THE most famous series of prints depicting human conflict by Goya - one of Spain's most important artists - has gone on display in Belfast.
The exhibition, Goya: The Disasters of War, opened at the Ulster Museum today and depicts the guerrilla warfare, famine and political disillusionment which followed Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Spain in 1808.
The works contains some of the most brutally graphic images of war ever produced.
A loan exhibition from the world-leading Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, this is the first time these 40 works have been on display in Northern Ireland.
Goya spent most of his career in Madrid, where he worked as painter to the King and was best known for his incisive and unflatteringly direct portraits of the Royal Family and the court.
His career coincided with the political upheavals of the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, which led him to work on a series of paintings and prints in which war and its consequences are explored with bitter intensity.
Anne Stewart, curator of Fine Art for National Museums Northern Ireland, said: "Goya's work is a dramatic departure from previous depictions of war as valiant and heroic.
"Goya's intentions were to shock his audience with the true horror of war and reality of profound individual suffering.
"His work, however, also includes touching observations of human detail."
The exhibition will be on display until June 2017 and is accompanied by a series of events including special tours, gallery talks and lectures.
