Plate 43 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'This too' (Tambien esto)
Original title: Plate 43 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'This too' (Tambien esto)
kurzbeschreibung
A woman with a dark, long-sleeved dress clutches a screaming infant and twists around, her gaze thrown over her shoulder. Beside her a man kneels on the ground, desperate. A group of figures stands off to the side. This is 'También esto' ('This too'), etched by Goya in 1810 but not published until 1863, part of his 'Los Desastres de la Guerra'.
Description
The woman's frantic turn and the baby's open mouth dominate the print, while the kneeling man beside her adds to the tension. Further back, a cluster of people huddles together. The lighting is sparse, the entire image rendered in grays, creating a somber, expressive atmosphere.
Context
Goya lived through the Napoleonic wars in Spain (1808–1814). This image belongs to a series of 82 prints that record the horrors of that conflict, yet they appeared only in 1863, long after his death. The present example comes from the third edition, printed in Madrid in the 19th century.
Impact
The expressive gestures and dim light make the situation feel immediately threatening and disturbing. The monochrome print deepens the gloomy mood and conveys the despair of the figures without any gloss.
Technique
Etching with burnished aquatint and burnisher. The aquatint creates subtle gradations of gray, which were lightened in places with a burnisher to add highlights. This method allowed for a rich range of tonal values and strong shadow effects.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)