That is the worst of it!, plate 74 from The Disasters of War
1815/20, published 1863
Medium
Etching and burnishing on ivory wove paper with gilt edges
Dimensions
Image: 15.3 × 19.3 cm (6 1/16 × 7 5/8 in.); Plate: 17.5 × 21.5 cm (6 15/16 × 8 1/2 in.); Sheet: 24 × 33.7 cm (9 1/2 × 13 5/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
124927
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In this etching Goya did not merely suggest the bestial behavior of the clergy, as in the other Disasters of War prints nearby. Going beyond masks and dramatic poses, here the artist depicted a fox or a wolf signing a document reading “Miserable humanity, the fault is yours,” assigning the blame for the world’s sad state to the church by handing the sheet to the tonsured friar in front of him. Propaganda images visually equating priests with hungry wolves are known from as early as the 16th-cent...
Art Historical Context
Francisco Goya's *That is the worst of!*, plate 74 his seminal series *The Disasters War*, captures the raw anguish of conflict during the Peninsular War (18081814). Created between 1815 and 1820 but published posthumously in 1863, this etching belongs to a cycle of 82 prints where Goya documented the brutal realities of Napoleon's invasion of Spain, blending eyewitness horror with biting social commentary. As a master of Romanticism, Goya abandoned heroic ideals for unflinching realism, making this series one of the first graphic protests against war's inhumanity—a precursor to modern photojournalism. Rendered in etching and burnishing on ivory wove paper with gilt edges, the intimate scale (image 15.3 × 19.3 cm) draws viewers into a scene of profound despair: a shrouded figure laments amid corpses, embodying the print's title's grim irony. Burnishing softens etched lines for subtle tones, heightening emotional depth without color's distraction. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings department, this work exemplifies Goya's technical innovation and moral urgency, inviting reflection on timeless human suffering.
About the Artist
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes · 1746–1828
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was born on March 30, 1746, in the small Aragonese village of Fuendetodos, Spain, to José Benito de Goya, a master gilder, and Gracia de Lucientes. The fourth of six children in a modest lower-middle-class family, Goya received a basic education before beginning his artistic training at age 14 under the local painter José Luzán y Martínez in Zaragoza, where he sp...