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

_______________________________ 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

_____________________________ 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

___________________________ 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