# Caprichos plates on Inquisition and superstition make a public file of clerical-judicial terror — and still had to be withdrawn

Date: 1799

## The fact

The 1799 Caprichos include public plates of Inquisition and superstition. This Fact stores that clerical-judicial terror as a documented climate in the print file, not as a claim he abolished the tribunal.

It is one event.

## Context

Pictures of a tribunal are not a repeal. Split shop withdrawal.

[Francisco Goya](/people/francisco-goya)’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

Several 1799 plates depict Inquisition and superstition. They document a terror climate and could not stay in the shop. The climate is the harm; the plates are evidence.
Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers date the row.

## Evidence and sources

Prado Caprichos plates and Met Heilbrunn independently describe Inquisition/superstition subjects in the 1799 set.

Official or archival record: Museo Nacional del Prado (https://www.museodelprado.es/en; Museo Nacional del Prado).

## Significance

A plate is not a 1815 Maja summons, which is a later file.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 1799 plates depicting Inquisition/superstition. Not established: that the plates closed the tribunal.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Francisco Goya.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date, signatory, or non-occurrence; a demonstrated forgery; or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of other causes.

They are not a public rating.

## People

- Francisco Goya: https://factrail.ai/people/francisco-goya

## Drivers

- Protection of Minority Rights: https://factrail.ai/drivers/protection-of-minority-rights

## Sources

- https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/goya/hd_goya.htm
- https://www.museodelprado.es/en

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/goy-inquisition-climate