Dead Birds

1808 was the year Napoleon's armies turned on Madrid and the Spanish rose against them, and Goya, court painter in a collapsing court, worked on a run of small still lifes largely for himself. This is one of them. A few dead birds lie on a bare surface, their feathers still bright, the light falling hard across them. Earlier Spanish still life had made game look like abundance laid out for a feast. Goya makes these look like victims, bodies rather than trophies. He kept the group in his own house. The dead animals he painted through these war years stayed unsold, private work made while the fighting went on outside.