3-101-564 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Gracias á la almorta, (Thanks to the grass pea), Plate 51, "Los Desastres de la Guerra", c1810, (published 1863). Famine: a woman is giving out food to starving people in ragged garments. The food seems to be soup, most probably made with grass pea flour. The grass pea was used as a substitute for other cereals during the war, since it would grow in extremely harsh conditions. Prolonged consumption of large quantities of this legume could lead to serious illnesses. 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 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].