The lighthearted, mildly erotic drawing on the recto of this page does not prepare one for the solemn, menacing image that awaits on its verso. Here, penitents walk in a Holy Week procession, each wearing a coroza, the tall, conical hats that distinguish them as victims of the Inquisition. The chilling scene is heightened by the eerie gaze of the figure who stops and turns toward the flagellant behind, who holds his own instrument of torture by his side. The blood, torment, and suffering memorialize the events of Good Friday and the Crucifixion of Christ, but also serve as Goya’s commentary on the church’s fanaticism and repression. The Spanish Inquisition was largely deflated when the French invaded Spain in 1808, and it was finally abolished in 1834.
Details
- Artist Name: Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746-1828)
- Title: Masquerades of Holy Week in the year [illeg.] (Mascaras de semana santa del año [illeg.]) (verso)
- Date: 1796-1797
- Medium: Brushed India ink on paper
- Dimensions: image: 7-1/8 x 4 1/4 in. (18.1 x 10.8 cm); sheet: 9-1/8 x 5-5/8 in. (23.2 x 14.2 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.1974.04.2b.D
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
Mr. and Mrs. William P. Roth, by descent to their son;
William Matson Roth, San Francisco, sold 1974, through;
[R.E. Lewis, Larkspur, Calif., to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
- Brettell, Richard R. and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, volume 1, 2006,
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 1011B p. 362
- Various authors, edited by Mark Rogián, Spanish Art in America, 2016, p. 193 ; p. 194 (ill.)
- Juliet Wilson-Bareau, Goya in the Norton Simon Museum, 2016, cat. 4 pp. 6, 14, 96, 98 (ill.), 254, 288
- Schwander, Martin (ed.), Manuela B. Mena Marques, Goya, 2020, Fig. 1 p. 300 ; p. 301 (ill.)
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