They do not agree (No se convienen)

Two officers (it is not clear whether they are Spanish or French) on horseback, positioned on the left-hand side of the print, are discussing the subsequent movements of their troops. They appear to be in disagreement about what tactics to use next. At the same time, on the right-hand side of the image, a bloody battle is underway. Nothing disturbs the argument between the two officers, not even the corpses lying beside them or the suffering and sacrifice of those in the middle of the fight.

The scene is divided diagonally into two parts. The left-hand side, where the commanding officers are, is dark and has been executed using short, very tightly packed horizontal lines. The horse in the foreground, the calmest figure in the whole scene, looks out, apparently perplexed, at the viewer. Its body has been rendered in energetic, criss-crossing diagonal strokes. On the right-hand side of the composition, set apart by the diagonal line, we see the white surface of the paper and, standing out against this pale background, the silhouettes of the men engaged in battle.

This etching is an obvious critique of the way in which people are manipulated in every military conflict, in which they become a mere weapon to be wielded by those in power. This idea holds as much for the French as it does for the Spanish, which is possibly why Goya has chosen not to identify the arguing figures.