And so was his grandfather


And so was his grandfather is an aquatint by the Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco Goya. Created between 1797 and 1799 for the Diario de Madrid, it is the 39th of the 80 aquatints making up the satirical Los Caprichos.
The print is a satire on the Spanish nobility's obsession with ancestry and genealogical trees, and suggests that foolishness rather than nobility is hereditary. In particular, some have suggested that the print is aimed at the infamous politician Manuel Godoy, the prince of peace, who justified his rapid climb through the Spanish establishment by claiming descent from the Gothic kings of Spain. The use of a donkey to satirize the aristocracy was used on several of the Los Caprichos prints.

Preparatory drawings

Goya prouced three preparatoty drawings for And so was his grandfather, two in pencil and Indian ink and the other in gouache. The ink drawing is titled The Literary Ass. Neither of the drawings contain any discernible image on the book itself, suggesting the satire on genealogical pretension as opposed to pretension in general was unique to the print.

Technique

And so was his grandfather is one of only two prints in Los Caprichos that was made purely by aquatint, without the use of etching. It was made on laid paper.