• At the time of the revolution in Spain, caused by the war against Napoleon in 1808, whose horrors are recorded in these etchings, Francisco Jose de Goya (1746-1828), though an old man, was still in the midst of a brilliant career as painter and favorite of the Spanish court. His oil portraits are masterpieces, but it is for his etchings that he is perhaps more widely known. The Disasters of War is Goya's indictment of men at war and of the brutalities that they inflict upon one another in the madness of battle. With the immediacy of hallucination, these etchings achieve the impression of realism by distorting outlines and heightening effects, often with macabre humor. Though the scenes of The Disasters of War were suggested by the atrocities of the Peninsular Campaign, their interest is not merely historical. There is an abstract, even allegorical quality about the agonized figures set against backgrounds of shattered trees or stark blackness. Wartime horror and desolation are recurring symptoms of a human disease. Goya's indictment calls our time as well as his to account for its actions.