Plate 37 from ‘The Disasters of War’ (Los Desastres de La Guerra): ‘This is worse.’ (Esto es peor.)

Description

Francisco Goya’s This Is Worse places a mutilated body against the branches of a tree. Its exposed anatomy is drawn with disturbing care, while further acts of violence continue in the background. The landscape becomes part of the cruelty: the tree supports and displays the victim rather than offering shelter. The foreground figure dominates the image with a terrible, almost sculptural presence.

Plate 37 of The Disasters of War confronts the destruction of human dignity beyond death. Goya’s knowledge of classical anatomy gives the body a formal clarity that intensifies, rather than conceals, its violation. The blunt title refuses the language of victory or honor. In a series made during the Peninsular War, this image turns the artistic study of the human figure into a devastating argument against the treatment of people as trophies.

Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Goya collection.