Broadside with 48 scenes telling the 'impartial' story of the civil war in Spain (Part 1) 1855 - 1865

This broadside, created by Antonio Bosch, captures scenes from the Spanish Civil War in a series of vignettes. The prominence of violence, the centrality of militaristic poses, and the repetition of conflict are meant to inform. But these also speak to the underlying anxieties and turmoil of a nation divided. Consider the motif of men clashing in battle—a scene repeated across these panels. This is a trope we see echoed through time, from ancient friezes depicting mythological battles to Renaissance paintings of heroic conquests, and it surfaces again during the Spanish Civil War as propaganda. The rendering of war can be seen not merely as depictions of violence, but as symbolic representations of broader societal and political tensions. What surfaces here in the collective consciousness of Spain is the battle between brothers. Through a Freudian lens, we might interpret the broadside as a projection of national trauma, a manifestation of suppressed fears and desires played out on the stage of war. The emotional weight of this broadside lies not just in its depiction of conflict but in its resonance with deeper, subconscious currents of collective memory. It's a reminder of how the past continually resurfaces.