About this artwork
Even mothers are driven to violence, as this image depicts. A woman holds a child on her left hip, even as she thrusts a spear into a French soldier with her right arm. In the background, other women assault the enemy by various means or languish from their wounds. The striking juxtaposition of the maternal with violent aggression serves to communicate the desperate conditions of the Peninsular War.
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Prints and Drawings
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Artist
- Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
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Title
- And they are like wild beasts, plate five from The Disasters of War
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Place
- Spain (Artist's nationality:)
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Date
- 1812–1815
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Medium
- Etching, burnished aquatint, and drypoint on ivory wove paper with gilt edges
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Dimensions
- Image: 13.4 × 18.3 cm (5 5/16 × 7 1/4 in.); Plate: 15.5 × 20.8 cm (6 1/8 × 8 1/4 in.); Sheet: 24 × 33.8 cm (9 1/2 × 13 5/16 in.)
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Credit Line
- Gift of J. C. Cebrian
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Reference Number
- 1920.1310
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IIIF Manifest
- https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/124843/manifest.json