What Courage!, plate seven from The Disasters of War
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746-1828)
1810/12, published 1863
- Medium
- Etching, aquatint, drypoint, burin, and burnishing on ivory wove paper with gilt edges
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Image: 13.7 × 18.7 cm (5 7/16 × 7 3/8 in.); Plate: 15.3 × 20.5 cm (6 1/16 × 8 1/8 in.); Sheet: 24 × 33.9 cm (9 1/2 × 13 3/8 in.)
- Culture
- Spain
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of J. C. Cebrian
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Francisco de Goya responded to the Peninsular War (1808–11) by creating over 80 etchings critiquing the cruelty and senseless violence that accompanies war. In this print, he depicted a historical event: Augustina of Aragon heroically defending Saragossa, taking over the cannon of her fallen comrades. Because she had already become a woman of legendary status when this print was made, Goya did not show Augustina’s face. Due to the oppressive policies of King Ferdinand VII, these prints were not published until 1863.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
