Disparate puntual (Una Reina del circo) (Punctual Folly or The Queen of the Circus), plate B from the series Los Disparates (Los Proverbios) (The Follies)
Francisco de Goya, Disparate puntual (Una Reina del circo) (Punctual Folly or The Queen of the Circus), plate B from the series Los Disparates (Los Proverbios) (The Follies), ca. 1816-1823; published 1877, etching and aquatint on cream laid paper, The Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Graphic Arts Collection, public domain, 78.52.298
This work is not currently on view.
- Title
Disparate puntual (Una Reina del circo) (Punctual Folly or The Queen of the Circus), plate B from the series Los Disparates (Los Proverbios) (The Follies)
- Related Titles
original language: Disparate Punctual (Una Reina Dal Circo)
series (original language): Los Disparates (Los Proverbios)
translated: Punctual Folly or The Queen of the Circus
- Artist
- Date
ca. 1816-1823; published 1877
- Medium
etching and aquatint on cream laid paper
- Edition
first published in 1877 in L'Art
- State
2nd state
- Catalogue Raisonné
Harris 267, II; Delteil 0221
- Dimensions (H x W x D)
plate: 8 9/16 in x 12 13/16 in; sheet: 10 3/4 in x 15 3/4 in
- Inscriptions & Markings
publisher's mark: Fçois Liénard,Imp.Paris., printed, lower right in plate Language: French
title: UNA REÏNA DEL CIRCO. // (Une reine du Cirque), printed, lower middle in plate Translation: A King of the Circus Language: Spanish; French
signature: Goya,inv.et sc., printed, lower left in plate
- Collection Area
Graphic Arts
- Category
Prints
- Object Type
intaglio print
- Culture
Spanish
- Credit Line
The Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Graphic Arts Collection
- Accession Number
78.52.298
- Copyright
public domain
- Terms
Artists frequently use the motif of the circus to satirize society in their graphic art. Here, Goya conflates two circus acts: acrobatic riding and tightrope walking to create the illusion of awe-inspiring balance before an audience. At closer inspection, however, the performance proves to be a trick, for the rope is not suspended but firmly planted on the ground by the horse's hooves, and the audience is not watching, but sleeping. Goya is likely commenting on the regular occurrence of (or "punctual") gullibility on the part of the general Spanish populace. The only print in the series Los Disparates to use overt circus imagery, this work was issued separately from the rest of the suite; it was published only in 1877, in the French magazine L'Art.
- Exhibitions
2000 Old Master Prints and Drawings Portland Art Museum
2008 Making Merry: the Circus and Carnival in Graphic Art Portland Art Museum
