3-101-556 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Escapan entre las llamas, (They escape through the flames), Plate 41, "Los Desastres de la Guerra", c1810, (published 1863). Men and women flee from an explosion. Those closest to the blast cover their faces with their hands to avoid being burned. In the centre, two men carry a woman, her upper torso bare. Several figures flee in terror, trampling others who have fallen to the ground. The print may represent the destruction of the Buen Retiro Porcelain Factory by British troops. 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 do so. 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].