A range of metals can be used for the intaglio printing matrix, but Goya favored copper. In his printmaking treatise first published in 1701, William Faithorne advised ‘copper is best which is free from flaws, and not too hard which you may perceive by its yellowish colour.’17 Several of Goya’s surviving copperplates for Los Disparates and La Tauromaquia, bear stamps on the verso indicating they were sourced from William and Russell Pontifex & Co., coppersmiths and copperplate makers of Shoe Lane, London.18 This company had operated in London since the 1770s under various names and counted many prominent artists such as Thomas Gainsborough, William Blake and J.M.W. Turner as customers.19
Like other coppersmiths of the day, they prepared copperplates by drawing heated copper through a roller machine, varying the pressure depending on the desired sheet thickness. The Pontifex company circulated a trade card in the 1770s stating they now had ‘A New Invented Machine for Polishing Copper Plates for Callico printers, Engravers, which makes them exceeding smooth & level’. The copperplates were cut down to workable sizes for running through a printing press, the copperplates for Los Disparates and La Tauromaquia were quite large.20
The arrival of Napoleon’s troops in Spain in 1808 announced the beginning of the Peninsular War that inspired Goya’s ambitious project Los Desastres de la Guerra.21 This series includes graphic depictions of the war, the subsequent guerrilla uprising, and the Madrid famine of 1811 to 1812.22 During the famine years, French invaders, Spanish guerrillas, and bandits blocked paths and roads into Madrid, interrupting the supply of food and general provisions.
Examination of the copperplates used to produce the series indicates Goya had to make do with defective copperplates, concealing imperfections with aquatint and lavis or recycling plates by turning them over and working on the verso or by scraping them down and burnishing them to reuse the recto.23 For example, the plates used to create Amarga presencia (Bitter to be present) and Y No Hai Remedio (And there’s no remedy) were recycled from the original plate for the etching Landscape c.1807-1810.24 (See figs. 4 and 5).