable somatic desires and by giving these urges pictorial form, Goya
foreshadows the project of the Surrealists, many of whom shared the artist's
nationality and regarded him as a precursor. But that is another story.

Andrew Schulz
Seattle University

Notes
1 I wish to dedicate this essay to Janis Tomlinson,
whose scholarship has been a model for my own.
Translations are mine, unless otherwise noted.
Original spelling and accentuation, often at
variance with modern usage, have been
maintained in eighteenth-century texts and in the
captions of Goya's prints and drawings.
2 P. Gassier and J. Wilson, The Life and Complete
Work of Francisco Goya, New York, 1971, no.
509, 1797±98 (hereafter G-W when citing art
works).
3 The three principal manuscripts are known as
the Prado, the Ayala and the Biblioteca Nacional
commentaries. They are transcribed in Francisco
de Goya. Diplomatario, ed. A. Canellas LoÂpez,
Saragossa, 1981, pp. 335±59. Most of the other
surviving manuscript commentaries seem to rely
on these texts. The most thorough discussion of
the commentaries is R. Andioc, `Al margen de
los Caprichos: las ``explicaciones'' manuscritas',
Nueva revista de filologõÂa hispaÂnica, vol. 33,
1984, pp. 257±84. Andioc suggests that all the
known commentaries are copies of lost
manuscripts, and perhaps copies of copies
(p. 272). Eleanor Sayre discusses ten of the
manuscripts and describes those descending from
the Ayala commentaries in A.E. PeÂrez SaÂnchez
and E.A. Sayre, Goya and the Spirit of
Enlightenment, exhib. cat., Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, 1989, pp. ci-ciii. She suggests that the
earliest of the commentaries were written
between 1799 and 1803.
4 Among the tapestry cartoons, two in particular
treat themes of blindness. The Blind Guitarist
(G-W 85; delivered 1 May 1778) depicts a
sightless musician and his young companion
surrounded by an audience that includes a cross-
section of Spanish society. La Gallina Ciega
(Blind Man's Buff; 1788±9, G-W 276) portrays a
fashionably dressed group playing a game often
found in eighteenth-century French art, where the
absence of sight serves as a metaphor for blind
love. On these works see J.A. Tomlinson,
Francisco Goya: The Tapestry Cartoons and
Early Career at the Court of Madrid, Cambridge,
1989, pp. 68±72 and 183±84.
5 Plates 14, 22±24, 30, 32, 42, 44, 46±50, 53±55, 68,
70, 71, and 77.
6 Plates 18, 34, 43, and 80.
7 Plates 7, 37, 57, and 75.
8 Plates 7, 26, 38, and 41.
9 Plates 3, 6, and 52.
10 As possible sources, Sayre discusses two of the
most widely known emblem books, Cesare
Ripa's Iconologia and Gravelot and Cochin's
Iconologie (PeÂrez SaÂnchez and Sayre, op. cit.
[note 3], pp. 121±2, n. 4). Among Spanish sources
not mentioned by Sayre, Antonio Palomino cites
Ripa in stating that Ignorance and Error should
be depicted this way (PraÂctica de la pintura, 2nd
edn, Madrid, 1795, pp. 240±1 and 311).
11 The caption of Goya's print is a family name
taken from a now-forgotten piece of popular
theatre critical of the aristocracy. Edith Helman
first identified this play, entitled El doÂmine Lucas
and written by Jose de CanÄizares (`Los
Chinchillas de Goya', Goya, vol. 9, 1955,
pp. 162±7). See also Sayre, op. cit. (note 3),
pp. 119±23.
12 For a survey of thought on the senses in Western
culture, particularly as reflected in literature, see
L. Vinge, The Five Senses: Studies in a Literary
Tradition, Lund, 1975. See also M. Jay,
Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in

176 ß Association of Art Historians 2000


Twentieth-Century French Thought, Berkeley,
1993, pp. 21±147.
13 See Ernst Cassirer, The Philosophy of the
Enlightenment, trans. F.C.A. Koelln and J.P.
Pettegrove, Boston, 1955, pp. 93±133; N.
Hampson, The Enlightenment, Harmondsworth,
1968, pp. 73±127; and P. Gay, The
Enlightenment: An Interpretation, 2 vols, New
York, 1969, vol. 2, pp. 174±87.
