The Disasters of War (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)
£7.70
The strikingly original characterizations and sharply drawn scenes that came to be known posthumously as Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War) are among Francisco Goya’s most powerful works and one of the masterpieces of Western civilization. Goya’s model for his visual indictment of war and its horrors was the Spanish insurrection of 1808 and the resulting Peninsular War with Napoleonic France. The bloody conflict and the horrible famine of Madrid were witnessed by Goya himself, or were revealed to him from the accounts of friends and contemporaries. From 1810 to 1820, he worked to immortalize them in a series of etchings.
The artist himself never saw the results. The etchings were not published until 1863, some 35 years after his death. By then, the passions of the Napoleonic era had subsided and the satirical implications in Goya’s work were less likely to offend. The Dover edition reproduces in its original size the second state of this first edition, which contained 80 prints. Three additional prints not in the 1863 edition are also included here, making this the most complete collection possible of the etchings Goya intended for this series. The bitter, biting captions are reprinted, along with the new English translations, as are the original title page and preface.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Dover Publications Inc., New impression edition (1 Feb. 2000) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 97 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 9780486218724 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0486218724 |
| Dimensions | 20.32 x 0.64 x 22.86 cm |
by Jon-Paul Cooling
Smashing
by Ashley Bramwell
In common with other Dover books the print is a bit soft. Ok for the price but could be better
by Eric le rouge
The Disasters of War certainly deserve more attention.
The drawings are shocking, provoking feeling of discomfort in some ways, etc.
The sketches picturing women are probably the toughest from my point of view.
by Matt Hush
Great reference book
by Haddock
Great images, I love this book on kindle, so convenient and you can look close up at the images too.
by John C
Modestly-priced but adequate reproductions of the series of etchings, good enough for basic research usage.
by Claudia Saatchi
These engravings are amongst the most powerful ever created. They cover Napoleon’s invasion of Spain and the cruelties, on both sides, that followed. Today we are all too familiar with atrocities across the globe – in war zones or in closed, authoritarian societies yet Goya did it first. Nothing matches the intensity and graphic nature of his unforgettable images. Nothing – even contemporary news footage that shows we have still learned nothing about war since the 18th Century.
by Big A
The quality of the production is not up to Goya’s work. Not clear enough. Find another book that is up to the challenge.