Francisco De Goya

During my explorations of Francisco De Goya’s life and some his art I came across some of his paintings and they were pretty gruesome. Goya was a famous Romanticist painter but he was also a respected court painter. Goya was very respected by royalty because of his astonishing paintings of royalty and their family. Goya loved to do what he did and he was somewhat of a happy man. A series of unfortunate events turned changed Goya into a dark artist. First Goya contracted a serious fever which left him deaf. Somehow that changed Gayo into a more withdrawn person. He let out some his anger towards Spanish society in a set of 80 aquatint prints he called the Caprichos. But why did Goya, all of a sudden, start hating the society in which he lived in? The aquatint prints are pretty clever and creative. There was one that I thought was pretty interesting and it was titled The Sleep of Reason produces Monsters. In this print a man is sleeping with his head on top of a book. Behind him creatures of the night surround him and appear to be waiting for him. I am not sure what this painting represents or how it was meant to criticize Spanish society. But I do know he was a Romanticist painter and that imagination was more important to him than reason. Perhaps this print means that reason produces some unfortunate events. Can anyone else interpret the meaning of this print?