It Will Be the Same (Será lo mismo)

In this print Goya depicts a scene that is probably taking place at night, given the extreme darkness of the setting. The print shows men trying to carry away some corpses. On the right, two men are holding a body wrapped in a white sheet that has been given great pictorial depth. Next to these two men in the middle ground, a figure covered from head to foot - perhaps a female relative of one of the dead - covers her face with her hands. On the left-hand side of the print are three more dead bodies.

The title of the print highlights the futility of moving the bodies, since taking them somewhere else will be no different to leaving them where they are: there is nothing that can be done.

This image must be understood in the context of print no. 22,All This and More, and nº 23,The Same Elsewhere, in which the artist also represents open spaces littered with piles of corpses. In both cases, the scenes have a markedly horizontal composition that transmits a strong sensation of stillness and peace, as well as a sense of sepulchral silence.

The moving of corpses after a battle is a theme also dealt with by Fernando Brambila (Cassano d'Adda, 1763-Madrid, 1832) and Juan Gálvez (Mora, Toledo, 1774-Madrid, 1847) in the print entitled Second Ruin of the Interior of the Church of the General Hospital (Ruina segunda del interior de la yglesia del hospital general) (ca. 1812-1813, Lázaro Galdiano Museum, Madrid).