Plate 33 from ‘The Disasters of War’ (Los Desastres de La Guerra): ‘What more can be done?’ (Qué hai que hacer mas?)

Description

Francisco Goya’s What More Can Be Done shows soldiers surrounding an exposed prisoner beneath a tree. They hold the body in a forced position while a foreground figure prepares a further act of mutilation. The tightly gathered group makes the imbalance of power unmistakable. The natural setting provides the means for cruelty rather than a space apart from it.

Plate 33 of The Disasters of War pushes the question in its title toward an unbearable limit. Goya refuses to present brutality as an abstract consequence of conflict: it consists of deliberate actions performed by people against another person. Precise line gives the bodies a physical reality, while the compact composition prevents an easy visual escape. The print’s accusation concerns not only death, but the assault on human dignity that accompanies it.

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