Until Death, plate 55 from Los Caprichos

Goya’s Caprices series scathingly attacks the hypocrisy and superstition the artist saw throughout contemporary Spanish culture. Glued to her dressing table mirror, the crone in this image sees only her fashionable trappings, not her wrinkled visage. In the background, young courtiers mock her futile vanity with shielded laughs and amused glances. And yet, though the shortsighted pathetic creature may have one foot in the grave, it is encased in an elegantly exposed stocking.