Francisco Goya

El Buitre Carnivoro (The Carnivorous Vulture)

"El Buitre Carnivoro" 'The Carnivorous Vulture' hails from Francisco Goya's series of etchings, entitled, 'The Disasters of War' (1810-1820). "El Buitre Carnivoro" provides one of the most striking images from the Disasters of War set and perhaps one of the most hopeful. A gigantic vulture is being cast out by the villagers behind it. In actuality the tyrant bird's exile is accomplished by the heroic actions of only one man, the solitary soldier armed with a pitchfork. (From a political point of view, because the vulture is banished by a soldier, one can speculate that it is a parody upon the French Imperial Eagle and thus the defeat of the occupying French in Spain.) .

"El Buitre Carnivoro" 'The Carnivorous Vulture' is an original etching and aquatint engraved by Francisco Goya. This impression is printed upon heavy wove paper as published for the first Madrid edition of 1863.

El Buitre Carnivoro Original Etching by Francisco Goya

El Buitre Carnivoro (The Carnivorous Vulture)

View other original works of art by Francisco Goya.

Goya, Francisco (Fuentodos, 1746 - Bordeaux, 1828)
#	Image	Title & Artist	English Title	Medium	Date	Notes	-
01-		Chiton by Francisco Goya	Hush	Original Etching and Aquatint	1799	Catalogue # 63: Los Caprichos (II - Trial Proof with corrections printed before the published First Edition of 300 impressions.)	Sold
02.-		El Buitre Carnivoro by Francisco Goya	The Carnivorous Vulture	Original Etching	c. 1815 - 1820	Catalogue #186: The Disasters of War (First Published Edition, 1863)	Sold
03.-		Extrana Devocion by Francisco Goya	Strange Piety	Original Etching & Aquatint	1815 - 1820	Catalogue # 186: The Disasters of War (Fourth Published Edition, 1875)	Sold
04.-		Quien Lo Creyera! by Francisco Goya	Who Would Have Thought It!	Original Etching & Aquatint	1799	Catalogue # 97: Los Caprichos (First Edition published in 1799.)	Sold
05.-		Ya es Hora by Francisco Goya	It Is Time	Original Etching & Aquatint	1799	Catalogue # 115: Los Caprichos (Fourth edition published by the Real Academia in Madrid in 1878.)	Sold

