Plate1 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Sad foreboding of what is going to happen' (Tristes presentimientos de lo que ha de acontecer)

Plate1 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Sad foreboding of what is going to happen' (Tristes presentimientos de lo que ha de acontecer)

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Although this is the first print in the Disasters, its subject and style of etching relate it to the last eighteen plates, known as the caprichos enfáticos. Goya might have decided to open the series with it to hint at the depictions of violence that would follow. The ragged, emaciated man embodies the fears before the war, when Napoleon’s invasion seemed inevitable. Goya’s treatment of the surface adds a layer of meaning: the advancing fog of dark ink poised to engulf the individual may allude to the impending tragedies. The kneeling man who gazes toward the heavens was inspired by models of sainthood. The clearest association is Christ in the garden of Gethsemane.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate1 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Sad foreboding of what is going to happen' (Tristes presentimientos de lo que ha de acontecer)Plate1 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Sad foreboding of what is going to happen' (Tristes presentimientos de lo que ha de acontecer)Plate1 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Sad foreboding of what is going to happen' (Tristes presentimientos de lo que ha de acontecer)Plate1 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Sad foreboding of what is going to happen' (Tristes presentimientos de lo que ha de acontecer)Plate1 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Sad foreboding of what is going to happen' (Tristes presentimientos de lo que ha de acontecer)

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.