Art Institute of Chicago

Truth has died, plate 79 from The Disasters of War

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

Date

1815/20, published 1863

Medium

Etching and burnishing on ivory wove paper with gilt edges

Culture

Spain

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Though not the last plate of the series, this print finalizes its central themes in a profound manner, claiming that truth itself is dead. Here, personified by a shining corpse about to be buried, truth connotes constitutional liberty. Justice is featured at the right, clasping her scales in her left hand. She covers her face, perhaps weeping, as if she cannot bear the scene before her. By ending the series on this note of despair, Francisco de Goya brought an answer to the question of what must come to pass ( plate one )—the final blow of war is that truth is dead and justice despondent.

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