Plate 11 from “The Disasters of War’ (Los Desastres de la Guerra): ‘Not even in that way.’ (Ni por esas.)

Description

In Not even in that way, women are caught in another violent confrontation, their bodies exposed to the intentions of people who possess the immediate power to act. Francisco Goya’s Not Even in That Way continues the series’ examination of how little protection remains in wartime. The caption adds a further refusal, as though an already desperate possibility has also been closed off.

Made around 1810 and published in 1863, plate 11 of The Disasters of War uses etching and tonal work to give the encounter an unsparing immediacy. Goya keeps the consequences of conflict close to particular people rather than allowing them to disappear into a larger military account. The scene’s severity comes from that lack of distance. Its words and bodies work together to expose a condition in which effort, appeal or circumstance can no longer guarantee even a limited measure of safety.

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