3-101-571 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

No hay quien los socorra, (There is no one to help them), Plate 60, "Los Desastres de la Guerra", c1810, (published 1863). Famine: in the middle of waste ground a man stands with his hand over his face in a gesture of despair. He is surrounded by the corpses of adults and children - victims of the famine that devastated Spain during the Spanish War of Independence. The only living figure seems aware that he is also condemned to die. 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 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].