Plate 78 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'He defends himself well' (Se defiende bien)

Plate 78 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'He defends himself well' (Se defiende bien)

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published in 1802, Giovanni Battista Casti’s political fable "Gli animali parlanti" (The talking animals) provided the source for the present print. Casti’s prologue justified the need for "enshrouding with the veil of allegory certain bold truths," an equally fitting description of Goya’s approach to the final group from the Disasters, to which this work belongs. In the fable, disputes in the animal kingdom stand in for the antagonism between despotic and liberal regimes, much as they might in this scene of a bucking horse menaced by a pack of foxes and hounds. The horse could be a reference to constitutional monarchies, and its animal opponents stand-ins for reactionary forces.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate 78 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'He defends himself well' (Se defiende bien)Plate 78 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'He defends himself well' (Se defiende bien)Plate 78 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'He defends himself well' (Se defiende bien)Plate 78 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'He defends himself well' (Se defiende bien)Plate 78 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'He defends himself well' (Se defiende bien)

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.