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That is the worst of it!, plate 74 from The Disasters of War

A work made of etching and burnishing on ivory wove paper with gilt edges.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of etching and burnishing on ivory wove paper with gilt edges.

Date:

1815/20, published 1863

Artist:

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
Spanish, 1746-1828

About this artwork

In this etching Goya did not merely suggest the bestial behavior of the clergy, as in the other Disasters of War prints nearby. Going beyond masks and dramatic poses, here the artist depicted a fox or a wolf signing a document reading “Miserable humanity, the fault is yours,” assigning the blame for the world’s sad state to the church by handing the sheet to the tonsured friar in front of him. Propaganda images visually equating priests with hungry wolves are known from as early as the 16th-century German Protestant Reformation, an approach Goya drew on here.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

Title

That is the worst of it!, plate 74 from The Disasters of War

Place

Spain (Artist's nationality)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1815–1820

Medium

Etching and burnishing on ivory wove paper with gilt edges

Dimensions

Image: 15.3 × 19.3 cm (6 1/16 × 7 5/8 in.); Plate: 17.5 × 21.5 cm (6 15/16 × 8 1/2 in.); Sheet: 24 × 33.7 cm (9 1/2 × 13 5/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of J. C. Cebrian

Reference Number

1920.1379

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/124927/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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