Los Caprichos

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, probably the most well known print in this collection is a keynote to the whole Los Caprichos series. Human folly and ill intent is pictured alongside supernatural and allegorical elements, the 'monsters of witchcraft, superstition, stupidity, and evil'. Dramatic and sinister as well as humourous, these are images with a moral purpose that partly rejoice in their grotesque subject matter. A precursor to surrealism and much else in modern art. 
First published in 1799.

Illustrations: 87 plates, and copy of the Prado manuscript in English translation.