Goya: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

In "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" (1797-99), from Goya'sCaprichos series, the sleeping figure is a self-portrait of sorts, depicting the artist as an "alternate version of himself," according to Manuela B. Mena Marqués' essay in our Halloween favorite, Goya: Order & Disorder. An owl at the artist's shoulder offers up a stylus or crayon, while the image of the artist dreaming describes a "place where reason and the laws of nature have been suspended." Goya's titular inscription "takes on a different meaning when understood as 'The dream of reason produces monsters,' a translation equally possible, as sueño can mean either sleep or dream. Understood that way, the monsters are the dream produced by the inventive mind. It is not surprising that in a print devoted to the concept of creativity, Goya uses a term that requires the viewer to hold simultaneously equally valid and contradictory ideas."