Plate 77 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'May the cord break' (Que se rompe la cuerda)

Plate 77 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'May the cord break' (Que se rompe la cuerda)

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This print is from the final group in the Disasters, the caprichos enfáticos, that indirectly and symbolically addresses the social and political havoc created by the war. Here, the figure on the rope probably alludes to the renewed political ascendancy of the Catholic Church in Spain, which had been undermined during the war by the secularizing agenda of both Spanish and Francophile liberals. The decaying rope may evoke the fragility of ecclesiastical privileges regained by force after 1814. The onlooker at lower right, pointing to the rope, is possibly uttering the phrase that serves as the caption to this plate. His alarm is counterbalanced by the nonchalance of the priest, oblivious to his impending fall.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate 77 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'May the cord break' (Que se rompe la cuerda)Plate 77 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'May the cord break' (Que se rompe la cuerda)Plate 77 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'May the cord break' (Que se rompe la cuerda)Plate 77 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'May the cord break' (Que se rompe la cuerda)Plate 77 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'May the cord break' (Que se rompe la cuerda)

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.