Francisco de Goya

One Cannot Look at This (No se puede mirar)

Clasificación
One Cannot Look at This (No se puede mirar)
Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1810 - 1812
Dimensiones
145 x 210 mm
Técnica y soporte
Etching, burnished lavis, drypoint and burin
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Undisputed work
Ficha: realización/revisión
02 Dec 2010 / 24 May 2023
Inventario
225
Inscripciones

Goya (lower left-hand corner), 27 (lower left-hand corner).

Historia

SeeSad presentiments of what must come to pass.

There is a third artist's proof that predates the writing, burnishing and scratches in the sky. The number 27 already appears in the lower left-hand corner.

The title was handwritten on the print by Goya in the first and only series that is known to have been printed at the time the works were created, which the artist gave to his friend Agustín Ceán Bermúdez. Therefore, the title was etched into the plate at a later date and left unchanged as of the first edition of the Disasters of War printed by the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid in 1863, after the printing of the series in the possession of Ceán Bermúdez.

There is no surviving preparatory drawing of this print.

Análisis artístico

Goya ups the rhythm of The Disasters of War in this print with the depiction of a scene imbued with a strong, dramatic intensity that contrasts with the calm of previous prints in the series, which featured wounded people being assisted or corpses. The work shows the interior of a cave where various figures are going to be executed. On the left, a woman prostrates herself face down on the floor with her hands clasped on her head, while another covers her face and in front of them yet another woman stretches out her arms, her chest thrust out towards the enemy. In the middle of the composition there is a figure covered from head to foot holding a child in their arms. By their side is a kneeling man who brings his hands together in a gesture of prayer. In the centre of the foreground, another man begs for this torment to end. As in the case of print no. 15, And it can't be helped, here we see only the very ends of the bayonets that appear in a row in the right-hand side of the print.

The French soldiers are at the mouth of the cave where they have surprised the Spanish people they are about to execute. Once again, as in the case of other prints in this series, what should be a place of shelter that protects man has become a trap. The cave is a place that has hidden these people from their enemy for some time but has now become a dead end with no escape route. The short distance between the French and the Spanish figures means that they have to look at each other face-to-face.

The most striking figure in the print is the woman at the centre of the composition: facing death, she displays her torso, spreading out her arms in the form of a cross. This gesture is echoed in the central figure in the printThird of May 1808, who also wears a white shirt.

Conservación

The plate is stored in the National Chalcography (cat. 277).

Exposiciones
  • Goya. Das Zeitalter der Revolucionen. Kunst um 1800 (1980 – 1981)
    Hamburger Kunsthalle
    Hamburg
    1980
  • Francisco de Goya
    Museo d'Arte Moderna
    Lugano
    1996
    exhibition celebrated from September 22nd to November 17th.
  • Francisco Goya. Sein leben im spiegel der graphik. Fuendetodos 1746-1828 Bordeaux. 1746-1996
    Galerie Kornfeld
    Bern
    1996
    from November 21st 1996 to January 1997
  • Francisco Goya. Capricci, follie e disastri della guerra
    San Donato Milanese
    2000
    Opere grafiche della Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta
  • Goya's Realism
    Statens Museum for Kunst
    Copenhagen
    2000
    from February 11th to May 7th 2000
  • Goya. La imagen de la mujer
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    2001
    from October 30th 2001 to February 10th 2002. Exhibitied also at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, March 10th to June 2nd 2002, consultant editor Francisco Calvo Serraller
  • Goya. Opera grafica
    Pinacoteca del Castello di San Giorgio
    Legnano
    2006
    exhibition celebrated from December 16th 2006 to April 1st 2007
  • Goya en tiempos de guerra
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    2008
    consultant editor Manuela B. Mena Marqués, from April 14th to July 13th 2008
  • Goya et la modernité
    Pinacothèque de Paris
    París
    2013
    from October 11st 2013 to March 16th 2014
  • Goya: Order and disorder
    Museum of Fine Arts
    Boston
    2014
  • 2022
Bibliografía
  • BERUETE Y MONET, Aureliano de
    Goya, grabador
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridBlass S.A.
    1918
    cat. 128
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.
    Bibliography']['number
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    cat. 146
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    Bibliography']['number
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    cat. 1037
  • SANTIAGO, Elena M. (coordinadora)
    Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional
    1996
    cat. 228
  • OROPESA, Marisa and RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wilfredo
    Bibliography']['number
    ParísPinacoteca de París
    2013
    p. 132
  • ILCHMAN, Frederick y STEPANEK, Stephanie L. (comisarios)
    Goya: Order & Disorder
    Bibliography']['number
    BostonMuseum of Fine Arts Boston Publications
    2014
    p. 289
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    Bibliography']['number
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 114-151
  • TORAL OROPESA, María and MARTÍN MEDINA, Víctor
    Bibliography']['number
    Museo de Bellas Artes de Badajoz y Diputación de Badajoz
    2022
    p. 63
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