Plate 34 from ‘The Disasters of War’ (Los Desastres de La Guerra): ‘On account of a knife.’ (Por una navaja.)

Description

In On Account of a Knife, Francisco Goya isolates an executed man fastened to a post. A knife hangs on his chest as the supposed evidence against him, and his hands hold a small cross. His open mouth and unsettled hair preserve a trace of suffering after life has gone. A crowd behind the central figure turns punishment into a public event.

Plate 34 of The Disasters of War makes the disproportion between offense and penalty its central concern. The title reduces the explanation to the possession of an ordinary weapon, while the image reveals the irreversible result. Goya’s close attention to the face prevents the condemned man from becoming merely an example. Through the stark arrangement of body, post and displayed knife, the print questions the authority that turns a small object into grounds for death.

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