14 In the `Preliminary Discourse' (1751), Jean le
Rond d'Alembert wrote in decidedly Lockian
terms, `All our direct knowledge can be reduced
to what we receive through our senses . . .'
(Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia of
Diderot, trans. R.N. Schwab, Indianapolis, 1963,
p. 6). The article on `Knowledge' uses Lockian
sensationalism as a point of departure.
15 As Gay has succinctly phrased it, `Condillac was
a professional Lockian, more Lockian in his final
system even than Locke himself.' (op. cit. [note
13], p. 178)
16 Condillac, An essay on the origin of human
knowledge; being a supplement to Mr. Locke's
Essay on the human understanding, trans.
T. Nugent, London, 1756.
17 Cassirer sees a desire to eliminate the dualism of
Locke's system as fundamental to the
development of eighteenth-century epistemology
(op. cit. [note 13], pp. 99ff).
18 In this work Condillac makes plain the lineage of
his epistemology: `Immediately after Aristotle
came Locke, for we must not count the other
philosophers who wrote on the same subject'
(Philosophical Writings of Etienne Bonnot, AbbeÂ
de Condillac, trans. F. Philip with the
collaboration of H. Lane, Hillsdale, NJ, 1982,
p. 156).
19 ibid., p. 155. Elsewhere he states, `Judgement,
reflection, passion, all the operations of the
mind, in short, are only sensation itself variously
transformed.' (p. 159)
20 The most complete and accessible accounts of
the Spanish Enlightenment remain: J. Sarrailh,
L'Espagne eÂclaireÂe de la seconde moitie du
XVIIIe sieÁcle, Paris, 1954; and R. Herr, The
Eighteenth Century Revolution in Spain,
Princeton, 1958. See also M. Carmen Iglesias, et
al., Carlos III y la ilustracioÂn, 2 vols, exhib. cat.,
Madrid, 1988. Various cultural aspects of this
period are discussed in: J. Dowling, `MoratõÂ n's
Circle of Friends: Intellectual Ferment in Spain,
1780±1800', Studies in Eighteenth-Century
Culture, vol. 5, 1976, pp. 165±83; I.M. Zavala,
`Dreams of Reality: Enlightened Hopes for an
Unattainable Spain', Studies in Eighteenth-
Century Culture, vol. 6, 1977, pp. 459±70; and
P. Ilie, `Cultural Norms in the Spain of Soler
(1729±1783)', Modern Language Studies, vol. 14,
1984, pp. 10±35.
21 On the Inquisition and its Index, see M.
Defourneaux, L'Inquisition espagnole et les livres
francËais au XVIIIe sieÁcle, Paris, 1963; and W.J.
ß Association of Art Historians 2000
SATIRIZING THE SENSES
Callahan, Church, Politics, and Society in Spain,
1750±1874, Cambridge, 1984, pp. 31±7.
22 Herr, op. cit. (note 20), p. 33; and Sarrailh, op.
cit. (note 20), pp. 471±503.
23 See the work of L. RodrõÂ guez Aranda (`La
recepcioÂn y el influjo de las ideas polõÂ ticas de
John Locke en EspanÄa', Revista de ideas
polõÂticas, vol. 76, 1954, pp. 115±30; `La influencia
en EspanÄa de las ideas pedagoÂgicas de John
Locke', Revista espanÄola de pedagogõÂa, vol. 12,
1954, pp. 321±7; and `La recepcioÂn e influjo de la
filosofõÂ a de Locke en EspanÄa', Revista de
filosofõÂa, vol. 14, 1955, pp. 359±81); and, more
recently, that of F. SaÂnchez-Blanco (`La filosofõÂ a
sensista y el suenÄo de la razoÂn romaÂntica',
Cuadernos hispanoamericanos, vol. 381, March
1982, pp. 509±21; and `La difusioÂn del sensismo
en la EspanÄa dieciochesca', in Europa y el
pensamiento espanÄol del siglo XVIII, Madrid,
1991).
24 In the DeÂcada epistolar sobre el estado de las
letras en Francia (1781), the Duke of AlmodoÂvar
(writing under a pseudonym) mentions
Condillac's Essai sur la connaissance humaine,
stating, `If Metaphysics is a type of Anatomy of
the heart and of human understanding, one could
evaluate this academic as the most enlightened
and profound physiologist' (`Si la Metafisica es
una especie de Anatomia del corazon y del
entendimiento humano, se puede calificar aÁ este
academico del mas ilustrado y profundo
fisiologista' [Madrid, 1781, pp. 126±7]). Another
such work, Juan AndreÂs's Origen, progresos y
estado actual de toda la literatura (10 vols, 1784±
1806), speaks favourably of Descartes, Newton,
Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Condillac,
D'Alembert and Buffon. Other means of
dissemination included foreign travel and
education, licenses which permitted the reading
of proscribed books, and the clandestine trade of
prohibited texts.
