'The custody is as barbarous as the crime' (Tan bárbara la seguridad como el delito)

In the pictureIn the middle of a dark cell a man sits curled up tight. Heavy chains come down diagonally from the upper left and from the right and are tied to his arms, and his hands are clasped in front of his chest. His head is bowed deep, and black hair covers his face. His two bare ankles are locked together in a single iron bar shackle with rounded ends. Only his shirt and trousers are left light, while the background is darkened with closely etched horizontal lines. Faint traces of lettering remain in the wide margin below the plate.

BackgroundThe title means "the custody is as barbarous as the crime." Around 1815 Goya made three small etchings of prisoners, and this plate and If he is guilty, let him die quickly are on this site. It is read as a protest against the practice of keeping people chained like this before their guilt was even decided. The technique is etching and burin, and the plate measures 11×8.8 cm, about the size of a palm. It was not published in Goya's lifetime, and according to the Met's record this impression was printed after 1867. It was acquired through the Rogers Fund in 1918.

Puzzle tipThe white shirt and trousers are almost the only light area. Use these pieces to set up the outline of the huddled body first, then fix left and right with the chain links coming in from the upper left and the right. At the bottom, the rounded ends of the bar shackle and the bare feet are the guides. The black background is hard to sort because its horizontal lines all run the same way, so fill it inward from the plate's edge, and leave the cream margin for last. The plate is small, so 24 pieces are recommended.