Plate 30 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Ravages of War' (Estragos de la guerra)

Plate 30 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Ravages of War' (Estragos de la guerra)

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The incident unfolds in an instant: a building collapses due to an explosion, and its occupants plunge to the ground. Several details poignantly signal the sudden interruption of normal life, such as the fashionable armchair atop a fallen section of the floor, and the mother embracing the child she was just breastfeeding. Goya re-created this tumultuous interior as if observed at close range from within. The image graphically translates the disintegration of order produced by the blast, which the artist simulates having witnessed.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate 30 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Ravages of War' (Estragos de la guerra)Plate 30 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Ravages of War' (Estragos de la guerra)Plate 30 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Ravages of War' (Estragos de la guerra)Plate 30 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Ravages of War' (Estragos de la guerra)Plate 30 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Ravages of War' (Estragos de la guerra)

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.