Heritage Malta is bringing the haunting power of Francisco Goya to Malta with an exhibition of his seminal print series, \u201cDisasters of War\u201d, on display at the Grand Master\u2019s Palace in Valletta.<\/p>\n
The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to experience the full intensity of Goya\u2019s vision, and yes, it\u2019s as gripping as it sounds.<\/p>\n
Composed of 80 etchings created between 1810 and 1815, \u201cDisasters of War\u201d captures the brutal reality of the Peninsular War (1808\u20131814) between France and Spain.<\/p>\n
Far from glorifying combat, Goya focuses on the chaos, starvation, and human suffering that war brings. Some of these harrowing scenes may even be drawn from events he witnessed firsthand, though the specific locations remain a mystery.<\/p>\n
The series is structured in three parts: the first 47 etchings show the war\u2019s impact on soldiers and civilians; the next section documents the devastating famine that struck Madrid in 1811\u201312; and the final 17 prints adopt a more allegorical tone, reflecting the disillusionment of progressives as the restored Bourbon monarchy rejected social reforms.<\/p>\n
With \u201cDisasters of War\u201d, Goya boldly broke with artistic convention. Rather than portraying battles as heroic spectacles, he depicted their true tragedy and barbarism- an approach that resonates across centuries and borders, making the exhibition startlingly relevant today.<\/p>\n
Heritage Malta Chairman Mario Cutajar describes Goya as \u201can artist of contrasts- a master of royal portraits and a fearless chronicler of human suffering. His works are alarms that never rang; humanity remains blind and deaf to suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exhibition runs until 18th January 2026, offering visitors a chance to explore Goya\u2019s genius, confront the harsh realities of war, and experience art that still speaks across time and space.<\/p>\n
Tag a friend to go with them<\/p>\n
Credit: Heritage Malta<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heritage Malta is bringing the haunting power of Francisco Goya to Malta with an exhibition of his seminal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-125054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}