Beastly Folly (Disparate la Bestia)

Unpublished in Goya’s lifetime, this etching represents a complicated allegory that, according to one interpretation, criticizes politicians for manipulating the Spanish people into accepting authoritarian government. A group of men attempt to use a large book and bells to lure a meek, tuskless elephant that may symbolize the people of Spain. The turbaned figures represent the conservative members of Spain’s Parliament who signed the 1814 “Manifesto of the Persians” advocating for King Ferdinand VII to restore absolute monarchy. The elephant stands outside a circle of light, meant to represent the philosophical ideas of the Enlightenment. Through his use of symbolic figures in an ambiguous, dreamlike setting, Goya obscured this work’s meaning and left its political message open to interpretation.