THE DISASTERS OF WAR
A set of eighty prints in aqua-tinta. Published by the Academia de San Fernando in 1863:—
1. Tristes presentimientos....
‘Sad presentiments.’ An emaciated man, symbolical of the Spanish people, kneels in a supplicating attitude, and regards the sky, which is filled with portentous monsters.
2. Con razón ó sin ella.
‘With or without reason.’ Two peasants attacking French troops.
3. Lo mismo.
‘All the same.’ Similar subject.
4. Las mujeres dan valor.
‘Women inspire courage.’ Women resisting soldiers.
5. Y son fieras.
‘And are like wild beasts.’ Similar subject.
6. Bien te se está.
‘A good thing.’ French soldiers dying.
7. Que valor!
‘Courage!’ The Maid of Zaragoza.
8. Siempre sucede.
‘What always happens.’ French soldiers put to flight.
9. No quieren.
‘They will not.’ Women resisting soldiers.
10. Tampoco.
‘Nor they.’ Similar subject.
11. Ni por esas.
‘Not for these.’ Similar subject.
12. Para eso habeis nacido?
‘Were you born for this?’ Man falls dying on a heap of slain.
13. Amarga presencia.
‘A bitter sight.’ Woman witnessing maltreatment of her husband by soldiers.
14. Duro es el paso.
‘Hard is the way.’ Hanging of prisoners.
15. Y no hay remedio.
‘And there was no remedy.’ Execution of prisoners.
16. Se aprovechar.
‘They avail themselves.’ Troops stripping the slain.
17. No se convienen.
‘They do not agree.’ Battle piece. Dispute between French officers.
18. Enterrar y callar.
‘Bury and be silent.’ Weeping man and woman gaze on a heap of slain.
19. Ya no hay tiempo.
‘There is no time.’ Fruitless appeal by women to a French officer.
20. Curarlos y a otra.
‘To heal them and each other.’ Wounded guerrillas.
21. Será lo mismo.
‘It will be the same.’ Wounded men; woman weeping.
22. Tanto y más.
‘As many and more.’ Heap of slain.
23. Lo mismo en otras partes.
‘The same elsewhere.’ Similar subject.
24. Aun podrán servir.
‘They are still of use.’ Sick people carrying the wounded.
25. Tambien estos.
‘And there also.’ Wounded in an ambulance.
26. No se puede mirar.
‘That cannot be seen.’ People lying on the ground threatened by the muskets of the troops.
27. Caridad.
‘Charity.’ Corpses being thrown into a ditch.
28. Populacho.
‘The populace.’ Mutilating a corpse.
29. Lo merecia.
‘He deserved it.’ Soldier’s body being dragged by cords.
30. Estragos de la guerra.
‘The tragedy of war.’ Men and women projected headlong into a cellar.
31. Fuerte cosa es!
‘Might is stronger than right!’ Prisoners being hanged by the French.
32. Por qué?
‘Why?’ Prisoner being tortured by three soldiers.
33. Que hay que hacer mas?
‘What more is there to do?’ Similar subject.
34. Por una navaja.
‘For a knife.’ Corpse of executed assassin on a scaffold.
35. No se puede saber por qué.
‘No one knows why.’ Eight men garrotted with labels round their necks.
36. Tampóco.
‘Neither.’ French soldier watches a man hanging from a tree.
37. Esto es peor.
‘This is worse.’ Mutilated corpse impaled on a tree.
38. Barbaros!
‘Barbarians!’ Execution of a prisoner.
39. Grande hazaña—Con muertos!
‘Great prowess—With the dead!’ Three horribly mutilated corpses.
40. Algun partido saca.
‘He turns it to account.’ Man fighting a wild beast.
41. Escapan entre las llamas.
‘They escape through the flames.’
42. Todo va revuelto.
‘Everything in confusion.’ Friars fly hither and thither.
43. Tambien esto.
‘These also.’ Similar subject.
44. Yo lo ví.
‘I saw it.’ People flying from a village. Mother dragging away her children.
45. Y esto tambien.
‘And this also.’ Similar subject.
