Plate 76 from ‘The Disasters of War’ (Los Desastres de la Guerra): ‘The carnivorous vulture.’ (El buitre carnívoro.)

Description

In The Carnivorous Vulture, Francisco Goya gives an enormous bird an unexpectedly vulnerable role. With wings spread, the creature runs before a man threatening it with a pitchfork, while a crowd witnesses the pursuit. The oversized body commands the foreground, but its movement is one of flight rather than mastery. The reversal makes the feared predator suddenly look exposed.

Plate 76 of The Disasters of War belongs to Goya’s final animal allegories. The vulture can suggest predatory power, yet its precise political identity is not settled by the image alone. Goya makes the relationship of pursuer and pursued more important than a fixed explanation. The crowd and the bird’s awkward scale give the scene both public force and grotesque humor, turning the departure of an oppressive presence into an uneasy spectacle.

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