The Disasters of War is a series of 82 prints made by Francisco Goya between 1810 and 1820, while Spain was fighting Napoleon's French forces. Goya never published it and kept his thoughts private, and the prints appeared only in 1863, 35 years after his death. The first 47 show the war's atrocities against soldiers and civilians, the middle group records famine in Madrid, and the last 17 express liberal disappointment at the restored Bourbon monarchy. He rejected the heroic tradition of war painting to show individual suffering, and he used etching and aquatint techniques to create them.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.