Not For Those 1814

Curator: The artwork we're examining is titled "Not For Those" by Francisco de Goya, created around 1814. It's a print, using the etching technique. Editor: The first thing that strikes me is the mood, this incredible sense of dread just radiating from the image. The scratchy, dark lines, the figures contorted in agony... it feels like a nightmare made real. Curator: Absolutely. Goya produced this during a politically turbulent period in Spain. His series "The Disasters of War" is a visceral commentary on the atrocities committed during the Peninsular War, and this particular etching offers a harrowing glimpse into the suffering endured by civilians. We can read it through lenses of conflict, gender and the intersectional narratives of loss. Editor: It's the details that get to you. The expressions, or lack thereof, in the faces. That one soldier... it looks like he's staring right through us, doesn't it? As if this barbarity is an unavoidable fact of human existence. Gives you the chills, almost. And the child in the lower left… so carelessly discarded. Goya uses stark contrasts—the horror made starker, almost impossible to witness, especially within the composition of the scene. Curator: That blank stare speaks volumes, I think. It suggests a desensitization to violence, a loss of humanity, perhaps even the corruption of innocence. What also hits me are the stark light effects, drawing attention to the carnage while leaving the backgrounds disturbingly shadowy, hiding even more darkness. And yes, that child—a potent symbol of the war's devastating impact on future generations, as much as a stark reminder of their current existence. It implicates and entraps the viewer as it refuses to permit escape. Editor: Thinking about its context within "The Disasters of War", it's even more unsettling. This is just one scene of many, and the sense of never-ending pain is amplified. You start to wonder about the cumulative effect of these acts of violence. And what sort of monsters perpetrate them? Is it evil? And does that banality of evil become an everyday occurrence for humanity? Are we these horrors? Curator: It is a powerful, uncomfortable question the artwork asks. Editor: "Not For Those," indeed. Definitely not an etching for the faint of heart! You start thinking about Goya, about what was churning within him at the time, what made him create. Curator: Yes, Goya has provided a deeply critical study on how power influences these structures, as well as what we can learn from understanding its effects on humanity in society today. It truly has the aura of something unutterably real.