![Lightness and boldness of Juanito Apiñani in Madrid’s [plaza]](/f/webca/OAR/Obras/ficheros-estaticos/G_509_20_M_1.JPG)
Tristes presentimientos de lo que ha de acontecer [Sad Forebodings of What is to Happen]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
This print is regarded as a prelude to Goya’s series ‘The Disasters of War’. In it, he employs a composition reminiscent of ‘The Agony in the Garden’ to represent the portents of doom looming over a country abandoned by its rulers. The agitated strokes used in the etching underline the sense of tension and the oppressive atmosphere.
Lo mismo [The Same]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
In the first prints in his series 'Desastres de la Guerra' (‘Disasters of War’), Goya depicts the barbarity of armed conflict, whatever side it comes from and whoever the protagonists. This brutality is expressed in the face of the villager, about to deliver a hatchet blow to a French soldier who helplessly raises his hand to protect himself.
No quieren [They don't want it]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
Several contemporary accounts document the rape of local women by French soldiers during the sacking of Spanish towns and cities. Here, the violence is represented by the soldier’s clutching hand, emphasising the force he is employing to restrain the resisting woman.
Duro es el paso! [The Way is Hard!]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
A group of Spaniards are shown hanging their compatriots, accused of being collaborators. Goya draws us into to the execution and recreates the different stages almost cinematographically to denounce the abuses of an arbitrary and fanatical power.
Enterrar y callar [Bury them and keep quiet]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
The misty atmosphere is redolent of the heat, the decomposing corpses and the nausea of the living. A woman covers her face at the appalling sight while a man covers his nose with a handkerchief to ward off the smell of putrefaction. Goya limits the narrative element of the picture and accentuates the brutality of the desolate environment around the living
Estragos de la guerra [Ravages of war]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
Goya was ahead of his time in incorporating the time factor into his art. Here he captures the exact moment at which a house explodes into a thousand pieces, leaving a jumble of bodies, debris and furniture. The half-naked female figure has been hurled into a position that walks a fine line between eroticism and tragedy.
Grande hazaña, con muertos [A heroic feat! With dead men!]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
The tree, macabrely decorated with the mutilated limbs and torsos of tortured victims, is a monument to the cruelty we are capable of inflicting on our fellow humans. Goya establishes a brutal contrast, carefully depicting the perfect anatomies of beautiful bodies from which life has been stolen.
Yo lo vi [I saw it]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
During the war, people fled from the countryside to the cities hoping to find protection from the savagery and looting of the soldiery. Here Goya offers a contrast between the caricatured figure of a fat clergyman fleeing with a bag of money and a mother looking after her children.
Las camas de la muerte [The beds of death]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
In a series of prints on the subject of famine, Goya once again sought to show that in war, the ultimate victor is death. Here he depicts rows of bodies lying in the streets and hospital courtyards, covered with simple sheets. In front of them walks a solitary figure, resembling a living transposition of the dead bodies in the background.
Nada. Ello dirá [Nothing. The event will tell]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
The war is over and Goya dares to ask what all the suffering has been for. A half-buried corpse raises itself on one elbow to write the bitter answer: ‘for nothing’. The picture expresses the artist’s loss of faith in justice and his disillusionment with humankind, following the war.
Contra el bien general [Against the common good]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
The restoration to the throne of King Ferdinand in 1815 brought the curtain down on all the social, political and economic reforms introduced by French and Spanish legislators since the liberal Cortes of Cadiz. The monstrous figure shown here is an allusion to the authors of the new laws that put paid to the achievements of the constitutional regime.
Murió la Verdad [Truth has died]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
Truth, embodied here by a young woman, lies dead on the ground. Her funeral is officiated by some clergymen, but the only person appearing to mourn her loss is the female figure on the right bearing a pair of scales, representing Justice. The scene alludes to the repeal of the Constitution of Cadiz with the Church’s backing.
Otro modo de cazar á pie [Another way of hunting on foot]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
This print from Goya’s 'Tauromaquia' (Bullfight) series depicts the ancestral origins of bullfighting in Spain. This was a recurring theme in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century bullfighting literature. The mist-blurred landscape of the background evokes times of yore. In the foreground, two men appear to have brought down a bull with their spears.
Origen de los arpones ó banderillas [Origin of the Harpoons or Banderillas]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
This is one of a group of six prints in which Goya depicts bullfighting among the Moors in Spain, who were believed —despite a lack of documentary evidence— to have originated the practice.
