Plate 67 from ‘The Disasters of War’ (Los Desastres de la Guerra): ‘This is not less so.’ (Esta no lo es menos.)

Description

Francisco Goya’s This Is Not Less So depicts well-dressed men carrying a religious image on their shoulders. Their concentrated, burdened movement is followed by another group bearing a sacred figure. The procession has the outward form of reverence, but the bearers’ exaggerated features and closely observed clothing introduce a satirical edge. Its pale central forms stand out against a restrained setting.

Plate 67 of The Disasters of War follows Strange Devotion and deliberately echoes its arrangement. Goya shifts the role of bearer from an animal to distinguished people, asking the viewer to compare the two spectacles. The title carries that comparison without fully explaining it. Rather than a straightforward celebration of ceremony, the print questions the social prestige attached to public displays of belief and the readiness to mistake participation for virtue.

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