Francisco de Goya

Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1820 - 1823
Dimensiones
178 x 221 mm
Técnica y soporte
Aguafuerte, aguatinta bruñida o lavis, punta seca y bruñidor
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Undisputed work
Ficha: realización/revisión
28 Feb 2013 / 05 Jun 2023
Inventario
225
Inscripciones

77 (in the upper left-hand corner of the plate)

Historia

See Sad forebodings of what is to come.

The title of the print was handwritten by Goya on the first and only series known to us at the time of its production, which the painter gave to his friend Agustín Ceán Bermúdez. Thus the title was subsequently engraved on the plate without any modification from Ceán Bermúdez's copy for the first edition of the Disasters of War published by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid in 1863.

A preparatory drawing of this engraving is in the Prado Museum

Análisis artístico

An ecclesiastical figure dressed in pompous robes walks with his arms outstretched on a knotted rope. The people watching him show disbelief and suspense on their faces, or simply look on with a certain indifference, waiting for the rope to break.

The study of his preparatory drawing, in which the figure wears a papal tiara on his head, is decisive for the interpretation of this engraving. We therefore conclude that it is quite likely that the figure walking on the tightrope was Pius VII (Cesena, 1742-Rome, 1823) and that Goya subsequently thought that it might be advisable not to make the identification of the figure in the print so obvious with a view to a possible publication of the series of engravings.

Pius VII was well described in his texts by Juan Antonio Llorente (Rincón de Soto, La Rioja, 1756-Madrid, 1823); secretary of the Inquisition during the nineties of the 18th century and ambassador of the second constitutional government to the Vatican between 1820 and 1823. His stay in Rome helped him to write a history of the papacy in which he gave some interesting insights into the opportunistic personality of the supreme pontiff: "Pius VII will be ungrateful if he denies that he owes Napoleon Bonaparte the freedom and power of his electors and the peaceful possession of his chair in Rome". Further on he wrote: "The French wanted to elevate their first consul to the dignity of emperor and Pius VII went from Rome to Paris with great pleasure to crown him, as he did in a great ceremony with incomparable solemnity. Subsequently, political affairs took a different turn, and the Emperor stripped Pius VII of the temporal sovereignty of the Roman states". After the fall of Napoleon, Pius VII removed from office all the bishops who had been placed there by virtue of an agreement between him and Napoleon.

Ferdinand VII asked the Pope to promulgate a bull in which he pardoned the religious who had joined the guerrillas during the War of Independence. In addition, the Spanish monarch asked the Church, with the approval of Pius VII, for priests to demand that the people pay taxes from their pulpits. This commitment on the part of the Church placed it in a position that could be what Goya has captured in this engraving, that of someone walking a tightrope full of knots and patches that presage the fall before the attentive gaze of the people.

Nigel Glendinning makes some interesting observations about this engraving, as he considers the image to be a representation of the saying "to walk on a tightrope", which means to be involved in some dangerous action. In this way Goya refers to the somewhat ambiguous dealings in which the Church found itself at that time with the Spanish monarchy in order to obtain its protection, although accepting conditions of a certain risk. 

The Rope Breaks continues the compositional scheme employed by Goya in the previous engravings, No. 75, A Charlatan's Parade and No. 76, The Carnivorous Vulture, in which the centrepiece of the image is a large central figure with its limbs spread out.

Conservación

The plate is in the National Chalcography (cat. 328).

Exposiciones
  • Goya and his times
    The Royal Academy of Arts
    London
    1963
    cat. 66
  • Goya. Das Zeitalter der Revolucionen. Kunst um 1800 (1980 – 1981)
    Hamburger Kunsthalle
    Hamburg
    1980
  • Goya y el espíritu de la Ilustración
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    1988
    from October 6th to December 18th 1988. Exhibited also at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, January 18th to March 26th 1989; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nueva York, May 9th to July 16th 1989, Madrid curator Manuela B. Mena Marqués, scientific directors Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez and Eleanor A. Sayre
  • 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
  • Ydioma universal: Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    Biblioteca Nacional
    Madrid
    1996
    from September 19th to December 15th 1996
  • Francisco Goya. Capricci, follie e disastri della guerra
    San Donato Milanese
    2000
    Opere grafiche della Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta
  • Goya: Prophet der Moderne
    Alte Nationalgalerie
    Berlin
    2005
    from July 13th to October 3th 2005. Exhibitied also at the Kunsthistorischemuseum, Vienna, October 18th 2005 to January 8th 2006, consultant editor Manuela B. Mena Marqués
  • 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
Bibliografía
  • BERUETE Y MONET, Aureliano de
    Goya, grabador
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridBlass S.A.
    1918
    cat. 179
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.
    Bibliography']['number
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    cat. 197
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    Bibliography']['number
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    cat. 1128
  • GLENDINNING, Nigel
    A solution to the enigma of Goya’s emphatic caprices nº 65-80 of The Disasters of War
    Apollo
    Bibliography']['number
    1978
    pp.186-191
  • PÉREZ SÁNCHEZ, Alfonso E. y SAYRE, Eleanor A. (directores) and MENA, Manuela B. (comisaria)
    Goya y el espíritu de la Ilustración
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridMuseo del Prado
    1988
    pp.443-445, cat. 159
  • 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. 301
  • MENA MARQUÉS, Manuela B.
    Goya en tiempos de guerra
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridMuseo Nacional del Prado
    2008
    p.344, fig. 117.1
  • OROPESA, Marisa and RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wilfredo
    Bibliography']['number
    ParísPinacoteca de París
    2013
    p. 158
  • ILCHMAN, Frederick y STEPANEK, Stephanie L. (comisarios)
    Goya: Order & Disorder
    Bibliography']['number
    BostonMuseum of Fine Arts Boston Publications
    2014
    p. 225
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    Bibliography']['number
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 114-151
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