Francisco Goya was one of Spain’s most significant printmakers, rivaling Rembrandt and Durer in the quality and quantity of works. Goya gained valuable experience as a printmaker in 1778 when he produced copies of Valezquez’s paintings for King Charles III, but he employed prints primarily as a creative medium to explore themes not allowed for by commissioned works. His prints were not widely circulated during his lifetime.

The Bell Gallery collection contains 71 of the 80 prints from Los Desastres de la Guerra or Disasters of War, four from the Los Caprichos series (1797–99), and one from the Los Disparates series (1816–1823).  

The first edition of the Disasters was printed in 1863, thirty-five years after the artist’s death. Additional aquatint was added to mask some of the deterioration of the plates. The Bell Gallery prints appear to be late impressions from the first edition, (T. Harris 1b).    

The Disasters was a direct reaction to Napoleon’s invasion of Spain in 1807.  On May 2, 1808 an uprising began the Spanish resistance, which would continue through 1813. Goya documented the consequences of the uprising in his painting 3rd May 1808 and in the print Con razon o sin ella, (Rightly or wrongly, pl. 2), which uses a similar compositional scheme to dehumanize the attackers and exploit the pain and suffering of the victims. But, Goya was by no means purely patriotic, images like Esto es peor, (This is worse, pl. 37) demonstrate the absolute horrors and senselessness of war and the atrocities committed by both sides.

As Goya worked on the series from 1808 and 1812 he included the many aspects of the Spanish war. Women participated in the fighting and in Y son fieras (And they are like wild beasts, pl. 5) Goya dramatically shows a mother carrying a bare-bottomed baby on her back as she wields her spear at the enemy. In Estragos de la querra, (Ravages of war, pl. 30)—one of the first depictions of an explosion—Goya captures a moment of the tumultuous action: while the dead lie amongst the rubble, furniture and a figure tumble through space. It is thought that the print references a severe blast that destroyed numerous buildings in Zaragoza on the last day of June in 1808.

Between 1811–12 Madrid was devastated by a famine. In Si son de otro linage, (Perhaps they are of another breed, pl. 61) it is not just the French who have no heart, but the affluent as well. Toward the end of the series Goya shifted to a more allegorical representation of war. In Murio la Verdad, (Truth has died, pl. 79) truth and liberty are buried by a priest and some not too sympathetic onlookers; the only pity is shown by Justice weeping on the right. 

The Los Disparates series was also first published posthumously, by the Spanish Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1864.  However, four of the Disparates plates, including Disparate Puntual or Punctual Folly (in the Bell Gallery collection) were separated from the rest of the series and not published until 1877 in French magazine L’Art. Possibly executed in France, where Goya enjoyed the circus, Punctual Folly, also called Slack Rope, depicts a woman balancing on a horse, which in turn appears to balance on a rope. This show plays out, possibly as the title implies, as a regular occurrence in front of an audience with their eyes closed. However, on closer inspection this impossible feat is just an illusion as the rope is really on the ground. According to Tomás Harris (Goya: Engravings and Lithographs), to dance or walk on a slack rope has a similar meaning as “walking on thin ice.”