Francisco de Goya

The same (Lo mismo)

Clasificación
The same (Lo mismo)
Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1810 - 1815
Dimensiones
162 x 223 mm
Técnica y soporte
Etching, aquatint, burin, drypoint and burnisher
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Undisputed work
Ficha: realización/revisión
09 Aug 2012 / 24 May 2023
Inventario
225
Inscripciones

48 (lower left-hand corner).

Historia

See Sad presentiments of what must come to pass.

There exists a state proof of this print with lavis and burnishing over the lines on the right thigh of the man who is shown raising the axe. There is another state proof which bears the number 48. Later, the number 3 was added, along with some touches of drypoint and burin.

The title was handwritten by Goya on the first and only print run that we know to have been made at the time, and which the painter gave to his friend Agustín Ceán Bermúdez. The title was engraved on to the copperplate at a later date, and no other modifications were made to the image for the first edition of the Disasters of War, which was printed by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Madrid, in 1863.

No preparatory drawings for this print have been conserved.

Análisis artístico

In front of a pale background we see, in the foreground, the silhouette of a man raising an axe in both hands as he opens his mouth to shout. He is a Spaniard, and is about to decapitate the Frenchman lying on the ground before him. Behind these two characters, Goya has depicted a tangle of bodies engaged in a vicious fight with all sorts of different weapons. In one case, a French soldier with a sword fends off the attack of a Spaniard. Further back, a Spaniard who has clambered on to the back of a Frenchman is about to stab him with a knife. The ferocity of the Spaniards has allowed them to overwhelm the better-armed enemy in brutal fashion.

In this print, Goya stays with the theme addressed in print no. 2, With or without reason, and traces between the two works an analogous relationship which serves to demonstrate that these two scenes are in fact two sides of the same coin: violence. The Aragonese artist finds both acts unjustifiable and refuses to take the side of either the Spanish or the French.

A comparison suggests itself between the face of the figure holding the axe and those paintings in which Goya represents scenes of cannibalism. The wild round eyes, the lost expression, the emaciated face and marked cheekbones, and the gaping mouth all lend this character a primitive air and make him look like a relative to some tribe of cannibals. Goya uses these facial features to refer to the irrationality of these acts, both those of the Spaniard killing a French soldier and those of the cannibals tearing apart their human victims. Furthermore, the posture adopted by the man with the axe bears a strong resemblance to that of the figure who is shown with his back to the viewer in The Forge, of which a preparatory drawing has also been conserved.

This print also suggests some clear parallels with a print by Hanns Ulrich Franckh (1590/1595, Kaufbeuren-1675, Augsburg) that shows a man wielding an axe and preparing to attack a second figure lying on the ground (1656, Hamburger Kunsthalle). In this case, the analogies are not limited to the subject matter but also extend to the wild, hate-filled expression on the face of the figure wielding the axe.

Conservación

The etching plate is conserved in the National Chalcography Museum (cat. 254)

Exposiciones
  • De grafiek van Goya
    Rijksmuseum Rijksprentenkabinet
    Amsterdam
    1970
    from November 13th 1970 to January 17th 1971
  • Goya y el espíritu de la Ilustración
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    1988
    from October 6th to December 18th 1988. Exhibited also at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, January 18th to March 26th 1989; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nueva York, May 9th to July 16th 1989, Madrid curator Manuela B. Mena Marqués, scientific directors Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez and Eleanor A. Sayre
  • 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
  • Das Capriccio als Kunstprinzip
    Wallraf-Richartz-Museum,
    1996
    from December 8th 1996 to February 16th 1997, exhibited also in Zurich, Kunsthaus, from March 14th marzo 1997 to June 1st 1997 and in Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum mi Palais Harrach, from June 29th 1997 to September 21st 1997.
  • Francisco Goya. Capricci, follie e disastri della guerra
    San Donato Milanese
    2000
    Opere grafiche della Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta
  • Goya. Opera grafica
    Pinacoteca del Castello di San Giorgio
    Legnano
    2006
    exhibition celebrated from December 16th 2006 to April 1st 2007
  • Goya en tiempos de guerra
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    2008
    consultant editor Manuela B. Mena Marqués, from April 14th to July 13th 2008
  • 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. 105
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    cat. 996
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    cat. 123
  • PÉREZ SÁNCHEZ, Alfonso E. y SAYRE, Eleanor A. (directores) and MENA, Manuela B. (comisaria)
    Goya y el espíritu de la Ilustración
    MadridMuseo del Prado
    1988
    p.289-290, cat. 82
  • SANTIAGO, Elena M. (coordinadora)
    Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    MadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional
    1996
    cat. 185
  • GALLEGO GARCÍA, Raquel
    Goya. Los desastres de la guerra, l
    BarcelonaLa Central
    2011
    p. 22
  • OROPESA, Marisa and RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wilfredo
    ParísPinacoteca de París
    2013
    p. 121
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 114-151
Enlaces externos
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