Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes - printmaker

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, born 30th March 1746, Fuendetosdos, Aragon, Spain, died on 16th April 1828 (aged 82) Bordeaux, France.
Goya was known as the most important Spanish Artist of his time, He was a Spanish romantic painter and print maker. As well as producing linographs, he also made etchings. For his etchings, Goya was influenced by the work of Giovanni Battista, where he then produced some outstanding effects.
Between 1810 and 1820, Goya made a series of 82 prints which he named,  Disasters of war. Although he never made it clear,  some art historians suggested that he had intended to use the  plates as a visual protest against the violence of 1808 Dos de maya uprising,  the subsequent peninsular war battle.
I began to study Goya's artwork  this series and found it interesting and a good idea to produce such work. It is clear that the images are dark and disturbing to look at, but I felt they contained depth into the violence against individual people. I felt this was better than a battle scene for example as it provided a strong sense of devastation. One image battle caught my eye was, Plate 4: Las mujeres Dan valor.

The print contains two people attacked by soldiers, with the fear in the woman's eyes being the focal point of this image. It is an image of the harsh reality of pain, weakness and defeat. I feel this is presented in the woman's eyes as she looks away from whats happening.  The soldier attacking the person on the right has been well done. Through the angle of arms,  the soldier is clearly presenting power over the person they have hold off. The use of line work and shading also adds this. I feel the way that the soldiers hand is firmly grabbing the persons head expresses intimidation and pain very well,  you can almost imagine the force of this action,  especially through the coverage of the head. This is the key point of the image providing vulnerability and violence all at the same time.

I also found Plate 5: y son fieras (and they are fierce) interesting.  I feel this print has alot more going on compared to Plate 4. The main point is the woman holding a spear as well as a baby , fighting against the soldiers. The image is incredible in portraying the extent of the violence.  This isn't a battle scene or man against man, this is a woman holding a baby in one arm and fighting with the other, absolutely shocking. This image is quite sad to look at,as I could only guess that the soldiers won this battle and that the baby,  as well as the rest of the civilians didn't survive.

Plate 36: Tampoco is a different plate from the others I have described.  Its a cold,  sad image of a man hanging from a tree. At first glance, I was Saddened by the horrific image, then I began to wonder what had happened previous to the hanging.  Was the man tortured,  taken away from his family or did his family even know that he would not return home. In the background there are two other people hanging from trees, which suggests that this was almost a statement of achievement for the soldiers.  The soldier positioned to the right of the image looks satisfied with what he has done,  almost gloating.  This image just makes me feel sad. A life has ended and there is nothing left,  no loving goodbye,  no proper burial and a brutal death.
I have learnt alot by studying the "disaster of war" artworks created by Goya. I am not sure why these prints were made but I feel the purpose was to provide the harsh reality of war on a more personal level including women and children as a large part of the series.  It is quite a dark series of artworks. This style does not appeal to me but I would like to study them further to gain a better understanding of the brutal reality of war.