In the Caprichos Goya comments on abuses of the power dynamic inherent in raising children. In If He Broke the Pitcher – which follows an image of the institutionalized corporal humiliation from the Spanish Inquisition…Goya confronts the viewer with the loaded moment before a young boy is spanked for breaking a vessel filled with water. The woman, probably his mother, holds a shoe high over her head. Both the shoe’s sole and the child’s bared bottom face the viewer. The boy’s head peeks out under her arm as he tries to wriggle free from what will surely be a strong blow, his expression screwed up with anguished anticipation. The spilled water has not yet sunk into the ground, indicating that the woman’s reaction has been swift. Her harsh reprimand for a simple accident raises the question of whether the punishment fits the crime.’

Stepanek, S.L., Tomlinson, J., Wilson-Bareau, J., Mena Marqués, M.B., et al, Goya: Order & Disorder, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2014, p. 111.