Salvador Dalí

Dalí chose the engravings from Goya's “Los Caprichos” series and added new characters, changed the scenes and put surreal elements in each one, achieving a new composition, but maintaining the original essence, meaning and perception. The reinterpretation of the Goya series by Salvador Dalí would appear 2 centuries later than Goya's original, between 1973 and 1977. For this, a set of exact replicas of the 80 engravings were made with the heliogravure technique; a photographic process of engraving on a copper plate that revolutionized the printing industry. In addition to the aforementioned addition of Dalí icons, Dalí would add color and play with the titles created by Goya in his series and change them or intervene in the words to give them a double meaning. It should be noted that Dalí wanted to preserve Francisco de Goya's signature throughout the work and placed his next to it. The stinging sarcasm of 18th century Spanish society that Goya immortalized such as ignorance, bad education, vices or abuse of power are so current for Dalí that he quickly updates them to the surrealist current by adding his own symbols such as the soft clock, skulls, blood or sexual references. This "timelessness" of Goya's Caprichos suggests that the defects of our society seem irremediable.