Love and Death

Los Caprichos are a set of 80 prints in aquatint and etching created by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya in 1797 and 1798, and published as an album in 1799. The prints were an artistic experiment: a medium for Goya's condemnation of the universal follies and foolishness of Spanish society in which he lived. The criticisms are far-ranging and acidic: he speaks against the predominance of superstition; the ignorance and inabilities of the various members of the ruling class; pedagogical short-comings; marital mistakes; and the decline of rationality. Some of the prints have anticlerical themes. Goya described the series as depicting "the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilized society, and from the common prejudices and deceitful practices which custom, ignorance or self-interest have made usual".