Love and death

A woman holds in her arms a man who appears to have been wounded in a duel, as the sword lying at his feet testifies. There is an expression of anguish and pain on his face, perhaps because he has been mortally wounded. The woman's face also hints at suffering, with her mouth half-open and her eyes closed. The scene takes place in an open space and the man's body is leaning against a low wall.

The Aragonese painter used aquatint to create the background, with a lighter area at the bottom and a darker area at the top, which could be a device that heralds the dawn. As in many other engravings in this series, he has left a lighter surface to attract the viewer's attention; in this case the white garments of the dying figure capture our interest.

The Ayala manuscript notes of this print: "It is not convenient to draw the sword many times: love exposes to quarrels and challenges". In the Prado's Museum it is stated that "Here is a lover of Calderón who for not knowing how to laugh at his competitor dies in the arms of his beloved and loses because of his recklessness. It is not convenient to draw the sword too often". Finally, it is worth mentioning what the manuscript in the Biblioteca Nacional comments on this engraving: "From illicit loves, nothing but noise and quarrels usually follow".

This print has been the subject of various interpretations. The most widespread of these, which is based both on the image and on the three manuscripts referred to above, is that this scene is a criticism of the duels. We should also consider Juliet Wilson-Bareau's reading of this work based on a comparison of the print with drawing no. 35 of the Madrid Album or Album B, Young Woman Holding Her Dying Lover. The woman in the drawing is looking up at the sky, so it seems that rather than showing grief she is expressing exasperation. The sword lying on the ground and the limp posture of the man in the print lead one to identify his death with the "death" of the passion of an old man unable to satisfy the desires of a young woman. This idea is reinforced by the way Goya has depicted the face of the man in the print as older than the figure in the drawing. If so, this print would continue the theme of the previous print in the Caprices series, No. 9, Tantalus.