46. Esto malo.
‘This is bad.’ Soldiers slaughtering monks.
47. Así sucedió.
‘Thus it happened.’ Soldiers, watched by a monk, despoiling a church.
48. Cruel lástima!
‘Cruel misfortune!’ A man imploring succour near a heap of slain.
49. Caridad de una muger.
‘A woman’s charity.’ Women tending the wounded.
50. Madre infeliz.
‘Unhappy mother!’ Child, weeping, beholds its mother carried off by soldiers.
51. Gracias á la almorta.
‘Thanks to the blue vetch.’ Woman distributing grain to the afflicted.
52. No llegan á tiempo.
‘Too late.’ Women arrive too late to help a companion.
53. Espiró sin remedio.
‘He died without help.’ Group of persons round a corpse.
54. Clamores en vano.
‘No help.’ Starving people vainly beseech a French dragoon for help.
55. Lo peor es pedir.
‘To beg is the worst of all.’ Starving men vainly appeal for help to a French lady.
56. Al cementerio!
‘To the cemetery.’ Corpse being carried to the graveyard.
57. Sanos y enfermos.
‘The quick and the dead.’ The hale and the sick both taking refuge in a vault.
58. No hay que dar voces.
‘Of no use to cry.’ Group of starving and afflicted persons.
59. De qué sirve una taza?
‘Of what use is one cup?’ Woman carrying a cupful of nourishment to a group of starving women.
60. No hay quien los socorra.
‘There is nobody to help them.’ Three men prostrate, another standing; all feel the approach of death.
61. Si son de otro linaje?
‘Are they of another race?’ Frenchmen remain indifferent to the appeal of some starving wretches.
62. Las camas de la muerte.
‘The deathbeds.’ Women weeping over a heap of slain.
63. Muertos recogidos.
‘The dead collected.’ A heap of slain.
64. Carretadas al cementerio.
‘Cart-loads for the cemetery.’ Carts being loaded with corpses.
65. Qué alboroto es este?
‘What means this tumult?’ A French officer writes at a table. People taking to flight.
66. Extraña devocion.
‘Strange devotion.’ People adoring relics carried on the back of an ass.
67. Esta no lo es menos.
‘This is not less so.’ Procession of the image of Our Lady of Sorrows.
68. Qué locura!
‘What madness!’ A monk, surrounded by objects of popular devotion.
69. Nada.
‘Nothing.’ A spectre emerging from the tomb writes the word ‘Nada’ on a sheet of paper.
70. No saben el camino.
‘They do not know the way.’ A procession of ecclesiastics tied together by ropes. ‘The blind leading the blind.’
71. Contra el bien general.
‘Against the general good.’ An old man with bat’s ears writing in an open book. An allusion probably to some unpopular statesman.
72. Las resultas.
‘The consequences.’ The above personage and other vampires drinking the blood of a corpse, representing Spain.
73. Gatesca pantomima.
‘Cat’s pantomime.’ A monk, birds of prey, and others doing homage to a cat (Godoy?).
74. Esto es lo peor.
‘This is the worst.’ A wolf signing a document; a monk in attendance.
75. Farándula de charlatanes.
‘Meeting of quacks.’ Monks with heads of asses, parrots, and pigs.
76. El buitre carnivoro.
‘The carnivorous vulture.’ A huge vulture pursued by a crowd of monks and soldiers.
77. Que se rompe la cuerda.
‘May the rope break.’ King Joseph represented walking on a rope.
78. Se defiende bien.
‘He defends himself well.’ A horse (Spain) defending himself against wolves.
79. Murió la verdad.
‘Truth died.’ Truth represented as a young woman crowned with laurels.
80. Si resucitará?
‘Will she revive?’ The same figure appearing about to arise from the grave.
(79 and 80 appear to refer to the abolition of the Constitution by Fernando VII.)
81. Fiero monstruo.
‘Bold monster.’ An enormous cat devouring human beings.
82. Esto es lo verdadero.
‘There is Truth.’ Truth is represented by a young woman leaning on the shoulder of a husbandman.
(81 and 82 are not usually included in the series Disasters of War.)