Night Nightmares: Goya's Horrible Dream of Spanish SocietyThe astonishingly brilliant artist Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes has always been revered and adored for his incredible paintings of the Spanish royal family, but few people know that He was also a master engraver. In the exhibition titled Renaissance in Goya: Prints and Drawings from Spain, many of the pieces on display were based on social commentary of the period in the country. This disdain is particularly palpable in Goya's engraving entitled The Sleep of Reason Breeds Monsters. Goya's psychological and emotional state at the time is masterfully rendered and the exhibition presentation is absolutely remarkable due to its brilliant color palette and expert presentation of the works. Recently, an exhibition of his prints and drawings was presented in the United States. United States, from the British Museum in London to the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Once you arrive at the magnificent old adobe museum, you must enter the main courtyard and go straight through the large wooden doors. After that, you have to enter a closed room with large glass doors where the title of the exhibition is written. In this room, the walls are painted a vibrant crimson red, which accentuates the black, gray and white tones of the prints and drawings. After turning right after a short corridor, you have to turn right again and find the wall titled “Los Caprichos”. It is on this partition that one immediately notices the sinister but exquisitely crafted masterpiece, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, dating from around 1798-99. The print was created by engraving and aquatint, done in different tones of gray, black and some white, which gives the article an omi...... middle of paper ..... .wn. Ultimately, I can really relate to the article The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters in that it is a social commentary regarding the oppression of freedom. thought. Unfortunately, the abandonment of empirical thinking remains a problem in the modern world. Certain ideas are considered sacrosanct and any other ideas to the contrary are generally rejected, such as the ongoing debate between science and religion. Again, this need for change is also evident in Goya's The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters; the monsters must be blocked for the spirit to advance. This piece successfully connected Goya's views on the Spanish court's need to evolve socially and politically as other countries did. This concept will continue to evolve within most societies, allowing The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters to be accessible to all generations of viewers, even today..