25 In an article published in 1781, El Censor
suggested that `Locke restored the force and
vigour of that maxim of Aristotle that nihil est in
intelectu, quod prius non fuerit in sensu . . .' and
referred to the English thinker as `the Columbus
of Metaphysics [who] destroyed the world of
innate ideas . . .' (`. . . Loke [sic] restituyo aÁ su
fuerza y vigor aquella maÂxima de Aristoteles, de
que nihil est in intelectu, quod prius non fuerit in
sensu. . . .'; `. . . desterro del mundo este Colon de
la Metafisica las ideÂas innatas . . .' [Discurso 36,
p. 570; El Censor, obra perioÂdica. Comenzada a
publicar en 1781 y terminada en 1787, facsimile
edn, ed. J.M. Caso GonzaÂlez, Oviedo, 1989]). In
1790 El Correo de Madrid recommended, on the
subject of logic, `the treatise on human
knowledge by Condillac', as well as other works
(`...el tratado de los conocimientos humanos de
Condillac' [#372; 23 June 1790]). An issue from
the previous year, however, had warned that
Locke's work should not be read except with
177
SATIRIZING THE SENSES
extreme caution (#306; 31 October 1789). In
March 1797 another periodical, the Memorial
literario, provided yet another summary of
Locke's epistemology and suggested, `Perhaps
there has never been a more methodical and
prudent mind, nor a logic more exact than that
of Locke . . .' (`Quiza no ha habido en el mundo
un entendimiento mas methoÂdico y prudente, ni
una loÂgica mas exaÃcta que la de Loock [sic] . . .'
[p. 343]).
26 Herr, op. cit. (note 20), p. 70.
27 Condillac, La LoÂgica, o los primeros elementos
del arte de pensar, trans. B. MarõÂ a de Calzada,
Madrid, 1784.
28 Part One begins: `Our senses are the first
faculties that we notice. Through them the mind
receives its impressions of objects. [. . . If] we
were never to have any of the senses, neither
would we have any acquaintance of the objects
of nature' (`Nuestros sentidos son las primeras
facultades que notamos. Por ellos vienen hasta el
alma las impresiones de los objects. [. . . En] una
palabra, si nunca hubieÂramos tenido sentido
alguno, tampoco conocieÂramos ninguno de los
objetos de la naturaleza' [ibid., pt. I, ch. 1, pp.
6±7]).
29 Echoing Condillac, Campos argues, `The mind
cannot go outside of itself, nor be acquainted
with either external objects or its own body,
except through the impressions produced by the
senses. We only know because we sense' (`El
alma no sale de sõÂ misma, ni conoce las cosas
exteriores, ni aun su propio cuerpo, sino por las
impresiones que los sentidos le producen. No
sabemos sino porque sentimos' [Madrid, 1791,
p. 4]).
30 Foronda, LoÂgica de Condillac, puesto en
diaÂlogo..., Madrid, 1794; 2nd edn, 1800.
31 `Estos son como otras tantas centinelas que
atentamente velan en nuestro servicio y
conservacion: son como ventanas por donde
nuestro espõÂ ritu se asoma para observar los
objetos sensibles: son como espias que la
naturaleza puso en el cuerpo para dar noticia de
todo lo sensible al espõÂ ritu: son como unos
correos que a este traen las nuevas de quanto
pasa en el mundo sensible; y son uÂltimamente,
como criados de antesala que le sirven para darle
las embaxadas de todo lo material, por medio de
las quales con esto el espõÂ ritu comunica' (HervaÂs,
El hombre fõÂsico, o anatomõÂa humana fõÂsico-
filosoÂfico, 2 vols, Madrid, 1800, vol. 2, p. 12).
32 `Del maravilloso sentido de la vista parece que
no se puede empezar a hablar sin prorrumpir en
expresiones de sublime admiracion y estaÂtico
estupor' (ibid., p. 52).
33 `el mas noble y admirable' (Historia natural del
hombre, trans. A. RuõÂ z de PinÄa, Madrid, 1773,
p. 85).
