3-101-580 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Contra el bien general, (Against the common good), Plate 71, "Los Desastres de la Guerra", c1810, (published 1863). A scribe, possibly an ecclesiastical figure, with vampire-like wings for ears, and hands and feet with long claw-like nails that could symbolise greed, sits writing. In the background a group of people can be seen with gestures that speak of their despair. 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].