1797-1798, published 1799
The Chinchillas (Los Chinchillas)
Francisco José de Goya y LucientesSpanish, 1746 - 1828
The title of this print is drawn from the Enlightenment playwright José de Cañizares’s popular comedy El dómine Lucas, which focuses on a family named Chinchilla who is obsessed with its noble ancestry. The mindless men that Goya depicts wear garments resembling straitjackets emblazoned with large coats of arms, signifying their lineage. With their heads padlocked against knowledge, the aristocrats’ mouths open to swallow what is offered by the donkey-eared figure who embodies ignorance.
If these figures look familiar it may be because the makeup for Boris Karloff’s character in the 1931 movie Frankenstein is purportedly based on the foolish nobles in the print.
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