Reniego al Amigo que Cubre con las Alas y Muerde con el Pico (Renounce the friend who covers you with his wings and bites you with his beak)

Francisco Goya was a prolific yet mysterious printmaker. This plate comes from a series of dreamlike images first published 36 years after his death under the title Los Proverbios (The Proverbs). Goya apparently never assigned a title to the series or to any of the individual plates. The dreams often veer into the realm of nightmarish fantasies. This image recalls a proverb that warns, “Renounce the friend who covers you with his wings and bites you with his beak.”