This painting is often explained as an allegory of the war in Spain, either as a figure representing Spain, or of the crushing power of war itself. Goya used a combination of brush and palette knife to complete this work.

(On April 4, 2001, a news article translating some of the comments of British art historian Juliet Wilson-Bareau in the Spanish language The Art Newspaper, disputed Goya's authorship of this painting. A Prado representative was reported to acknowledge the report as probably true. An other 150 Goya images were also called into dispute. Thus far, the hard evidence, or proof for these assertions, seems to reside chiefly on the opinions of these experts. Whether counter opinions will be presented, or if there is indeed something more tangible supporting these claims, to my knowledge, has yet to appear. - Erik)

A screenshot of the news at cnn.com :

(To read a defense of the authorship of this painting as belonging to Goya, read the material we have on Professor Antonio Pereles here.