3-101-552 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Por una navaja, (For a knife), Plate 34, "Los Desastres de la Guerra", c1810, (published 1863). During the war the possession of bladed weapons was punishable by garroting. The use of knives was very common in manual labour and it was practically indispensable for men of humble means to carry one. The French repression for carrying one of these bladed weapons, even without having been involved in an act of violence, was absurd and unnecessarily cruel. Those condemned were required to wear the weapon around their necks, along with a written statement. Here the dying man clutches a crucifix, his mouth agape. 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. 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].