Self-Portrait, 1815

Oil on panel, 51 x 46 cm

Royal Academy of San Fernando, Madrid

Biography

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828) is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He was born in Fuendetodos, in the Spanish kingdom, during the age of Enlightenment, and later moved to Zaragoza with his parents. At age 14, he began an apprenticeship to the painter José Luzán Martínez. In 1774, Goya received his first royal commission to paint decorative scenes to be woven into tapestries. He was appointed court painter in 1789.

In 1793, after France had declared war on Spain, Goya traveled to Cádiz in Andalusia. He fell ill and was left completely deaf. He returned to Madrid, and finished a collection of 80 allegorical etchings called the Caprichos in 1799. In the same year, Goya was promoted to first court painter, the highest artistic position attainable in the kingdom.

After Napoleon’s invasion of Spain in 1808, Goya pledged allegiance to Bonaparte and painted members of the French regime. In 1814, as the Spanish monarchy was restored after Napoleon’s fall, Goya attempted to prove his loyalty to Spain in the paintings The Second of May 1808 and The Third of May 1808 which celebrate Spain’s uprising against France.

During Spain’s struggle against France, the tones of Goya’s paintings had markedly shifted and darkened. From 1810 to 1820, Goya produced 85 prints called The Disasters of War, which showed the travesties during the Spanish war of Independence. Although he was still court painter, he was living in his country home, apart from active political, intellectual, and social affairs. Another series of artworks that came out of his inner turmoil were the Black Paintings. Frustrated with political progress in Spain, Goya spent his final years in Bordeaux and Paris.

Goya’s life experiences both consciously and subconsciously unveiled themselves in his works of art. They became “freer and more flexible than the older ones” and he found himself to be “preoccupied less with the representation of form than with the expression of movement and character” (Caffin 153). It is easy to note that as the years go by the tone of his paintings became darker. His mood during a specific time period tends to be reflected in the paintings which would “give expression to his own visions of the horrible and fantastic” (Caffin 159).

The Family of Charles IV, 1800–1801
Oil on canvas; 9 ft. 2 1/4 in. x 11 ft. 1/4 in. (280 x 336 cm)
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Portrait of the Family of Charles IV

Goya started working on the Portrait of the Family of Charles IV in 1799, the same year he was appointed first court painter by the king of Spain Charles IV. It was a large project that took him two years to complete. Thus, this painting was done on the peak of Goya’s career and also is an example of the numerous aristocratic portraits he had done at the royal court.

It is noted by Caffin that Goya had begun his art career using “positive hues” until he reached a different stage in which he sparingly used color and played with light and shade. In this case, the use lightning and shade, together with the positioning of the individuals, directs primary attention on the queen, king, and their child. The portrait depicts the royal family as a positive, powerful, and cohesive union as representation of a strong and flourishing monarchy. On the other hand, it is remarkable how natural the family members appear. Their poses are fairly informal and not much different from the casual way a modern average family might pose for the camera at a family reunion. This exemplifies the naturalistic style Goya developed in the course of his artistic career.

The Nude Maja, 1800

Oil on canvas, 97 x 190 cm

Museo del Prado, Madrid

The Clothed Maja, 1801-03
Oil on canvas, 95 x 190 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

The Nude Maja and The Clothed Maja

Goya finished the painting The Nude Maja in 1800, still on the peak of his artistic career at the royal court. However, it differs greatly from the aristocratic portraits and shows Goya’s increasing rebellion to the social conventions of his time. It is unknown who the model for The Nude Maja was. One of many speculations on this say that it was the Duchess of Alba, Pilar Teresa Cayetana, since Goya was having an affair with her. Other critics think that Goya instead painted his ideal woman, with no flaws and no embarrassment. He used light and shadow to express the youth of the woman.

Painting a naked woman was considered an obscenity at the time. As a result, in 1814, he was questioned about the painting by the Inquisition. What arguments he used to defend himself is not known today. We do know that the Inquisition ordered him to cover the woman up with clothing. Goya rebelled and instead created a completely new painting – The Clothed Maja. The censorship of The Nude Maja may have played a part in darkening Goya’s tone in his paintings.

Today, both paintings are housed in Madrid where they are displayed side by side, suggesting two contrasting perspectives on this scene as well as on life in general.

Saturn Devouring his Son, 1821-1823
Oil on plaster, remounted on canvas, 146 x 83 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Saturn Devouring his Son

Saturn Devouring his Son is one of the 14 Black Paintings Goya painted in privacy on the walls of his country house between 1820 and 1824. It exemplifies the disturbing darkness at which Goya’s art arrived towards his last years that stands in such striking contrast to the royal portraits earlier in his career.

The title points at the mythological background of the painting. Saturn was the Roman god of agriculture and often identified with the Greek god Krónos. He was living under the fear of a prophecy according to which he would be overthrown by one of his children. To avoid this, he swallowed his children immediately after their birth. As the legend goes, his wife last son Zeus from Krónos by deception and in the end Krónos was indeed overthrown by Zeus.

Goya’s version of the scene is unique in its pure violence and cruelty that seems totally stripped off the symbolic meaning it possesses in its mythological context. While the legend expresses the eternal order to which even the gods had to submit, in Goya’s painting Saturn’s act is more a representation of madness, terror, and the absence of all order.

El Tres de Mayo
1814 Oil on canvas
104 1/2 inches by 135 3/4 inches
266cm x 345cm
Prado Museum, Madri

The Third of May 1808 also was a painting by Goya. It is part of his Los desastres de la Guerra or The Desasters of War series, a set of 80 painting depicting the French invasion by Spain. The painting was commissioned in 1814 after the French where expunged from Spain to “perpetuate by means of his brush the most notable and heroic actions of our glorious insurrection against the Tyrant of Europe.”

This painting is set after his other painting The Second of May. In the other the Spanish are fighting back against the French. But in this painting, it shows a group of solders firing on another group of captives. The solders are faceless and are in organized uniformity. This paints a picture of early anonymous killing. The Spanish captives are unorganized and all have detailed faces with expressions showing their fear. These two groups contrast in style as the solders are drawn dark and emotionless while the captives are drawn with vibrant color and are full with movement and emotions. This scene would have been repeated all around Spain during the French occupation as they tried to quell upraising in the countryside. This painting was meant to show the cruelty of the French.

References:

Boime, A. (2004). A Social History of Modern Art. London: The University of Chicago

Press. 113-115.

Caffin, C. H. (1912). Francisco Goya Y Lucientes. Prints and Their Makers: Essays

on Engravers and Etcher Old and Modern. Ed. FitzRoy Carrington. NewYork:

The Century Co. 153-161.

Havard, R. (2005). Goya’s house revisited: Why a deaf man painted his walls black.

Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 82(5), 615-639. Retrieved February 11, 2009, from the Academic Search Complete Full Text Database.

Hughes, Robert (2006) “Goya” Spain Knopf

Hull, A.H. (1993). Goya: Man Among Kings. Madison Books.

Murray, Christopher John. "The Third of May 1808–1814", in Encyclopedia of the

Romantic Era, 1760–1850. Taylor and Francis, 2004. pp. 1133–1134

Voorhies, J. (2003). Francisco de Goya (1746–1828) and the Spanish Enlightenment.

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/goya/hd_goya.htm

Winkler, M. G. (1991). Goya’s Caprichos and creativity at midlife and beyond.

Generations, 15(2), 21-27. Retrieved February 11, 2009, from the Academic Search Complete Full Text Database.