Francisco
De Goya
1746-1828
Francisco
De Goya was a romantic painter and printmaker regarded both as the
last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Goya was born
in Fuendetodos, Aragón, Spain, in 1746. Goya lived in an age which
was influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, the French
Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, a time in which traditional
values were being called into question, in which Spain had lost its
position as the world's greatest marine power to England, in which
the population was growing poorer and in which wartime atrocities
were occurring on a previously unknown scale. The resulting conflict
is more fully expressed in the works of Goya than any other artist.
Goya painted the Spanish royal family, including Charles IV of Spain
and Ferdinand VII. His thematic range extended from merry festivals
for tapestry, draft cartoons, to scenes of war and human debasement.
This evolution reflects the darkening of his temper. Modern
physicians suspect that the lead in his pigments poisoned him and
caused his deafness after 1792. Near the end of his life, he became
reclusive and produced frightening and obscure paintings of insanity,
madness, and fantasy, while the style of the Black Paintings
prefigures the expressionist movement.
In
his youth Goya studied under painter Jose Luzan then later Anton
Raphael Mengs, a painter who was popular with the Spanish royalty
.During his studies in Madrid his examinations were unsatisfactory
and he clashed with his master. It wasn’t until Goya studied with
Francisco Bayeu y Subías that his painting began to show signs of
the delicate tonalities for which he became famous. Goya married
Bayeu's sister Josefa on 25 July 1773. This marriage and Francisco
Bayeu's membership of the Royal Academy of Fine Art (from the year
1765) helped Goya to procure work as a painter of designs to be woven
by the Royal Tapestry Factory. There, over the course of five years,
he designed some 42 patterns, many of which were used to decorate the
stone walls of El Escorial and the Palacio Real del Pardo, the newly
built residences of the Spanish monarchs. This brought his artistic
talents to the attention of the Spanish monarchs who later would give
him access to the royal court. He also painted a canvas for the altar
of the Church of San Francisco El Grande in Madrid, which led to his
appointment as a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Art.
La
cometa, 1777–1778, tapestry cartoon
In
1783, the Count of Floridablanca, a favourite of King Carlos III,
commissioned Goya to paint his portrait. He also became friends with
Crown Prince Don Luis, painting portraits of both the Infante and his
family. During the 1780s, his circle of patrons grew to include the
Duke and Duchess of Osuna, whom he painted, the King and other
notable people of the kingdom. In 1786, Goya was given a salaried
position as painter to Charles III. After the death of Charles III in
1788 and revolution in France in 1789, during the reign of Charles
IV, Goya reached his peak of popularity with royalty.
In
1789 he was made court painter to Charles IV and in 1799 he was
appointed First Court Painter .He painted the King and the Queen,
royal family pictures, portraits of the Prince of the Peace and many
other nobles.
Charles
IV of Spain and His Family, 1800-1801, oil on canvas, 280 × 336 cm
His
portraits are notable for their disinclination to flatter, and in the
case of “Charles IV of Spain and His Family”, the lack of visual
diplomacy is remarkable. Modern interpreters have seen this portrait
as satire; it is thought to reveal the corruption present under
Charles IV. Under his reign his wife Louisa was thought to have had
the real power, which is why she is placed at the center of the group
portrait. From the back left of the painting you can see the artist
himself looking out at the viewer, and the painting behind the family
depicts Lot and his daughters, thus once again echoing the underlying
message of corruption and decay.
At
some time between late 1792 and early 1793, a serious illness left
Goya deaf, and he became withdrawn and introspective. During his
recuperation, he undertook a series of experimental paintings. His
experimental art, which would encompass paintings, drawings as well
as a series of etchings, published in 1799 under the title Caprichos,
was done in parallel to his more official commissions of portraits
and religious paintings.
The
sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (Los caprichos series), Etching and
aquatint, 1799
At
first sight this claustrophobic picture seems to show a fantastic
nightmare, an idea that was to return in the 20th
century with the work of surrealists, and one which Goya repeatedly
returned.