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Title:	El Buitre Carnivoro (The Carnivorous Vulture)
Artist:	Goya, Francisco (Fuentodos, 1746 - Bordeaux, 1828)
Date:	c. 1815 - 1820 (First Published Edition: 1863)
Medium:	Original Etching
Note:	Francisco Goya: A strong case can be made that the prints and paintings of Francisco Goya constitute the single greatest influence upon the course of nineteenth and twentieth century art. There is no doubt that he was a truly masterful painter; yet his enormous influence was and is found in his original etchings, aquatints and lithographs. Along with Durer, Rembrandt and Whistler, Francisco Goya belongs to the select group of the world's greatest printmaking artists of all time.
	Goya's original prints were largely ignored or suppressed during his lifetime. Many, including the complete Disasters of War set, were not published until well after his death. As a large number of his etchings were (at least on one level) direct attacks upon the political and religious powers of the day, they were simply too dangerous for public examination. Yet what great artists who followed Francisco Goya were not affected by his graphic art? Such masters as Delacroix, Manet, Redon, Picasso, Ernst and the entire schools of Expressionism and Symbolism paid direct homage to his genius.
	Francisco Goya's first great set of prints, Los Caprichos, appeared in 1799. This remarkable collection of eighty-four etchings with aquatint was largely satirical in nature and included numerous attacks upon the clergy, the nobility and upon a host of cultural follies and vices. But unlike many satirists, Goya was rarely didactic or one dimensional. His monumental understanding of human nature and the ultimate unreason of man's existence pushed his imagery to multiple layers of intellectual and emotional meaning, even in the earlier etchings.
	The Napoleonic invasion of Spain (1808-1812) led to Goya's next great series of etchings, The Disasters of War (1810-1820). Here we are confronted with the ultimate horror, and no imagery in the history of art has chronicled the devastation of war and violence as powerfully as The Disasters.
	Goya originally planned to produce approximately sixty-five plates for this set. However, he continued to create an additional eighteen plates after the defeat of Napoleon and the re-instatement of the monarchy of Fernando VII. These latter etchings were included with the initial series to bring the final count to eighty-two.
	Francisco Goya termed the final eighteen plates the Caprichos Enfaticos ('Striking Caprices'). In some ways, these Caprices hark back to the 1799 Caprichos. Again more satirical in content, these etchings reintroduce the animals and monsters so dominant in the early set. However they now represent a direct commentary upon the failure of post war Spain. On his return to power in 1814, Fernando restored the church and monastic orders to their former positions of power. He also took as his advisors some of the most corrupt and despised men from these ranks. Thus in the Caprichos Enfaticos etchings Goya delineates the absurdity of attempting to return to the old ways which were ruled largely by superstition, ignorance and fear. In the end these powerful works of art pose the question (as vital to our culture today), 'Have we learned nothing from the wreckage of war?'
	El Buitre Carnivoro (The Carnivorous Vulture) provides one of the most striking images from the Disasters of War set and perhaps one of the most hopeful. A gigantic vulture is being cast out by the villagers behind it. In actuality the tyrant bird's exile is accomplished by the heroic actions of only one man, the solitary soldier armed with a pitchfork. (From a political point of view, because the vulture is banished by a soldier, one can speculate that it is a parody upon the French Imperial Eagle and thus the defeat of the occupying French in Spain.) The remainder of the crowd occupy themselves either by laughing at the vulture's retreat (the pair of men to the immediate right of the soldier), or at festive activities such as lovemaking (the couple to the left of the soldier). Others, such as those to the extreme right, seemed so wrapped up in their own activities that they entirely miss the momentous event at hand.
	Francisco Goya's artistic treatment of crowds would provide a compelling essay on its own. They become particularly dominant (and disturbing) in his Caprichos Enfaticos and in his last great series, Los Proverbios. In general, they appear tightly packed together to the point where they seem to exist as a single wave, having in reality no individual life apart from the collective whole. They are in fact prisoners of their own stations as much as worker bees or drones. In El Buitre Carnivoro, (The Carnivorous Vulture) of course, the heroic action of the soldier lifts him away from the crowd. But upon closer observation another individual emerges from the mass of humanity. Strategically placed directly under the hindquarters of the vulture a man studiously observes the event. Dressed in the unmistakable garb of a priest his right hand is raised in a form of benediction. His other hand is joined with the hands of the devout woman beside him. The priest expresses no joy at the bird's banishment.
	Within the artistic oeuvre of Francisco Goya certain animals such as donkeys, bats and cats repeatedly appear as symbolically charged images. The vulture in El Buitre Carnivoro (Plate #76) is no exception. The etchings immediately preceding and following El Buitre Carnivoro (The Carnivorous Vulture) shed much light upon Goya's intent for this compelling image. Plate #75 is entitled, Farandula de Charlatanes ('The Charlatan's Swindle'). It depicts a vulture - like creature in full clerical dress whipping with his words a mass of humans, donkeys, bears and parrots into a religious frenzy. Plate #77 is entitled, Que se Rompe la Cuerda ('The Cord Breaks'). This scene portrays a priest with arms outstretched very much like El Buitre Carnivoro walking a very unsteady tight-rope above a sea of humanity.
	There is therefore no doubt that the disgusting bird in El Buitre Carnivoro (The Carnivorous Vulture) is symbolic of the church and its dangerous superstitions and machinations. But Goya is no mere propagandist and his ever complex imagery explores multiple levels. The brave act of the soldier has removed the present symbol of fanaticism. But it remains to be seen if the event is permanent or just temporary. The continuing presence of the priest and his devout followers would seem to suggest the latter possibility. Also, apart from the solitary figure of the soldier, how much faith should one put in the mass of humanity to right the ship of state? According to the crowd depicted in El Buitre Carnivoro the answer must be very little. After all, Francisco Goya lived to see the democratic ideals of the French Revolution end in the tyranny of Napoleon.
	Earlier, I mentioned that El Buitre Carnivoro was one of the most hopeful works of art within the Disasters set. Clearly, in the macabre scene depicted here, no hope arises from either man's institutions or from his culture. And like all vultures, the carnivorous vulture will return again and again to feed off these living and dead institutions. One individual, however, has set himself apart from his fellow men by his ability to recognize and combat the vultures both within himself and his world. In the nightmarish world of The Disasters such heroes are very rare. They deserve most particular study.
Raisonne:	Tomas Harris, Goya: Engravings and Lithographs, Bruno Cassirer, Oxford, 1964, 2 Vols.
	Catalogue #186. FIRST EDITION.
	Harris relates that the first published edition of The Disasters of War was completed in Madrid in March of 1863. Each etching was printed in a limited edition of five hundred impressions. Six editions (of either one or two hundred impressions) followed throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century. Later editions were printed upon laid papers. First edition impressions, such as this original example, are easily identified both by their clarity and by the fact that they were the only edition to be printed upon a heavy, absorbent wove paper. The full catalogue entry for El Buitre Carnivoro is provided.
Source:	Los Desastres De La Guerra (The Disasters of War)
Size:	7 1/8 X 8 1/2 (Sizes in inches are approximate, height preceding width of plate-mark or image.)
	Framed and Matted with 100% Archival Materials
	View larger Framed Image

Condition:	Printed upon heavy wove paper as published for the first Madrid edition of 1863. The margins have been slightly cropped for a previous framing effort. Else a magnificent impression bearing all the fine lines of a first edition printing. El Buitre Carnivoro represents a prime, original example of the famous art of Francisco Goya.
Price:	Sold - The price is no longer available.
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