Prints of Goya’s Disasters of War on display at the Grand Master’s Palace

by Gozo News · November 7, 2025

Prints of Goya’s Disasters of War from the collections of Fundacion MAPFRE, are on display at the Grand Master’s Palace, Heritage Malta said.

Disasters of War is a series of 80 etchings with which Spanish artist Goya immortalised the brutality of the Peninsular War (1808-1814) between France and Spain – a violent convulsion of anarchy, starvation and slaughter with long-lasting catastrophic effects.

Heritage Malta explained that the series (c.1810-15) is deemed to be Goya’s personal reflection on the devastating effects of the war on the people, showing scenes that are raw and unsettling in their depiction of battlefield horror and dehumanisation. Goya may have witnessed some of the events depicted in the prints himself. However, it is not possible to locate specific places.

The scenes are divided into three parts. The first 47 focus on incidents from the war and show the consequences on individual soldiers and civilians; the next ones record the effects of the famine that hit Madrid in 1811-12, before the city was liberated from the French; and the final 17, which are more allegorical, reflect the bitter disappointment of progressive thinkers when the restored Bourbon monarchy, encouraged by the Catholic hierarchy, rejected social reform.

With this work, Goya breaks away from a number of artistic traditions. In fact, Disasters of War is the first example in the history of art where war and its consequences are depicted not as heroic acts, but as the tragedy and barbarism that they truly stand for.

Albeit depicting the war in Spain, Goya’s images could relate to any war – which is what renders this exhibition incredibly powerful and of contemporary relevance.

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) is considered to be the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This is the very first time in Malta that an entire exhibition is dedicated to his work.

This exhibition is sponsored by MAPFRE Malta and the Bank of Valletta (BOV) Foundation.

The exhibition remains open till the 18th of January 2026.