El Cid Campeador lanceando otro toro [The Cid Campeador Spearing Another Bull]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
This print illustrates the chivalrous origins of bullfighting. In four prints, Goya depicts Christian knights from different periods engaging in bullfighting spectacles. Bullfighting literature of the time made frequent mention of this type of spectacle, in which mounted knights fought the bulls with spears.
Desjarrete de la canalla con lanzas, medias-lunas, banderillas y otras armas [The Rabble Hamstring the Bull with Lances, Sickles, Banderillas and Other Arms]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
There are clear links between the two series ‘The Bullfight’ and the ‘Disasters of War’, in terms of both form and content. Comparing this print with the third of the ‘Disasters’ ('Lo mismo'), we can see a similar approach to the way violence and death are depicted, and the same expression of horror and senselessness.
Temeridad de Martincho en la plaza de Zaragoza [The Daring of Martincho in the Ring at Saragossa]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
The bullfighter Martincho was famed for his bravery in executing a wide and unconventional range of passes. Goya, however, considered his approach to be unnecessarily reckless. Here, he focuses our attention on the bullfighter and the bull. From the stands, the audience look on in astonishment.
Ligereza y atrevimiento de Juanito Apiñani en la de Madrid [The Agility and Audacity of Juanito Apinani in the Ring at Madrid]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
The extraordinary elegance and subtlety of this picture, which contrasts with the dramatism of the other compositions, has made it the most iconic of the ‘Bullfight’ series. Goya depicts the fraction of a second in which the bullfighter is hoisted vertically above the bull, as the spectators look on in astonishment and fright.
Desgracias acaecidas en el tendido de la plaza de Madrid, y muerte del alcalde de Torrejón [Dreadful events in the Front Rows of the Ring at Madrid and Death of the Mayor of Torrejon]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
In a very modern framing, redolent of dread and confusion, Goya depicts the silhouette of a bull with a man strung between its horns, surrounded by people fleeing in all directions, leaving three-quarters of the composition almost entirely empty. As a counterpoint to the confusion in the ring, Goya has placed a figure on the other side of the barrier, passively observing the horror.
Caida de un picador de su caballo debajo del toro [A Picador is Unhorsed and Falls under the Bull]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
The ‘suerte de picar’ was one of the tensest and riskiest phases in a bullfight. At this time, horses had no protective covering and there are frequent accounts of the picadors being gored. This print employs the iconography of war to depict a bullfighting theme.
La desgraciada muerte de Pepe Illo en la plaza de Madrid [The Unlucky Death of Pepe Illo in the Ring at Madrid]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
Pepe-Hillo, still alive, struggles desperately tries to push back against the bull’s horn. It is the bullfighter’s last gesture, and therein lies its pathos. Significantly, Goya ended the ‘Bullfight’series not with the defeat of the bull, as was common practice in bullfighting series of the time, but with the death of the bullfighter.
Disparate de toritos / Lluvia de toros [Folly of Little Bulls / Rain of Bulls]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
Far from the world of the bullfight itself, this print depicts an absurd scene which nonetheless retains much of the disquiet that was to be a constant in his Tauromaquia series. The workshop proof in the possession of the Fundación Lázaro Galdiano bears the handwritten caption ‘Disparate de toros’ (Folly of bulls), although other authors have interpreted it as ‘Disparate de tontos’ (Folly of fools) or ‘Disparate de toritos’ (Folly of little bulls).
Disparate de bestia / Otras leyes para el pueblo [Animal Folly / Other Laws for the People]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
When the Parisian magazine ‘L’Art’ first published this ‘Folly’, it was entitled ‘Other laws for the people’, giving the series a fresh political spin. The elephant represents the common people who, under the rule of King Ferdinand VII, were subject to different laws than the privileged classes. Goya’s model for the elephant was a specimen that had been brought to Madrid from Manila in 1773.
Disparate conocido / ¡Qué guerrero! [Well-known Folly / What a Warrior!]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
A frequent theme in Goya’s work was they way in which fear or admiration could be instilled through the use of clothing to disguise the wearer’s true identity. In this print, however, the opposite is true: the menacing attitude of the garbed wooden figures induces only mockery amongst the group of characters in the background.
Disparate puntual / Una reina del circo [Timely Folly / A Circus Queen]
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
A crowd of detached onlookers, their eyes closed, appears to be admiring the ‘accomplishment’ of the woman and the horse. The composition is ambiguous, and we cannot tell for sure whether the animal is actually walking on the tightrope or simply standing on the ground. Political satire or an allegory of passion?