GOYA Y LUCIENTES, Francisco de
(b. 1746, Fuendetodos, d. 1828, Bordeaux)

Will She Rise Again? (Si reucitaria?)

1810-14
Etching, 175 x 220 mm
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This is Plate 80 from the series The Disasters of War (Los desastres de la guerra).

In the concluding plates of the Disasters of War are shown the burial of a beautiful young woman, followed by her exhumation or resurrection . Captioned Murio la verdad (Truth has Died), the first shows her body radiant with light as she lies in her grave and a looming priest administers the last rites. In the companion print, Si reucitaria? (Will She Rise Again?), she is exposed, her radiance and beauty faded, her face aged. Still she emits a glow that seems all the greater for the depth of background shadow - and sufficient to throw the crowd of peering ghouls into a frenzy. Here, the parallel hatching of the first etched plate is replaced by radiant lines, inked more intensely as they spread away from the body.




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