Sujet

Que se rompe la cuerda.; Los Desastres de la Guerra, Madrid 1863. Creator: Francisco Goya.

Légende

Que se rompe la cuerda, (May the rope break/The rope breaks), Plate 77, "Los Desastres de la Guerra", c1810, (published 1863). A figure in ecclesiastical robes balances with arms outstretched on a knotted rope. The crowd watch in suspense, waiting for the rope to break. It is likely that the figure 'walking the tightrope' is Pius VII, secretary of the Inquisition and ambassador of the second constitutional government to the Vatican. "Pius VII...owes Napoleon Bonaparte the...peaceful possession of his chair in Rome". Although Goya did not make known his intention when creating the plates (made 1810-1815), art historians see them as a visual protest against the violence of the 1808 Dos de Mayo Uprising, the subsequent cruel war that ended in Spanish victory in the Peninsular War of 1808-1814, and the setbacks to the liberal cause following the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1814. The prints were not published until 35 years after Goya's death, probably because only then was it considered politically safe to do so. From "Los Desastres de la Guerra: colección de ochenta láminas inventadas y grabadas al agua fuerte por Don Francisco de Goya", (The Disasters of War: collection of eighty plates made and etched by Don Francisco de Goya), [Madrid, 1863].

Date

1810

Crédit

Photo12/Heritage Images/Royal Academy of Arts

Notre référence

HRM26A46_225

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

Licence

Droits gérés

Format disponible

56.6Mo (9.6Mo) / 42.0cm x 33.8cm / 4960 x 3988 (300dpi)

Mots clés

unusual female women woman people male group crowd man men religious arts country religion Spain Spanish art guy balance balanced performance Christianity rope balancing performer performing war location Catholic Catholicism century Roman Catholic suspense rebellion print priest concept tightrope series B&W metaphor parody tightrope walker engraved engraving Theology balancing act 19th century Pope black & white black and white B W Roman Catholicism etched nineteenth century satire satirical aquatint ecclesiastical dress etching Napoleonic Wars Peninsular War theologian war of independence Pope Pope Pius VII etching satire Francis Francisco Goya Barnaba Niccolo Maria Luigi Francisco Jos? de Goya y Lucientes Pius VII Barnaba Niccolo Maria Luigi Chiaramonti Chiaramonti De Goya Francisco De Goya Goya Francisco Disasters of War Los Desastres de la Guerra Dos de Mayo Uprising drypoint Goya Francisco de Goya y Lucientes Francisco Jose de Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes Francisco de Goya y Lucientes Goya y Lucientes Francisco Jos? de Barnaba Niccol? Maria Luigi Chiaramonti Barnaba Niccol? Maria Luigi 19th-century Spanish War of Independence Royal Academy of Arts Second of May Uprising The Disasters of War Laurenciano Potenciano Potenciano Laurenciano