Plate 71 from ‘The Disasters of War’ (Los Desastres de la Guerra): ‘Against the common good.’ (Contra el bien general.)

Description

In Against the Common Good, Francisco Goya gives the act of writing a monstrous form. A seated, winged scribe bends over a large book, its pointed features and long extremities making authority look predatory. Troubled figures remain farther behind, while the writer’s feet rest on a rounded form. The concentrated posture is familiar even as the body is impossible.

Plate 71 of The Disasters of War transforms the production of laws or orders into an unsettling allegory. The title identifies the effect of the writing without fixing every creature to a particular historical person. Goya’s contrast between the commanding foreground figure and the people in shadow makes power feel remote from those it governs. The image suggests that harm need not occur only through weapons: the apparently quiet work of a pen can also work against human welfare.

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