Background to 'The Disasters of War'

• Key background

  -          Uncommissioned series of 82 etchings – produced privately between 1810-1820

  -          Unofficial representation of the project

  -          Full title: Fatal Consequences of the Bloody War in Spain against Buonaparte and other Emphatic Caprices

  -          First published after Goya’s death – published as the ‘Disasters of War’ 1863

  -          Didn’t earn any money from this

  -          Combination of print making techniques – usually called etchings though

  Multiple sets printed – many etchings created
• Contextual recap

  -          More uprisings happen after the 3rd of May 1808 – Spanish guerrilla war, then brutality follows by the French soldiers – after 3rd of May there is an anti-French revolt throughout Spain

  -          Goya’s relationship to the disasters following the 3rd of May – Goya throughout these years was still the first court painter (for the French rulers) – perhaps why he kept these works hidden – Goya is in Spain throughout the duration of the Peninsular War
• Goya (aged 62) summoned by Palafox to Zaragoza (home town) in the lull between the first and second phases of the French siege of the city


  Oct. 1808
• Whatever Goya witnessed in Zaragoza likely provided the starting point for the 'Disasters of War' series
• Zaragoza


  Place of rebellion in Spain - Goya visited the aftermath of Zaragoza after a siege took place by the French
• Zaragoza was a key battleground of the Peninsular War
• Goya's perspectiveHe has got close to the events - but not there during
• Goya's perspective

  -          Though Goya may not have had first hand visuals of the violence actually taking place – he would’ve seen the aftermath of the siege
• Goya not seeing it 1st hand

  -          These etchings not designed to be seen on their own – rather with the other 81

  -          He gives the illusion in many etchings that he was an eye-witness – by harnessing a lot of artistic skills

  -          Creates the fiction that he saw these violence actions taking place
• 'The Disasters of War' contents

  -          Series of 82 separate images – linked by 3 principle themes

  1-      War: plates 2-47 – responding to the invasion of Napoleonic invasion of Spain

  2-      Famine: the middle group – famine of Madrid 1811-12- more than 20,000 died

  3-      Allegories: a final ‘chapter’ lampoons the repressive government of Ferdinand VII, who returned to Spain as King in 1814

  -          Each plate has a brief caption in Spanish – these are Goya’s own titles
• Impressions of series

  -          Distress – massacre – violence – suffering – woman fighting – suffering of animals

  -          Pleading – those dead, alive and liminal between –

  -          A lot of resistance – mix of open and closed spaces

  -          We are watching first-hand both Spanish and French being violent

  -          Looking at the form of the bodies when being killed

  -          Range of tortures

  -          Sometimes unable to fully see what is going on

  -          All ages involved and genders involved

  -          Bodies in all states
• Impressions of series

  -          Black and white – feeling of mundane, but also focus – not distracted with colour or patterns – there is a focus on the body

  -          Anger and violence mixed into one – not just defensive violence

  -          Light and tone – range of how many highlights and shadows

  -          the etchings are more free in terms of technique – spontaneity of mark making

  -          no regularity – there is a range of fighting and rebellion – not single way of fighting or suffering

  -          focus on marginalised section of society
• Impressions of series

  -          ordinary Spanish people committing acts of butchery – series depicts mutual acts of brutality – Goya is doing an indiscriminate depiction of violence

  -          French identified through hats and moustaches

  -          Can identify the anti-French bias in 3rd May but not this
• Impressions of series

  -          Doesn’t shy away from showing suffering – realistic

  -          These aren’t idealised figures

  -          Dramatic tonal contrast – figures are darker and background is lighter

  -          There is cropping

  -          Figures in foreground – not a complicated set of figures

  -          All have captions in Spanish

  -          We are looking at these horrible scenes – from a perspective of someone who was truly there – illusion that he was there
• Impression of series

  -          He is portraying violence and suffering in a very indiscriminate way – blurry line of villains and victims – condemning human cruelty as a whole?

  -          Linked to 20th century photo journalism – like photo essays

  -          Illusion of direct first hand witnessing is made

  -          Heavy and graphic – feel a sense of brutality and sheer violence – cumulative impact – maybe he intended these to be viewed together?

  -          Not a partisan form of war art