Francisco de Goya

This is bad (Esto es malo)

Clasificación
This is bad (Esto es malo)
Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1812 - 1815
Dimensiones
156 x 208 mm
Técnica y soporte
Aguafuerte, aguatinta bruñida, punta seca, buril, lavis y bruñidor
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Undisputed work
Ficha: realización/revisión
14 Dec 2010 / 28 Oct 2022
Inventario
225
Inscripciones

53 (on the lower left-hand corner of the plate) .

Historia

See Sad presentiments of what must come to pass.

The title was handwritten on the print by Goya in the first and only series that is known to have been printed at the time the works were created, which the artist gave to his friend Agustín Ceán Bermúdez. Therefore, the title was etched into the plate at a later date and left unchanged as of the first edition of the Disasters of War printed by the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid in 1863, after the printing of the series in the possession of Ceán Bermúdez.

There are no surviving preparatory drawings for this print.

Análisis artístico

Under the cover of darkness, three French soldiers have entered a monastery and killed a monk who is lying on the ground. In the foreground, a French soldier wearing a concentrated, enraged expression runs his sword through the white habit of another monk whose face is distorted with pain. The monk spreads his arms in the gesture of one who does not fear death, similar to that made by the woman in print no. 26, One cannot look at this (No se puede mirar). The scene takes place before the entirely indifferent, almost complacent gaze of two more soldiers.

In this print, Goya, who in other works criticizes certain attitudes of the clergy, openly repudiates the brutal act taking place with the title This is bad. The spitefulness of the killing is heightened by the dark atmosphere which is penetrated by a beam of light that enters the composition from the left-hand side. It is possible that the monk was surprised as he slept in his cell, the light entering through the open door with the same violence as the French soldiers.

The artist has used etching in abundance on the right-hand side of the print, recreating the shadows with dense horizontal lines penetrated only by the light, expressed by a triangle of aquatint.

During the Spanish War of Independence, it was relatively common for French troops to enter and attack monasteries. Enrique Lafuente Ferrari mentions various significant massacres of monks, including those that took place at Rioseco, Uclés, Cuenca and Valencia.

This print is linked with the following, no. 47, This is how it happened (Así sucedió) in which another monk is the victim of a brutal attack.

Conservación

The plate is stored in the National Chalcography (cat. 297).

Exposiciones
  • Francisco de Goya
    Museo d'Arte Moderna
    Lugano
    1996
    exhibition celebrated from September 22nd to November 17th.
  • Francisco Goya. Sein leben im spiegel der graphik. Fuendetodos 1746-1828 Bordeaux. 1746-1996
    Galerie Kornfeld
    Bern
    1996
    from November 21st 1996 to January 1997
  • Goya. Opera grafica
    Pinacoteca del Castello di San Giorgio
    Legnano
    2006
    exhibition celebrated from December 16th 2006 to April 1st 2007
  • Goya et la modernité
    Pinacothèque de Paris
    París
    2013
    from October 11st 2013 to March 16th 2014
Bibliografía
  • BERUETE Y MONET, Aureliano de
    Goya, grabador
    MadridBlass S.A.
    1918
    cat. 148
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    cat. 166
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    cat. 1068
  • SANTIAGO, Elena M. (coordinadora)
    Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    MadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional
    1996
    cat. 254
  • OROPESA, Marisa and RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wilfredo
    ParísPinacoteca de París
    2013
    p. 142
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 114-151
Enlaces externos
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