It Is Nicely Stretched 18th-19th century

Editor: Here we have Goya’s "It Is Nicely Stretched." It looks like a print, and immediately I’m struck by this...unease? There's something unsettling about the scene. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Unsettling is spot on. The aquatint technique creates these shadowy, ambiguous spaces, don't you think? Almost dreamlike, yet tinged with a sort of grotesque realism. It speaks volumes about the social anxieties of Goya's time, wouldn't you say? The title's ironic jab hints at the vanity and perhaps desperation of the figures. Editor: So it’s a social commentary cloaked in, well, shadows! The stark contrast definitely heightens that sense of unease. Curator: Precisely! It's a world turned upside down, where beauty is transactional, and appearances are, perhaps, deceiving. Food for thought, indeed.