34 `. . . pertenecen al alma mas que ningun otro
oÂrgano; parece que la estan tocando y
participando a todos sus movimientos. . . . Los
178
ojos reciben y reflexan al mismo tiempo la luz
del pensamiento y la viveza de la sensacion; ellos
son el sentido del espõÂ ritu y la lengua de la
inteligencia' (ibid., pp. 169±70).
35 On the Enlightenment celebration of vision, see
Jay, op. cit. (note 12), pp. 83±113, and J.
Starobinski, 1789: The Emblems of Reason,
trans. B. Bray, Cambridge, MA, 1988.
36 As with the relation between the senses and
knowledge, the idea of a hierarchy of the senses,
with sight at the top, forms part of a much older
tradition that has its roots in ancient philosophy,
lives on in the middle ages, the Renaissance, and
through the Baroque. For an overview of this
tradition, see Jay, op. cit. (note 12), pp. 21±82.
37 Locke, book 2, chap. xi, p. 17. For an
examination of this idea, see J. Crary,
Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and
Modernity in the Nineteenth Century,
Cambridge, Mass., 1990, pp. 41±3. In La logique,
Condillac viewed the eye as a model for the
cognitive faculties (book 1, chap. iii). The
contributors to the EncyclopeÂdie also placed
vision above the other senses, as in the article on
`Perception', which stressed the role of sight in
the acquisition of knowledge (A. Simowitz,
Theory of Art in the EncyclopeÂdie, Ann Arbor,
Michigan, 1983, p. 22).
38 On Floridablanca's professional activities, see
PeÂrez SaÂnchez and Sayre, op. cit. (note 3),
pp. 8±11. The most thorough examination of the
painting is F. NordstroÈm, `Goya's State Portrait
of Floridablanca', Konsthistorisk Tidskrift, vol.
31, 1962, pp. 82±94. See also Tomlinson, op. cit.
(note 4), pp. 131±4.
39 Multiple readings present themselves for the
Count's gaze. He might be acknowledging a
visitor (the viewer); alternatively, if the canvas
held before him is a portrait, he could be
examining his own likeness in a mirror.
40 These schools are frequently mentioned
frequently during the 1780s and 1790s in the
triennial summaries of the Academy's activities.
See C. BeÂdat, l'AcadeÂmie des Beaux-Arts de
Madrid, 1744±1808, Toulouse, 1973, pp. 368±80.
41 `VeÂanse las ideas falsas, contradictorias y
absurdas, que la supersticion ha derramado en
todas partes, y juÂzguese de la fuerza de las
costumbres, por la pasion que hace respetar al
error mas que a la verdad' (Condillac, op. cit.
[note 16], pp. 110±11).
42 `El que no oye nada, si sabe nada, ni hace nada,
pertenece a la numerosa familia de los
Chinchillas, que nunca a servido de nada'
(Canellas, op. cit. [note 3], p. 349).
43 R. Corson, Fashions in Eyeglasses from the 14th
Century to the Present Day, London, 1967,
pp. 79 and 85. Sayre discusses the fashion for
quizzing glasses and makes brief mention of the
issue of perception in this print (PeÂrez, SaÂnchez
and Sayre, op. cit. [note 3], pp. 92±3).
44 `¿CoÂmo ha de distinguirla? Para conocer lo que
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ella es, no basta el anteojo, se necesita juicio y
praÂctica de mundo, y esto es precisamente lo que
le falta al pobre caballero.' (Canellas, op. cit.
[note 3], p. 337).
45 `Se ciegan tanto los hombres luxuriosos que ni
con lente distinguen que la SenÄora que
obsequian, es una ramera.' (ibid.) Optical
instruments included in other plates (37, 57 and
75) contain similar meanings, as these objects
consistently fail to sharpen sense perception,
implying instead the perceptual inadequacy of
those who use them.
46 `Por aberle yo dicho, q.e tenia buen mobimiento
no puede ablar sin colear' (G-W 464; Madrid,
Museo del Prado, 29).
47 Paris, BibliotheÁque nationale.
48 In a working proof (MFA, Boston, 1973.717) the
flying figures are drawn in chalk, indicating that
they were added after most of the plate had been
designed. See E.A. Sayre, The Changing Image,
exhib. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1974,
no. 79, pp. 107±109.
