Of What Ill Will He Die? by Francisco Goya (Interpretation and Analysis)

Of What Ill Will He Die?
Source: Museo Prado

Today, I want to return to talking about Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos series. As I’ve noted before, Los Caprichos are a series of etchings that depict the social ills of contemporary Spanish culture.

In this particular print — entitled De que mal morira? (Of what ill will he die?) — Goya criticizes the medical profession. The piece depicts an ass, masquerading as a doctor, bending over a dying man’s sickbed. The donkey’s most prominent feature is a huge diamond ring, which he wears around his hoof.

The jewel reminds the viewer that wealth does not equate to knowledge. A doctor might be respected, affluent, and celebrated without being a competent physician. The etching points out that appearance is no guarantee of substance, as even a donkey can be made to look respectable. As the Museo Prado notes, “the donkey represents the fool who has attained an elevated place in society through the incompetent practising of medicine, provoking the suffering and demise of his patients.”

Goya was a proponent of the Enlightenment, an intellectual movement that advocated for scientific inquiry and evidence based knowledge over superstition. While Enlightenment ideas transformed Europe, Spain was backwards in many ways: under developed economically and saddled with an educational system that privileged theology over science. Goya’s contempt for the quackery of fashionable doctors is obvious here. While the physician may appear to be an enlightened, educated man, he is in fact ignorant and unfit to treat anybody. The print asks the question of what will he die? The answer seems to be: of the physician.

Disclaimer: I’m not an art historian or an expert on this topic. The above is my opinion, based on my interpretation of my foreknowledge of art and history. If I’ve done any additional research, I’ll note it above.