Barbarians!
Spain
30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828
Barbarians!
plate 38 from the series plate 38 from the series The Disasters of War
1810-15; published 1863
etching, burnished aquatint, engraving, burnishing on paper
- Place made
- Madrid
- Medium
- etching, burnished aquatint, engraving, burnishing on paper
- Edition
- 1st ed. (b)
- State
- Harris (1968) 158 III first edition
- Dimensions
-
14.9 x 20.5 cm (plate)
23.5 x 32.6 cm (sheet)
13.5 x 18.9 cm (image) - Credit line
- South Australian Government Grant 1965
- Accession number
- 6512G93
- Signature and date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Media category
- Collection area
- European prints
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The miseries and disasters of war: the prints of Goya and Callot, 2010
Francisco Goya was Spain’s leading court painter when he created eighty prints entitled The Disasters of War. He made the series in response to the invasion of Spain by the French in 1808 and the bloody Peninsular War that followed. The six-year conflict between France, under Napoleon, and the alliance of Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom devastated Spain and its population, a situation intensified by the famine of 1811 and 1812, which affected Madrid. Goya witnessed the atrocities committed by the French and Spanish troops firsthand and recorded the daily cruelty and violence of the war.
In his prints Goya depicted in unflinching detail the corrosive, dehumanising effects of the conflict on all those affected by the war. Working over ten years, he portrayed the experience of war with an unprecedented directness, exploiting the qualities of etching and aquatint to create a new expressive language. Unlike Jacques Callot’s depictions of war, Goya’s compositions focused on the actions of small groups of people and placed the viewer in the heart of the carnage. The shocking imagery is magnified by Goya’s short and sometimes ambiguous titles, which build a harrowing narrative. Despite Goya’s deep pessimism about human nature, the series ends with a frail statement of hope.
Titled Fatal consequences of Spain’s bloody war with Buonaparte. And other emphatic caprices, the series can be divided into three parts: the first represents scenes of war; the second, the impact of the famine in Madrid; and the third, caprices or fantasies. The last group of prints are allegorical and appear to allude to the repressive regime of Ferdinand VII which followed the war. Goya, fearing persecution from King Ferdinand VII, did not publish Disasters of War during his lifetime.
The Gallery owns a full set of Goya’s Disasters of War, from the First Edition, a selection of which is on display.
Maria Zagala, Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs
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Francisco Goya: The Disasters of War
Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki, 22 August 1984 – 19 September 1984 -
The Disasters of War
Newcastle Art Gallery, 9 July 1969 – 10 August 1969 -
Dark Visions: the etchings of Goya
Art Gallery of South Australia, 30 August 1996 – 10 November 1996Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 20 September 1997 – 30 November 1997Waikato Museum of Art and History, 12 January 1998 – 28 February 1998Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, 9 April 1998 – 24 May 1998Rockhampton Art Gallery, 5 June 1998 – 26 July 1998Cairns Art Gallery, 7 August 1998 – 20 September 1998Art Gallery of New South Wales, 30 September 1998 – 29 November 1998
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[Book] Harris, Tomás. Goya. Engravings and lithographs.
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Francisco Goya 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828
Barbarians!
1810-15; published 1863etching, burnished aquatint, engraving, burnishing on paperAccession no: 6512G93