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<lang xml:lang="es-ES">Francisco Goya</lang> <lang xml:lang="es-ES">Qual la descañonan</lang> 1792-1799 (from the Los Caprichos series, The Caprices), Etching and aquatint millimeters 210x145 The Caprices series of engravings was conceived by <lang xml:lang="es-ES">Francisco Goya</lang> between 1792 and 1799 with the initial title of Dreams. It is considered one of the most important collections of prints of the 18th century and the highest expression of the artist's critical and enlightened thought. The Caprices were conceived when Goya was almost completely deaf due to an illness contracted years before. The illness, which caused him frequent pains and noises in the head, profoundly influenced his art, which was enriched by that visionary, at times "demonic" component, absolutely peculiar to his new language. As a modern artist, Goya used etching combined with the recent aquatint, obtaining extraordinary pictorial and chiaroscuro effects that had been unthinkable until then. In the 80 prints of the <lang xml:lang="it-IT">Capricci</lang>, the Spanish artist expresses, through a biting satire, his rebellion against social conventions, decadent morality, the corrupt social order of his country and, last but not least, against classicism. In the <lang xml:lang="it-IT">Capricci</lang>, deception in the relationships between men and women, courtship, prostitution and marriages of convenience, satire on rudeness and ignorance, false beliefs and superstitions, condemnation of the vices rooted in society and the clergy, protest against the abuses of power of the higher social classes, exploitation of the people and the iniquity of the law are staged. In <lang xml:lang="es-ES">Qual la descañonan</lang> (How They Pluck Her!) - the twenty-first print of the series - the Spanish artist violently attacks the administration of justice and the authentic rapacity of the scribes and secretaries of the curia. The preparatory drawing (Madrid, <lang xml:lang="es-ES">Museo del Prado</lang>), made in sanguine and reddish tempera, differs from the print mainly in the use of light, diffused homogeneously, and in the presence of a grating at the top right. The matrices of the Capricci are preserved in Madrid at the Spanish National Calcography.