49 `QuaÂntas veces un bicho ridõÂ culo se transforma
de repente en un fantasmoÂn que no es nada y
aparenta mucho! tanto puede la habilidad de un
sastre y la boberõÂ a de quien juzga las cosas por
lo que parecen' (Canellas, op. cit. [note 3],
p. 349).
50 E. Harris, `A Contemporary Review of Goya's
``Caprichos'' ', Burlington Magazine, vol. 106,
1964, p. 42.
51 For a detailed analysis one print as a satire on
the raising of children, see R. Alcala Flecha, `El
tema del ninÄo malcriado en el Capricho 4, El de
la rollona, de Goya', Goya, vol. 198, 1987,
pp. 340±5.
52 Plates 46, 47, 60, 67, and 68.
53 Plates 15±17, 19, 20, and 31.
54 On the importance of education to the program
of the ilustrados, see J.A. Maravall, `The Idea
and Function of Education in Enlightenment
Thought', in The Institutionalization of
Literature in Spain, eds W. Godzich and
N. Spadaccini, Minneapolis, 1987, pp. 39±99.
55 A. Aparisi Mocholi, La ensenÄanza primaria y la
formacioÂn profesional y artesana en Madrid
durante el reinado de Carlos III (1759±1788),
Madrid, 1988.
56 Sarrailh, op. cit. (note 20), pp. 185±221.
57 Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning (1693)
comprised letters written to his friend Edward
Clarke regarding the upbringing of Clark's son.
Condillac's Cours d'eÂtude pour l'instruction du
Prince de Parme (16 vols, 1767±73) grew out of
his experience as tutor to Duke Ferdinand of
Parma, grandson of Louis XV. It may be that
MarõÂ a Luisa of Parma, wife of Carlos IV and
Queen of Spain from 1789 until 1808, was
educated in the same manner.
58 Herr, op. cit. (note 20), p. 361. Ignacio de LuzaÂn,
for example, alludes to Locke's thought on
education, which he probably knew in a French
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SATIRIZING THE SENSES
edition, in his Memorias literarias de Paris,1751
(I.L. McClelland, Ignacio de LuzaÂn, New York,
1973, p. 42). On one example of Locke's
influence on educational reform, see A. CapitaÂn
DõÂ az, `El ``sistema de educacioÂn'' de GoÂmez de
PinÄeyra, una muestra de la presencia lockeana en
la pedagogõÂ a espanÄola de principios del siglo
XIX', Historia de la educacioÂn, 1983, pp. 19±25.
59 Las lecciones preliminares, del curso de estudios,
que escribio en franceÂs el Abad de Condillac . . .
y el ensayo de filosofõÂa moral, que escribio en
franceÂs Mr. de Maupertius . . ., trans. L. NunÄez
de Peralveja, Madrid, 1786.
60 `Al Ensayo sobre el entendimiento humano debo
y debere toda mi vida lo poco que sepa discurrir'
(Biblioteca de autores espanÄoles, Madrid, 1952,
vol. 63, p. 73).
61 J.H.R. Polt, `Jovellanos and his English Sources:
Economic, Philosophical, and Political Writings',
Transactions of the American Philosophical
Society, vol. 54, part 7, 1964, pp. 46±8.
62 Polt, Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, New York,
1971, p. 112.
63 ibid., p. 112. See also E. Helman, Jovellanos y
Goya, Madrid, 1970, pp. 91±109.
64 See Polt, `Jovellanos y la educacioÂn', in El Padre
Feijoo y su siglo, 2 vols, Oviedo, 1966, vol. 1,
pp. 315±8; and Sarrailh, op. cit. (note 20),
pp. 212±21, in which he notes that Jovellanos
relies on Locke and Condillac in his Memorio
sobre la educacioÂn puÂblica. On MeleÂndez at the
University of Salamanca, see G. Demerson, Don
Juan MeleÂndez ValdeÂs et son temps (1754±1817),
Paris, 1962, pp. 111±51.
65 `el estudio de la naturaleza' (Jovellanos, Noticia
del real instituto asturiano, Oviedo, 1795, p. 47);
`. . . venid vosotros a estudiar la naturaleza:
poned los ojos en este gran libro que la
Providencia abrio ante todos los hombres, para
que continuamente le leyesen: buscad en su
inmenso volumen aquellas paginas que el dedo de
la verdad ha senÄalado: aumentad este patrimonio
todavia pequenÄo, pero muy precioso; y este sea el
fin de vuestras tareas, eÂste el de vuestra ambicion
y vuestra gloria' (ibid., p. 49).
