What Courage!, plate seven from The Disasters of War Possibly 1810 - 1863

Editor: Goya’s “What Courage!,” an etching from the “Disasters of War” series, made sometime between 1810 and 1863. The scene is stark—a woman stands defiantly near a cannon, almost perched atop the bodies lying on the ground. It feels overwhelmingly bleak, yet there’s a strange sort of defiant energy in that one figure. What strikes you most when you look at it? Curator: The horror, undeniably, but also that spark you mentioned, a twisted sort of beauty rising from the ashes. Goya’s use of etching is particularly affecting here; the harsh lines seem to mimic the brutality of war itself, don’t you think? Notice how the light seems to fight with the dark, mirroring the conflict in the image. He's almost daring us to look away, but we can't. Are we witnesses, or are we complicit, standing there watching? Editor: That’s a chilling question! The way you describe the light fighting the dark makes me see the woman’s figure in a new way—less as a beacon of hope and more as part of this awful, unavoidable scene. It’s like she’s caught in the crossfire. Curator: Precisely. Think about the historical context, too. Spain was in turmoil, invaded by Napoleon’s forces. Goya, as a court painter, had a front-row seat to the devastation. It’s a searing indictment, but also a reflection on the human spirit’s capacity for both cruelty and resilience. Almost daring us to extract meaning from a world gone awry, perhaps? Editor: So it's less about glorifying courage, as the title ironically suggests, and more about showing the brutal reality of war? Curator: Oh, Goya's definitely a master of the sardonic wink. He presents a romanticized view of heroism just to rip the rug out from under our feet, no? Maybe it’s a comment on the absurdity of it all…the futility of such grand gestures in the face of such profound loss. And doesn’t the loose application of ink add to the chaos? Editor: Absolutely. Seeing how Goya used technique to reinforce the message makes the image even more powerful. I went in thinking about courage, but I’m leaving thinking about… the absence of it, maybe? Curator: Exactly! Art can be a disquieting mirror, reflecting back the truths we’d often rather ignore, isn't it? It's those aftershocks, those lingering questions that great art leaves you with.