3-101-585 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

El buitre carnívoro, (The carnivorous vulture), Plate 76, "Los Desastres de la Guerra", c1810, (published 1863). A giant bird, with its wings outstretched, runs in terror from a peasant who threatens it with a pitchfork, watched by a large crowd. The vulture could be an allusion to the French army that was expelled from Spain by the people and, therefore, a reference to the end of the war. The fleeing figures on the right could be French soldiers who deserted. 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 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].