Aquellos polbos. 1796 - 1797

Curator: So, what do you make of this etching, "Aquellos polvos," by Francisco de Goya? He created it around 1796 or 1797, if memory serves. It’s part of his "Los Caprichos" series. Editor: Bleak, but intensely compelling. There's a haunting quality about the way light falls and those shadowy figures in the audience… and the figure in the pointed hat – the scale seems intentionally off-kilter. What's going on with the strange costume? Curator: That conical hat is the "coroza," a symbol used by the Spanish Inquisition, historically donned by those convicted during auto-da-fé. It points, literally, at humiliation, you see. It underscores the work's critical perspective. But, thinking more abstractly... don't you feel the weight of that costume mirrored in the seated figure? The texture itself adds to the solemn tone. Editor: Exactly! We can't detach from the image as the details call us into its orbit, reminding us that dress can carry immense symbolic power, particularly the regulation and control of marginalized bodies by dominant powers. How do you interpret the crowd below, looking up at the Inquisitor and those next to him? Curator: I think that swarm of faces… They look blank. Unthinking. This print becomes an essay on blind faith. One can get caught up with all the socio-political references and never see that Goya invites us to wonder: are we truly seeing or merely believing? Editor: That’s what makes this series so timeless; the personal and the political resonate, intersecting on complex issues such as state-sponsored violence and ideological entrenchment, which Goya so cleverly invites us to question. Is it just a scene or a warning? Is it merely the past or could it very much still be present? Curator: Always present. Always looming... That’s Goya. It cuts deep because it dares to wonder what part of that scene lives within each of us. Editor: Agreed. Art has the potential to confront. It’s exciting to look at work that demands as much introspection as outrage.