Blow (Sopla), Plate 69 from Los Caprichos

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes

Etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin on laid paper

Museo del Prado

This print, Plate 69 from Francisco Goya's celebrated series Los Caprichos, depicts a nocturnal witches' sabbath in which a dominant witch holds a child upside down, using the infant as a bellows to fan flames, while other witches and warlocks look on admiringly and a flying figure carries more children through the dark air. Executed in etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin, the image exemplifies Goya's mastery of tonal gradation and dramatic chiaroscuro, deploying the supernatural as a vehicle for biting social satire. Goya, the foremost Spanish artist of his era and court painter to the Spanish Crown, created Los Caprichos between 1797 and 1798 and published the series as an album of 80 prints in 1799, using witchcraft, superstition, and human folly as metaphors for the vices and abuses of contemporary Spanish society. Plate 69 is distinguished among the series by the rare presence of Goya's own signature etched into the plate, and by its sophisticated layering of technique and satirical meaning.