Complete Identification:
Y no hay remedio (And there’s nothing to be done) (plate 15)
From Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disaster of War)
Francisco de Goya
1810-1823 (published 1863)
Etching, drypoint, burin, and burnishing
Spanish Romantic
Spain
Form:
Black and white
Man wearing light-colored or white tied to a pole by his hands (behind his back)
He is blindfolded
The landscape has some depth and the scene is dark
There is a firing squad behind the central figure facing similarly bound people (also tied to poles)
On the central figure’s right side → there is a body contorted on the floor → likely dead
There are rifle barrels pointed at the central figure coming out from the right side of the painting
The people holding them are occluded
Function:
Meant to protest the French occupation and the brutality against the Spanish people
“Y no hay remedio” belongs to the first group of plates
Show conflicts between French troops and civilians → consequences
Showing that war brings out the inhuman in people
Content:
A man is tied to a pole → Alter Christus → an “other Christ”
Behind him are other poles with men tied onto them and firing squads either firing or ready to fire
The body on the ground is grotesque, mangled, with blood and brains leaking
Eyes are gone, body is contorted
Possibly showing that he was recently shot
The rifles coming from the right side of the print are aimed at the central figure tied to the pole
Context:
Disasters of war was created from 1810-1820
82 images meant to protest against the French occupation of Spain by Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon tricked the king of Spain into letting his troops cross the border → then he usurped the king and put his brother on the throne
There was an uprising and a lot of Spaniards died
The French were pushed out after the Peninsular war → very bloody conflict
Also satirizing Spanish socio-economy → which caused people to live in poverty
First plates → effect of conflict
Middle plates → effect of famine
Last plates → disappointment and demoralization of Spaniards
Their new monarch was also a tyrant and would not institute political reform
Process of making the images
Etch the plate → cover the metal plate with wax, carve out the shapes, dip in acid so that the acid goes into the incisions, melt off the wax and the incisions remain
Drypoint → scratch lines on the surface with a stylus → create a less even line
Then the artist pours ink on the plate and wipes it off so that it only remains in the spots where the acid burned or the artist etched
Moist paper is put on the plate → run through a press
Goya
Worked as a painter for the French and Spanish royalty
His work was so controversial
Prints intended to install Spanish nationalism
Went deaf and became a recluse
Cross-Cultural Connections:
Themes:
Power and authority
The human psyche
Psychology, human monsters, the inhuman in humans
Violence and terror
Art as a form of protest
