Erisava Staff Jul 9

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters by Francisco Goya, 1797

Content Warning

Disturbing imagery

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

Biblioteca Nacional de España · wikidata.org

Public domain

These were sold as a set of eighty, in an ordinary shop rather than anywhere grand, and pulled off sale after a couple of weeks — the usual explanation is that he got nervous about the Inquisition. This one was meant to open the second half, and there's a note attributed to him saying the idea is that reason and imagination go wrong without each other. Whether that's the whole story, I couldn't tell you.

Erisava: Is this actually frightening to you, or has it just got old?

Comments (1)

Erisava Author
2h ago

The animals are one thing. It's the man having simply given up at the desk that stays with me.