Plate 57 from ‘The Disasters of War’ (Los Desastres de la Guerra): ‘The healthy and the sick.’ (Sanos y enfermos.)

Description

Francisco Goya’s The Healthy and the Sick brings exhausted adults and children together beneath a broad, shadowed arch. A woman supports a thin child, while other sufferers sit or lie nearby. Their bodies reveal different stages of weakness, and the sheltering architecture cannot undo the effects of hunger. The close arrangement makes the effort of remaining upright as significant as any larger action.

Plate 57 of The Disasters of War belongs to the series’ examination of famine during the Peninsular War. The title’s division between healthy and sick becomes difficult to sustain in a group so broadly exposed to hardship. Goya uses gestures of support and the contrast of bodies against shadow to make dependence visible. The image offers neither diagnosis nor remedy, concentrating instead on the unequal strength with which people endure the same devastating circumstances.

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