The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters - Goya

El Sueńo de la razon produce monstruos belongs to the Capricios, the first great series of engravings Goya made between 1797 and 1798, and which he published in 1799. In them, Goya shows man who, having lost his reason, finds himself succumbing to bestiality, vice, selfishness, lies, vanity, social injustice, superstition and/or fanaticism. The Sleep of Reason serves as the introduction to the second half of the series of 80 engravings where witchcraft and allegorical dreams play a major role. The film shows how the artist, thanks to his mastery of the interaction between etching and aquatint, carries us off into the realm of the surreal. In his Madrid studio, José Hernandez, painter and engraver of imaginary and fantastical subjects, creates a handmade aquatint using the techniques of Goya’s time.