To rise and to fall (Subir y bajar) Plate 56 from: Los Caprichos

‘Both Goya's contemporaries as well as more recent texts seem to agree that Manuel Godoy, the ‘Prince of Peace’, the lover of Spain's Queen Maria-Luisa and probably the father of two of her children (Infanta Maria-Isabel and Infante Francisco de Paula), was the subject of this etching. The Ayala text of 1799-1803 reads: 'Prince of Peace, Lust raised him up by his feet; it filled his head with smoke and wind, and he throws thunderbolts against his rivals’. The Madrid Biblioteca Nacional text confirms these ideas: ‘The Prince of Peace, who rose through Lust, and with his head full of smoke, throws thunderbolts at the good Ministers. These latter fall and the situation still does not develop against his wishes. That is the story of the favorites (of those in power)’. A note should be made on the use of the word humo or ‘smoke’ which also could designate ‘vanity’ and on the use of the word viento or ‘wind’ which also could designate ‘arrogance’. Finally, the ‘good ministers’ of the Biblioteca Nacional text could be referring to Goya's friends, including above all Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos who, in November 1797, was appointed to be Minister of Religion and Justice but who lost his position nine months later.
In analyzing this print, it should be noted that the central figure is dressed in an officer's jacket, but is without pants. In the drawing in the Prado, corresponding to this print, the balanced, central figure (Godoy, according to all accounts) is almost completely naked, giving him an even more ‘lustful’ appearance. The figure holding him up is a Satyr, also a symbol of Lust. The two falling figures, to the left and to the right, apparently refer to Goya's two friends, Saavedra and Jovellanos, who lost their positions at about the time that Goya was completing his Caprichos. This print is one of the most directly ‘political’ of all the Caprichos.

Johnson, R. S., Francisco Goya, Los Caprichos, R.S. Johnson Fine Art, Chicago, 1992, pp. 138-140.