Los
Caprichos are a set of 80 aquatint prints created in 1797 and 1798,
and published as an album in 1799 copper plate. The prints in Los
Caprichos contain imagery of animals, beasts and monsters in a
variety of comical, melancholy and sometimes disturbing compositions.
Donkeys, parrots, bats, goblins, devils and witches not only
illustrate the extremes of Goya’s imagination but symbolize his
observations of the darker themes of human behavior in 18th Century
Spanish society. Goya described them as "the innumerable foibles
and follies to be found in any civilized society, and from the common
prejudices and deceitful practices which custom, ignorance, or
self-interest have made usual"
French
forces invaded Spain in 1808, leading to the Peninsular War of
1808–1814. Goya's involvement with the court of the "Intruder
king", Joseph I, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, is not
known. Tho he did paint works for French patrons and sympathizers,
but kept neutral during the fighting. After the restoration of the
Spanish king, Ferdinand VII, in 1814, Goya denied any involvement
with the French. When his wife Josefa died in 1812, he was mentally
and emotionally processing the war by painting The Charge of the
Mamelukes and The Third of May 1808, and preparing the series of
prints later known as The Disasters of War (Los desastres de la
guerra).
One
of the first known paintings, which depicts the terrible brutality of
modern (armed) warfare from the victim’s perspective. The scene
conveys the impression of horrified impotence in the face of an
inescapable fate. To express the sense of drama Goya used lighting
concentrated on the central victim, a coarse and sketchy painting
style and vague representation of space and figures which are not
always anatomically correct. This scene does not convey any morality,
but shows a reality in which moral and legal principals have lost
currency.
Lo
mismo (The
Disasters of War series),
1810s, Print.
Although
deeply affected by the war, he kept private his thoughts on the art
he produced in response to the conflict and its aftermath. The series
was produced using a variety of intaglio
printmaking techniques,
mainly etching
for the line work and aquatint for
the tonal areas, but also engraving and drypoint
. The first 47
focus on incidents from the war and show the consequences of the
conflict on individual soldiers and civilians. The middle series
(plates 48 to 64) record the effects of the famine that hit Madrid in
1811–12, before the city was liberated from the French. The final
17 reflect the bitter disappointment of liberals when the restored
Bourbon monarchy, encouraged by the Catholic hierarchy, rejected
the Spanish
Constitution of 1812 and
opposed both state and religious reform. Since their first
publication, Gaya’s scenes of atrocities, starvation, degradation
and humiliation have been described as the "prodigious flowering
of rage" as
well as the "work of a memory that knew no forgiveness".
The serial nature in which the plates unfold has led some to see the
images as similar in nature to photography.
Ferdinand
VII returned to Spain in 1814 but relations with Goya were not
cordial. He painted portraits of the kings for a variety of
organizations, but not for the king himself. Goya's works from 1814
to 1819 are mostly commissioned portraits, but also include the
altarpiece of Santa Justa and Santa Rufina for the Cathedral of
Seville, the print series of La Tauromaquia depicting scenes from
bullfighting, and probably the etchings of Los Disparates.
Saturn
Devouring His Son, 1819 - 1823, oil on canvas, 146 × 83 cm
After
the Napoleonic
Wars and
the internal turmoil of the changing Spanish government, Goya
developed an embittered attitude towards men. In
1819, with the idea of isolating himself, he bought a country house
by the Manzanares River just outside of Madrid. It was known as the
Quinta Del Sordo, "House of the Deaf Man".
He had
a first-hand and acute awareness of panic, terror, fear and hysteria.
He had survived two near-fatal illnesses, and grew increasingly
anxious and impatient in fear of relapse. The combination of these
factors is thought to have led to his production of 14 works known
collectively as the Black
Paintings.
Using oil paints and working directly on the walls of his dining and
sitting rooms, Goya created intense, haunting works with dark themes.
They portray intense, haunting themes, reflective of both his fear of
insanity and by then, his bleak outlook on humanity
Dissatisfied
with political developments in Spain, Goya retired to Bordeaux in
1824 under the guise of seeking medical advice. His final years were
spent there and in Paris.
Goya died of a stroke in 1828, at the age of 82.
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