Review of Francisco Goya's Disasters of War

The Spanish artist, Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828), gained recognition both for his revealing portraits of the decadent Spanish Bourbons and for his powerful portrayals of the brutal French repression of the Spanish rebels against Napoleon in 1808. Paintings such as "The Third of May" 1808 stand as powerful condemnations of war's cruelty. This paper provides a discussion of the effects of war on Francisco Goya's work, focusing on the "Diasters of War" series.
Goya's long career stretched from the rose-colored rococo of the illustrated reign of Carlos III through the portraits of Carlos IV, María Luisa, and Godoy, and finally into the post-Napoleonic bleakness and reactionary darkness reflected as dull horror in the "Disasters of War" and the "black paintings." In 1808, Francisco Goya was 62 years old and had become deaf from a mysterious illness, "the deaf Goya looked around him and saw in the silent mouthing and gesticulations something grotesque and/evolving" (Clark 75). He was a respected and successful court painter. His work ranged from striking tapestry to powerful etchings (Singer 42). Goya's collection, "The Disasters of War," (published in 1863, 30 years after his death), is an indictment of war and the atrocities carried out during the battles.