Garroted Man

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is one of Goya's earliest etchings, made when he was exploring the technique. It shows a man being killed by a garrotte, the standard civilian method of execution in Spain of which there were several methods. That depicted here shows the prisoner sat on a stool with his back to the post, wrists bound and a hinged iron collar closed around his neck. It is a strange subject for a print, perhaps addressing judicial abuse and it is hard to guess what sort of audience Goya anticipated. Goya might not have intended it for wide distribution as it was made when he was beginning as a printmaker and exploring subjects that interested him personally. Goya’s unflinching depiction of this method of execution anticipates his brutally frank representation of conflict in the 'Disasters of War' began over thirty years later, in 1810. This etching, printed in blue ink is a unique working proof. The tone imparts an eerie sense to the composition, suggesting an interior nocturnal setting.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art