The Disasters of War are a series of 82 prints created between 1810 and
1820 by Spanish master painter and printmaker Francisco Goya. Although
he did not make known his intention when creating the plates, art
historians view them as a visual protest against the violence of the
1808 Dos de Mayo Uprising, the subsequent Peninsular War of 1808–14 and
the setbacks to the liberal cause following the restoration of the
Bourbon monarchy in 1814. They were not published until 1863, 35 years
after his death. With these works, he breaks from a number of painterly
traditions. He rejects the bombastic heroics of most previous Spanish
war art to show the effect of conflict on individuals. In addition he
abandons colour in favour of a more direct truth he found in shadow and
shade. The series was produced using a variety of intaglio printmaking
techniques, mainly etching for the line work and aquatint for the tonal
areas, but also engraving and drypoint. The first 47 focus on incidents
from the war and show the consequences of the conflict on individual
soldiers and civilians. The middle series (plates 48 to 64) record the
effects of the famine that hit Madrid in 1811–12, before the city was
liberated from the French. The final 17 reflect the bitter
disappointment of liberals when the restored Bourbon monarchy,
encouraged by the Catholic hierarchy, rejected the Spanish Constitution
of 1812 and opposed both state and religious reform.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Disasters_of_War>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1521:
Filipino natives led by chieftain Lapu-Lapu killed Portuguese explorer
Ferdinand Magellan and over forty Spanish soldiers at the Battle of
Mactan.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mactan>
1565:
Conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi and 500 armed soldiers arrived at
Cebu and established there the first Spanish settlement in the
Philippines.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cebu_City>
1805:
First Barbary War: U.S. Marines engaged forces of the Barbary Coast at
the Battle of Derne in Tripoli, marking the first recorded land battle
by the United States on foreign soil.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Derne>
1904:
Chris Watson became the first Australian Prime Minister from the
Australian Labour Party, and the first Labour Party prime minister in
the world.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Watson>
1967:
The Expo 67 World's Fair opened in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with over
50 million visitors and 62 nations participating.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_67>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
jinx (v):
1. To cast a spell on.
2. To bring bad luck to
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jinx>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for
happiness, the good he seeks.
--Mary Wollstonecraft
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft>