3-101-584 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Farándula de charlatanes, (A charlatans' charade/Charlatan's show), Plate 75, "Los Desastres de la Guerra", c1810, (published 1863). A figure with the head of a parrot wearing ecclesiastical dress, stretches out his arms. Behind are creatures, possibly masked, and animals. The bird-headed figure may represent the president of the regency of Cadiz, Cardinal Luis María de Borbón y Vallabriga. Or it could be an allusion to the monarch, Ferdinand VII, while the other characters would be his court of sycophants who demanded his return to power. Although Goya did not make known his intention when creating the plates (made 1810-1815), 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].