Absurdities (c1820). Los disparates, also known as Proverbios or Sueños, is a series of prints in aquatint and etching, with retouching in drypoint and burin, created by Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco Goya between 1815 and 1823. Goya created the series while he lived in his house near Manzanares on the walls of which he painted the famous Black Paintings. When he left to France and moved in Bordeaux in 1824, he left these works in Madrid apparently incomplete. During Goya's lifetime, the series was not published because of the oppressive political climate and of the Inquisition. The disparates series was first published by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in 1864 under the title Proverbios. In this edition, the titles given to the works are Spanish proverbs. On proofs of many plates there are titles handwritten by Goya, which include the word Disparate. The series is an enigmatic album of 22 prints which is the last major series of prints by Goya, which the artist created during the last years of his life. The scenes of the Disparates, which are difficult to explain, include dark, dream-like scenes that scholars have related to political issues, traditional proverbs and the Spanish carnival. The prints of the plates that are displayed below were published in 1864 and are part of the collection of Museo Nacional del Prado.