They escape through the flames (Escapan entre las llamas)
Original title: Plate 41 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de La Guerra): 'They escape through the flames' (Escapan entre las llamas)
kurzbeschreibung
Unlike many sheets in the Desastres that isolate a single victim or execution, this etching brings an entire group of simultaneously fleeing figures into view. Francisco de Goya y Lucientes made it in 1810 as part of Los Desastres de la Guerra, though the series was not published until 1863. Within the 82-part sequence, the subject is the attempt to escape the flames. The print is executed as an etching with drypoint.
Description
A crush of bodies spreads across the plate; the directions of flight diverge while flames reach from behind toward the front. Several figures stumble or are swept along by the movement, heightening the tension. The image stays within grays and blacks; lines and hatching outline limbs and fire. Brightness comes only from the flames and the deep shadows of the bodies, resulting in a dense atmosphere of danger.
Context
Between 1810 and 1820 the series emerged as an echo of the Napoleonic Wars in Spain and their aftermath. The plates were published only in 1863, after Goya's death, by the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. Flight and fire refer to specific wartime events that Goya, as court painter and eyewitness, recorded.
Impact
The dynamic distribution of the fleeing figures and the bright flames in the background make the threat immediately palpable. Expressively foreshortened poses evoke panic and hopelessness in the viewer. The absence of color reinforces the somber mood of war.
Technique
The sheet was produced as an etching with drypoint (burin) on paper; the plate measures 15.9 × 23.4 cm. Fine lines and cross-hatching, typical of the graphic technique, allow precise rendering of light and shadow. The lines were bitten into the plate with acid and then reworked with the drypoint needle.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)