Introduction

“Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters: united with it, it is the mother of the arts and the origin of their wonders.”¹

The first prints by Francisco Goya to enter the NGV Collection were the first edition set of La Tauromaquia (The Art of Bullfighting), purchased in 1918 through the Felton Bequest.² Today, the NGV’s Prints and Drawings collection is greatly enriched by a substantial cache of Goya’s intaglio prints including his three other notable series; Los Caprichos (The Caprices), Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War) and Los Disparates (The Follies).³

Intaglio prints are created by making a recessed groove in a printing matrix either physically, by incising into the surface with metal tools, by etching into the matrix with a mordant, or a combination of the two. Goya received formal training in painting rather than printmaking but became a master of intaglio printmaking techniques through print scholarship, making reproductive etchings, practical instruction and gleaning information from art treatises. He was a prodigious draughtsman and reproduced many of his drawings as intaglio prints by transferring them onto copperplates in readiness for printing so they could be widely circulated.

Several techniques were often used in the one print, and it can be confounding to try and unravel how he achieved certain effects and in what order the various processes were undertaken. Technical examination of Goya’s prints in the NGV collection has enabled the various techniques harnessed by Goya to be studied in detail providing an insight into his working practice. This ebook will explore the different techniques and methods Goya used to create his prints as well as social-historical context that influenced his printmaking and the subsequent technical reading of his works.