Notes
The
Spanish
civilians
bore
the
brunt
of
the
worst
excesses
of
the
war
between
France
and
Spain.
Atrocities
committed
by
the
occupying
French
troops
were
meant
to
quell
resistance,
but
instead
were
followed
by
worse
atrocities
from
Spanish
rebels.
This
cycle
broke
down
even
what
limited
rules
policed
war
in
the
1800s,
and
the
anarchy
of
destruction
turned
Spain
into
a
land
devoid
of
restraints.
The
cruelty
impacted
Goya
in
such
a
way
that
his
response
-
the
series
of
plates
which
make
up
the
Disasters
of
War
-
seem
both
an
indictment
and
a
question,
about
Spain,
the
French,
and
humankind.
"His
debt
to
Christianity
of
the
eighteenth
century
is
contained
in
the
idea
that
politics
was
just
adopting
from
the
Gospels;
the
conviction
that
man
has
a
right
to
justice.
Such
a
statement
would
seem
utterly
conceited
to
a
Roman,
who
would
doubtless
have
looked
upon
the
Disasters
as
we
look
on
photographs
of
the
amphitheatre...
But
if
Goya
thought
that
man
has
not
come
onto
the
earth
to
be
cut
in
pieces
he
thought
that
he
must
have
come
here
for
something.
"
Page
112,
from
Andre
Malraux's
SATURN:
AN
ESSAY
ON
GOYA,
Phaidon
Press
1957
