Description

This work comprises plate no. 12 from Goya’s series “Los Caprichos” (The Caprices), which he completed between 1793 and 1798. Also sometimes known by the variant title Out Hunting For Teeth. The following statement appears in Le Dentiste D’Autrefois : 60 Reproductions, annotées par Georges Dagen (Paris : Editions de la Revue “La Semaine Dentaire” [no date]): “On a rampart is a body, hanging, with naked feet, with hands fettered, grinning ... Horrified and concealing herself under her mantilla, a young woman in order to reach the teeth of the malefactor raises herself. The title: A Caza De Dientes, seems to indicate that her business is to restock some adaptors of teeth, and maker of dentures, or, if we call to mind old popular superstitions, which are prevalent in all countries, she acts as the purveyor of a sorcerer, who heals the toothache by the touching of a tooth of the defunct person. The exact explanation would appear to be difficult, seeing the absence of documents, and the divers interpretations one might hazard in regard to this collection bearing the elastic title of: The Caprices. Let us recall the verses of Baudelaire in: The Beaconhights : 'Goya, a nightmare full of unknown things ...' ” Original piece measures 32 X 22 cm.