3-101-521 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

De qué sirve una taza?, (What use is one cup?), Plate 59, "Los Desastres de la Guerra", c1810, (published 1863). A woman helps others suffering from the terrible famine that affected Spain between 1811 and 1812. One of the starving women lies with her eyes closed, exhausted, with the body of a child in her lap. The title of the print expresses the futility of the gesture, despite the good will of the person carrying out the act of helping the starving. Although Goya did not make known his intention when creating the plates (between 1810 and 1815), art historians see them as a visual protest against the violence of the 1808 Dos de Mayo Uprising, the subsequent cruel war that ended in Spanish victory in the Peninsular War of 1808-1814, and the setbacks to the liberal cause following the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1814. The prints were not published until 35 years after Goya's death, probably because only then was it considered politically safe to produce a series of artworks criticising both the French and the restored Bourbons. From "Los Desastres de la Guerra: colección de ochenta láminas inventadas y grabadas al agua fuerte por Don Francisco de Goya", (The Disasters of War: collection of eighty plates made and etched by Don Francisco de Goya), [Madrid, 1863].