Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Fuendetodos, Zaragoza, 1746 - Burdeos, France, 1828). After Diego Velázquez (Seville, 1599 - Madrid, 1660) Engraving on paper. Calcografía, Madrid, 1778. 47 x 59.3 cm. Plate mark measurements: 38 x 43.5 cm. Belonging to the series 'Los Borrachos' ('The Drunkards'). In the lower margin, printed, we read: 'Pintura de Don Diego Velázquez con figuras del tamaño natural en el Real Palacio de Madrid, que representa un BACO fingido coronando algunos borrachos: dibujo y grabado por D. Francisco Goya, Pintor Año de 1778' ('Painting by Don Diego Velázquez with figures of natural size in the Royal Palace of Madrid, representing a feigned BACCHUS crowning some drunkards: drawn and engraved by D. Francisco Goya, Painter. Year 1778').   Several copies of the engraving are preserved in distinguished Spanish museums and foundations. One copy is held at the Fundación Goya en Aragón (inv. 225); another at the Library of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (inv. Gr-3022); and two other prints at the Museo del Prado (inv. G000048 and G005966). This museum also preserves the preparatory drawing for Los borrachos (inv. D004330), as well as Velázquez’s original painting (inv. P001170), executed in oil on canvas in 1628–1629. The engraved copper plate is preserved at the Calcografía Nacional (inv. M3597), from Fondo de recuperación, 1948.   As reported by the Fundación Goya en Aragón, copies from two different editions of this engraving are preserved, from the first and the third. In the third edition, the handwritten word Merelo appears in the lower right corner. In our case, the engraving does not include this inscription, which means it belongs to the first edition, the only one made by Goya during his lifetime.   Our engraving joins a total of thirteen prints Goya made after works by Velázquez. Goya’s aim was not to make mere copies, but to study the painting of Velázquez, which would from then on be present in his own work, and to learn etching independently, a printmaking technique that would serve as the basis for all his later print series, as explained by the Prado. The origin of these engravings was the need, on the part of a group of Enlightenment thinkers of the late eighteenth century, to make the great works of Spanish painting known. For that reason, a project was undertaken to engrave the masterpieces preserved in the Spanish royal collections, as stated by the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. Thus, as stated by the Fundación Goya en Aragón, the copy Goya made of this work is noticeably brighter and clearer than the original on which he worked. The Aragonese artist eliminated the difference between the pearly anatomy of Bacchus and the dark, rough fabrics of the group of drunkards who accompany him. In this way he broke the clear division into two zones that Velázquez created in the painting, thereby providing a spatial unity not present in the original. He even lightened the figure crouching in the lower left corner, which is much darker in the painting at the Museo Nacional del Prado. However, Goya shows an interesting ability in capturing the folds of the fabrics, especially in the garments covering the lower half of Bacchus’s body.   The Gaceta de Madrid announced in December 1778 the sale of two new prints depicting, one of them Prince Don Baltasar Carlos on horseback and the other a feigned Bacchus crowning some drunkards, which were added to the sale of nine other prints from the Velázquez series.   Regarding Goya’s relationship with the technique of engraving, the RABASF reports that aside from his technical achievements, Goya’s greatest contribution to the history of printmaking is having known how to use its possibilities in anticipation of contemporary graphic art and modern aesthetic thought. He used the printed image as a vehicle for expressing his inner world, his concerns and doubts about the society in which he lived. Goya’s prints constitute the visual testimony of an artist who questions the human condition and the course of history, capable of synthesizing in images the two levels of existence: the inner world and the world of objective reality.   Bibliographic references: - Academia Colecciones. (n.d.). 'Goya y Lucientes, Francisco de'. https://www.academiacolecciones.com/estampas/inventario.php?id=M-3597 - Fundación Goya en Aragón. (n.d.). 'Los borrachos'. https://fundaciongoyaenaragon.es/obra/los-borrachos-1/688 - Museo del Prado. (n.d.). 'Los borrachos, o El triunfo de Baco'. https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/obra-de-arte/los-borrachos-o-el-triunfo-de-baco/83e12d94-f21f-4200-be7d-47b00e33fc37   References: - Harris, Th., v.II, 4. - Páez, Repertorio, t.I, 4. - Calcografía Nacional. Catálogo, 156. - Museo del Prado. Catálogo de estampas, 244.