The Foolish Fear (Don't Lose Reputation Because of Fear)

Francisco Goya

Etching and aquatint

Museo Nacional del Prado

This print is attributed to Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828) and belongs to his landmark series Los Caprichos, a set of 80 aquatint etchings created in 1797–1798 and published in Madrid in 1799. Los Caprichos served as a biting satirical critique of late eighteenth-century Spanish society, exposing superstition, religious fanaticism, human folly, and the failures of reason. Executed in etching and aquatint—a technique Goya helped pioneer in Spain—the prints are celebrated for their dramatic contrasts of dark and light and their richly ambiguous imagery. The title evokes one of the series' recurring themes: the irrational fears and social anxieties that prevent individuals from thinking and acting with enlightened rationality.