'Nightmare'; an old woman carrying figures on her back; page 20 from the Witches and Old Women Album (D)

'Nightmare'; an old woman carrying figures on her back; page 20 from the Witches and Old Women Album (D)

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In this drawing, Goya crossed out the original caption "visión" and replaced it with "pesadilla" (nightmare), possibly as a pun on the origins of the term pesadilla in pesada, meaning the act of weighing. The revised caption might reference the heavy burden of the grinning old woman, who carries on her back two emaciated men in varying states of undress. Alternatively, the caption might suggest two further meanings of pesada, now obsolete: the oppression of the heart and difficulty in breathing during sleep, and an anguishing, persistent dream. Perhaps it is simply meant to echo the uneasiness of the vision.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

'Nightmare'; an old woman carrying figures on her back; page 20 from the Witches and Old Women Album (D)'Nightmare'; an old woman carrying figures on her back; page 20 from the Witches and Old Women Album (D)'Nightmare'; an old woman carrying figures on her back; page 20 from the Witches and Old Women Album (D)'Nightmare'; an old woman carrying figures on her back; page 20 from the Witches and Old Women Album (D)'Nightmare'; an old woman carrying figures on her back; page 20 from the Witches and Old Women Album (D)

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.