Not [in this case] either (Tampoco), plate 36 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de La Guerra)

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The empty roads of the Spanish countryside became the improvised setting for summary executions by both sides during the Peninsular War. Shooting or, as illustrated in this print, hanging from trees was carried out on the spot. Here, Goya created a triangular composition, with the body of the hanged prisoner falling at its central axis. The victim’s pants have slipped down his legs, emphasizing both the effect of gravity and the haphazardness of the execution, in all likelihood carried out with his own belt. A Napoleonic soldier leans on a stone bench, contemplating the scene with indifference. The caption relates to the scene of garroting that immediately precedes it: "One can’t tell why."

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.