Plate 66 from ‘The Disasters of War’ (Los Desastres de la Guerra): ‘Strange devotion!’ (Extraña devocion!)

Description

In Strange Devotion, Francisco Goya gives a donkey the central place in a religious procession. A glass-sided shrine rests on the animal’s back, while people bow around it. The donkey proceeds with the ordinary physical presence of a working beast, indifferent to the meaning others attach to its burden. This contrast makes the surrounding gestures of reverence subtly absurd.

Plate 66 of The Disasters of War uses the structure of a fable to question misplaced honor. The sacred object and its bearer are visibly different, yet the crowd’s attention risks confusing the two. Goya’s clear grouping lets the joke emerge from the scene rather than from an elaborate explanation. Within the series’ final allegories, the print links superstition to social power, showing how borrowed importance can be mistaken for a creature’s own worth.

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