Plate 15 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'And there is no help' (Y no hai remedio)

Plate 15 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'And there is no help' (Y no hai remedio)

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

At center, tied to a stake, a blindfolded Spanish man is about to be executed by French soldiers. Behind him, a squadron opens fire on other prisoners. The cycle culminates with the two corpses lying on the earth in the foreground. Goya condensed the three moments to advance the unfolding of the bound victim’s death by firing squad, a story narrated in the present tense. The intruding rifles create the impression of incidental observation. Goya etched this print on the back of the plate for Landscape (see 2015.539)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate 15 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'And there is no help' (Y no hai remedio)Plate 15 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'And there is no help' (Y no hai remedio)Plate 15 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'And there is no help' (Y no hai remedio)Plate 15 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'And there is no help' (Y no hai remedio)Plate 15 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'And there is no help' (Y no hai remedio)

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.