66 Polt, Jovellanos, op. cit. (note 62), pp. 119±20.
67 See, for example, Gassier and Wilson, op. cit.
(note 2), pp. 132±8, and N. Glendinning, `Art
and Enlightenment in Goya's Circle', in PeÂrez
SaÂnchez and Sayre, op. cit. (note 3),
pp. lxiv±lxxvi.
68 Goya was chosen for membership as an
acadeÂmico de meÂrito [artist member] on 5 July
1780. His appointment as Assistant Director of
Painting five years later, on 18 March 1785,
marks his assumption of an active role in the
operation of the Academy. Poor health forced
him to resign from the position of Director of
Painting on 1 April 1797. On Goya's relation to
the Academy, see N. Sentenach y CabanÄas, `Goya
acadeÂmico', BoletõÂn de la R.A.B.A.S.F., vol. 17,
1923, pp. 169±74; F.J. SaÂnchez CantoÂn, `Goya en
179
SATIRIZING THE SENSES
la Academia,' in Primer centenario de Goya.
Discursos, Madrid, 1928, pp. 11±28; J. Rogelio
BuendõÂ a and R. PenÄa, `Goya acadeÂmico', in El
Arte en tiempo de Carlos III, Madrid, 1989,
pp. 303±10; and J.A. Tomlinson, Goya in the
Twilight of Enlightenment, New Haven and
London, 1992, pp. 38±50.
69 For recent scholarship on this report and its
context in attempts to reform artistic education
in the Academy, see Tomlinson, Goya in the
Twilight of Enlightenment, op. cit. (note 68),
pp. 38±47. Translations are from ibid., Appendix
1, pp. 191±4.
70 G-W 630 and 631; Madrid, Museo del Prado,
480-81.
71 Plates 58; 48 and 69; 33; 4 and 45; 80; 74; 53; 13,
18, 49, 50, 54 and 79.
72 In addition to connecting sight and hearing with
mental functioning, eighteenth-century theorists
often described the sense of touch as essential to
the acquisition of knowledge. Condillac favours
touch in La logique, considering the other senses
to be extensions of it (op. cit. [note 16], I, ix). In
the 1773 translation of Buffon's Histoire naturelle
de l'homme, touch is described as `the most solid
[of the senses]... and that which is absolutely
necessary to all animals . . .' (`. . . el mas soÂlido
. . . y del que absolutamente necesita todo animal
. . .' [op. cit. (note 33), p. 85]). Echoing this line
of thought, HervaÂs refers to it as `the principal
sense of our body' and calls it `the base and
foundation of the other senses . . .' (` . . .el sentido
principal de nuestro cuerpo'; `la base y
fundamento de los demas sentidos . . .' [El
hombre fõÂsico, op. cit. (note 31), vol. 2, p. 19]).
73 Trans. in Simowitz, op. cit. (note 37), p. 23.
74 Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy, 3 vols, London,
1789±99, vol. 3, p. 394. On the possible influence
of Lavater's thought on Goya, see J. LoÂpez Rey,
Goya's Caprichos: Beauty, Reason and
Caricature, 2 vols, Princeton, 1953.
75 `Los sentidos de oler, gustar y tocar son mas
materiales, y convienen a las bestias, no meÂnos
que al hombre, para la nutricion y conservacion
de su cuerpo. El sentido de la vista es meÂnos
material, y sirve no poco en el hombre para
rectificar sus ideas: pero el sentido del oido le es
necessarõÂ simo para formarse digno miembro de la
religion y de la sociedad como racional' (HervaÂs,
El hombre fõÂsico, op. cit. [note 31], vol. 2, p. 93).
76 `. . . el sentido en que mas convienen los hombres
con las bestias, porque es el mas material de
todos, y se dirige uÂnicamente al alimento y
nutricion de los cuerpos; y estas cosas son tan
necesarias a la bestia como al hombre' (ibid.,
p. 154).
77 `El constitutivo del hombre no esta en el cuerpo,
en que no se distingue de los brutos. El que no
hace uso de su razon: el que no hace sino comer,
estercolar, dormir, vejetar, y propagar, es un
bruto de dos o de quatro pies' (Discurso CLXIII,
op. cit. [note 25], pp. 636±7). This passage is
180
cited in passing in Andioc, op. cit. (note 3),
p. 275, n. 34.
