Fierce monster!

An animal that we cannot identify is positioned diagonally in this engraving, with its mouth facing the viewer. Naked human bodies, perhaps corpses, emerge from it.

This beast has strong analogies with the one in the engraving in No. 40, Some Party Pulls, in which a woman fiercely fights it and plunges a knife into its neck, and it could even be thought to be a continuation of that one. The carcass of the animal could be an allegory of the war that has brought death and desolation. From it emanate the fruits of it all, the naked and perhaps lifeless bodies of the victims of the conflict. This large, dull, almost putrefied anatomy, without hope or capacity for regeneration, contrasts sharply with the body of Truth on the verge of resurrection in engraving no. 80, If He Will Rise, full of light.

One of Goya's possible visual sources for this print may have been the engraving by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (Breda, 1525-Brussels, 1569) illustrating the proverb The Big Fish Eats the Small, although he may also have seen a print by Jacques Callot (Nancy, 1592-1635, Nancy) entitled The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1635), part of the wartime series Les Misères et les Malheurs de la Guerre. In it a strange beast resembling a dragon vomits all kinds of weapons.

In the overall context of the Disasters of War series, this engraving plays a conclusive role, perhaps an invitation to reflection. Through this image, which arouses revulsion in the viewer, the painter metaphorically captures the balance of the harsh conflict, which has brought nothing good.