With this exceptionally dark image, Goya conjured an unprecedented allegory of hopelessness and desolation to which he would return in Disparate no. 18 (Funereal Folly). In the foreground, a skeletal corpse can be seen writing the word “nada” (nothing) on a piece of paper – a blunt rejection of any form of expectation of resurrection and eternal life. However, the churchmen pointing to heaven in the background and the scales on the right seem to assert that there is reason to believe in life everlasting in the hereafter. (TD 2024, translation Büro LS Anderson, Berlin)
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