Plate 79 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Truth has died' (Murió la verdad)

Plate 79 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Truth has died' (Murió la verdad)

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the present sheet and the one that follows (plate 80), Goya divided a single scene into two separate moments. Here we see the burial of a young woman, a representation of Truth, surrounded by different figures. In its companion print, the half-buried figure opens her eyes—to the bystanders’ incredulity and anger—and, in a burst of light, comes to life. While indicative of Goya’s hopes for overthrowing absolutism (the supreme autocratic authority of the king), the pair of prints might also point to his skepticism about Spain’s political future.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate 79 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Truth has died' (Murió la verdad)Plate 79 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Truth has died' (Murió la verdad)Plate 79 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Truth has died' (Murió la verdad)Plate 79 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Truth has died' (Murió la verdad)Plate 79 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Truth has died' (Murió la verdad)

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.