Tan bárbara la seguridad como el delito ('The Little Prisoner')

This small, yet unforgettable print belongs to a group of three etchings of prisoners, each depicting a single male figure, shackled or chained and with leg braces, in a dark cell. An impression of all three prints was pasted into an album containing a proof set of the Desastres de la Guerra, which Goya gave to his friend Agustín Ceán Bermúdez, suggesting that they were roughly contemporary. If not in format and style, they are certainly related to the Desastres in spirit, in their empathy and anger about the suffering inflicted on individuals by the state or other authorities. The title of this plate translates to 'The custody is as barbarous as the crime'. The Little Prisoner was never published in Goya's lifetime, and the present sheet is probably a proof before the first edition.