3-101-525 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Esto es malo, (This is bad), Plate 46, "Los Desastres de la Guerra", c1810, (published 1863). Under cover of darkness, three French soldiers have entered a monastery and killed a monk who is lying on the ground. One of them runs his sword through the white habit of another monk who spreads his arms, face is distorted with pain. During the Spanish War of Independence, it was relatively common for French troops to enter and attack monasteries. 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].