Francisco de Goya

Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1820 - 1823
Dimensiones
176 x 221 mm
Técnica y soporte
Etching and burnisher
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Undisputed work
Ficha: realización/revisión
06 Jan 2011 / 05 Jun 2023
Inventario
225
Historia

See Sad forebodings of what is to come.

The title of the print was handwritten by Goya on the first and only series known to us at the time of its production, which the painter gave to his friend Agustín Ceán Bermúdez. Thus the title was subsequently engraved on the plate without any modification from Ceán Bermúdez's copy for the first edition of the Disasters of War published by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid in 1863.

A preparatory drawing of this engraving is in the Prado Museum

Análisis artístico

In the foreground on the ground lies a bare-breasted female figure, which could be an allegory of Truth, as the title suggests, from which rays of light emanate. She is surrounded by several people attending her burial; a bishop seems to be officiating and monks with shovels are preparing to bury the body. On the left is the allegory of Justice, holding the scales with one hand and covering her face with the other in mourning; she is the saddest figure in this scene.

This is not the first time that Goya refers to the allegory of Justice in the series of The Disasters of War, as it is also found in engraving no. 69, Nothing. This will tell us that in his first state proof its presence was quite clear.

In some cases it has been suggested that the woman being buried could be the Constitution, wearing a laurel wreath alluding to her victory. The rays she emanates indicate that she could still be alive and that she is resisting burial. In this way, as Jesusa Vega points out, Goya's image could be an illustration of the events that took place in Madrid that have been described in the Manifesto of everything that happened in Madrid on the occasion of the King's Decree of 4 May: namely the abrogation of the Constitution, the solemnity with which the tombstone of that name in the Plaza Mayor was dragged, the burning in the same square of the statue of Liberty; and also a compilation of the functions that took place in Madrid on the occasion of the entry of our august Monarch Ferdinand VII, published in the Madrid printing house of the Viuda de Vallín in 1814. In addition, the décima A la caída de la Constitución y muerte de los liberales On the Fall of the Constitution and the Death of the Liberals was distributed on flyleaves.

Another possible source of inspiration for engraving no. 79 is, as Nigel Glendinning suggests, the work of Giambattista Casti (Viterbo or Acquapendente, 1724-Paris, 1803) Gli animali parlanti (1801). The historian believes that Truth Died may have to do with Canto XIV, in which Justice and Truth disappear from the earth.

This image has some parallels with several pages in Notebook C, especially with C.117 Lux Ex Tenebris. In it, Goya wanted to show that, despite the absolutists' attempts to bury the Constitution, it, with its glowing body, augurs its imminent resurrection.

The somewhat hermetic nature of most of the prints in the Emphatic Caprices makes their identification rather complex. In many cases, as in Died the Truth, it could be thought that Goya condenses several ideas into a single print, drawing on various sources of inspiration.

Conservación

The plate is in the National Chalcography (cat. 330).

Exposiciones
  • Goya and his times
    The Royal Academy of Arts
    London
    1963
    cat. 66
  • De grafiek van Goya
    Rijksmuseum Rijksprentenkabinet
    Amsterdam
    1970
    from November 13th 1970 to January 17th 1971
  • Goya. Das Zeitalter der Revolucionen. Kunst um 1800 (1980 – 1981)
    Hamburger Kunsthalle
    Hamburg
    1980
  • 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
  • Francisco Goya. Capricci, follie e disastri della guerra
    San Donato Milanese
    2000
    Opere grafiche della Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta
  • 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
  • Goya: Order and disorder
    Museum of Fine Arts
    Boston
    2014
  • 2022
Bibliografía
  • BERUETE Y MONET, Aureliano de
    Goya, grabador
    MadridBlass S.A.
    1918
    cat. 181
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    cat. 199
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    cat. 1132
  • GLENDINNING, Nigel
    A solution to the enigma of Goya’s emphatic caprices nº 65-80 of The Disasters of War
    Apollo
    1978
    pp.186-191
  • 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
    cat. 161
  • SANTIAGO, Elena M. (coordinadora)
    Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    MadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional
    1996
    cat. 304
  • GASSIER, Pierre
    Dibujos de Goya: Los álbumes
    BarcelonaNoguer
    1973
  • BLAS BENITO, Javier and MATILLA, José Manuel
    El Libro de los Desastres de la Guerra
    MadridMuseo del Prado
    2000
    pp.137-159
  • OROPESA, Marisa and RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wilfredo
    ParísPinacoteca de París
    2013
    p. 159
  • ILCHMAN, Frederick y STEPANEK, Stephanie L. (comisarios)
    Goya: Order & Disorder
    BostonMuseum of Fine Arts Boston Publications
    2014
    p. 281
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 114-151
  • TORAL OROPESA, María and MARTÍN MEDINA, Víctor
    Museo de Bellas Artes de Badajoz y Diputación de Badajoz
    2022
    p. 86
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