One Can't Tell Why, plate 35 from The Disasters of War
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746-1828)
1812/15, published 1863
- Medium
- Etching, burnished lavis, drypoint and burin on ivory wove paper with gilt edges
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Image: 12.9 × 18 cm (5 1/8 × 7 1/8 in.); Plate: 15.4 × 20.9 cm (6 1/8 × 8 1/4 in.); Sheet: 24 × 34 cm (9 1/2 × 13 7/16 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
Eight convicted and garroted victims share a platform. Suspended from cords around their necks and resting against their chests are the weapons they carried when they were arrested by the French army. For Spaniards, being caught carrying a weapon of any kind was a capital offense.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