78 `Los necios preciados de nobles se entregan a la
haraganerõÂ a y supersticioÂn, y cierran con
candados su entendimiento, mientras los alimenta
groseramente la ignorancia' (Canellas, op. cit.
[note 3], p. 349).
79 Reva Wolf has noted that the theme of
gluttonous clergy occurs frequently in eighteenth-
century British satire (Goya and the Satirical
Print in England and on the Continent, 1730 to
1850, exhib. cat., Boston College Museum of Art,
1991, pp. 35±9).
80 G-W 423; Madrid, Museo del Prado, 443.
81 `. . . la parte superior y principal del cuerpo
humano...' (HervaÂs, El hombre fõÂsico, op. cit.
[note 31], vol. 2, p. 413).
82 `. . . siendo, como son, estos oÂrganos los mas
animales del cuerpo humano, y obrando en
efecto por una especie de instinto, cuyas
verdaderas causas ignoramos' (Buffon, Historia
natural, general y particular, trans. J. Clavijo y
Fajardo, Madrid, 2nd edn, 1791, vol. 4, p. 96).
83 A second drawing in the evolution of the image
is SuenÄo 25, which bears the caption De unos
hombres q.e nos comian (Of some men who eat
us; G-W 477; Madrid, Museo del Prado, 20). In
it, explicit sexual overtones are replaced by an
equally transgressive allusion to cannibalism. A
similar process of sublimation of sexual
references occurs in the working process that
produced La filiacioÂn (Genealogy, plate 57). Two
other plates, Y tienen asiento (Now they have a
seat, plate 26) and El Vergonzoso (The
shamefaced one, plate 54), invert the body by
portraying figures dressed upside-down, and the
protagonist in the latter has an unmistakably
phallic nose.
84 The Biblioteca Nacional commentary, for
example, suggests, `Oral confession does nothing
more than fill the ears of monks with filth,
obscenities and muck' (`La confesioÂn auricular no
sirve mas que para llenar los oidos de los frailes
de suciedades, obscenidades y porquerõÂ as'
[Canellas, op. cit. (note 3), p. 348]).
85 As with Estan calientes, preliminary drawings for
Sopla are more explicit in linking the upper and
lower realms of the body. See G-W 625 and 626.
Other depictions of witchcraft with references to
cannibalism include plates 44, 45, 47, and 71, as
well as the painting known as The Witches
Sabbath, painted for the Duke and Duchess of
Osuna during this same period (G-W 660;
Madrid, Museo LaÂzaro Galdiano, M. 2004).
86 The Biblioteca Nacional manuscript embellishes
the image: `Corrupt men perform a thousand
pranks with boys; they fornicate some with
vigour, they suck their pricks, and perform other
kinds of obscenities' (`Los hombres estragados
hacen mil diabluras con los ninÄos; les fornican
unos con otros por fuerza, les chupan la minga y
otras varias obscenidades' [Canellas, op. cit.
ß Association of Art Historians 2000

(note 3), p. 355]). The Ayala commentary,
without mentioning witchcraft, reads the scene as
a generational allegory: `Children are the object
of a thousand obscenities on the part of old and
corrupt men' (`Los ninÄos son objeto de mil
obscenidades para los viejos y relajados' [ibid.]).
87 In addition to plates already discussed, see also
nos. 8, 12, 17, 19±26, 31±35, 42, 51, 56±58,
61±67, 70, 72, 74, 75, and 77.
88 G-W 537; Madrid, Museo del Prado, 34. There is
also a second, related drawing in the collection
of the Prado (G-W 538; Madrid, Museo del
Prado, 470); its fuller visual field is usually
interpreted as indicating that it is an earlier
version of the SuenÄos frontispiece. It bears no
text.
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SATIRIZING THE SENSES
89 PeÂrez SaÂnchez and Sayre, op. cit. (note 3),
pp. 110±11.
90 Traditionally this print has been seen as a
warning of the dangers of unbridled imagination.
In his classic study, George Levitine writes that it
`is conceived not as a manifesto of a new dark
art glorifying unfettered phantasy, but as a
warning which shows what happens to an artist
who lets himself be overcome by his own
imagination.' (`Some Emblematic Sources of
Goya', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld
Institutes, vol. 22, 1959, p. 130).
91 G-W 623; Madrid, Museo del Prado, 35.
92 Trans. in N. Glendinning, Goya and His Critics,
New Haven and London, 1977, p. 49.
181