What's the fuss?

The last sixteen prints in the series of Los desastres de la guerra constitute what is called in the original title of Ceán Bermúdez's album Emphatic Caprices. In them, through symbolism that is often difficult to decipher and almost hermetic, perhaps because of the harshness of its content, Goya openly criticises the regime of Ferdinand VII (San Lorenzo of El Escorial, 1784-Madrid, 1833), who reigned from 1813 until his death. To a certain extent, the critical sense of the emphatic Caprichos allows us to interpret them as a return to Goya's first great series, Los Caprichos, in which the Aragonese artist questioned many aspects of the politics and society of his time.

In the engraving in question, a soldier who is writing stops his work to watch two women, one dressed in white and the other in black, being harassed by two furious dogs. The women are shaking and placing their hands in their hair, which is blown by the wind. Behind these two female figures, Goya has recorded other people in a mist who seem to be queuing up behind them.

This is a rather dark print in which Goya used aquatint. He has etched the figures and created an important contrast between the light clothes of the woman in the centre and the darker clothes of the woman next to her.

There are various explanations for the meaning of this engraving. For Enrique Lafuente, print no. 65 is the transition between those reflecting the horrors of war and the emphatic caprices in which Goya criticises Spanish society and the political scene after the war. The women are holding their hands over their heads because, according to Lafuente, they are receiving the news of their ruin, decreed by the invader who took various measures to strip the population of their crops or their money and thus obtain support for the army.

Jesusa Vega relates the scene to the departure of the French from Madrid, provoked by the entry of General Wellington and his troops. She also points out that if we look closely at the following prints we can understand that Goya is referring to what happened on 27 May 1813 when the French finally left Madrid. He also explains that it is difficult to know which army this soldier belonged to, as the uniform he is wearing was worn by the French, although it was also characteristic of the Logroño militia.