Francisco Goya

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (born March 30, 1746 in Fuendetodos, died April 16, 1828 in Bordeaux) - Spanish painter, printmaker and draughtsman of the Romantic period, court painter of Charles III of Bourbon, Charles IV of Bourbon and Ferdinand VII of Bourbon, portraitist and painter of genre scenes. Considered one of the most outstanding and original artists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Goya's artistic career spanned roughly between 1771, when he painted his first fresco in the Basilica del Pilar in Zaragoza, and 1827, when one of his last works was The Milkmaid of Bordeaux. Over the course of more than half a century of his career, he produced some 700 paintings, 280 prints and about a thousand drawings.

Working on his own unique style, Goya evolved from Baroque and Rococo, with which his first frescoes and tapestry designs are imbued, through Neoclassical Academicism to the Pre-Romanticism and Pre-Impressionism evident in his last paintings and prints.

The result of his liberation from classical principles and the culmination of his artistic expression is a series of black paintings. The subject matter he explores is very broad, and includes portraits, genre scenes (hunting, folk scenes, vices of society, violence, witches and ghouls), historical painting, religious painting and still life.

In terms of the number of works and their quality, the collection preserved in the Prado Museum in Madrid is particularly significant. The artist is also widely represented in various museums around the world, especially through his portraits. His works can be seen in the National Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Old Pinacoteca in Munich and many others.

Francisco Goya's Biography

Origins

He was born in the small village of Fuendetodos in northern Spain's Aragon, although his family lived permanently in Zaragoza. He was the son of Braulio José Goya y Franque and Gracia Lucientes Salvador. His father, of Basque descent, was a gilder; his work involved covering picture frames, church decorations and furniture with gilding.

His mother came from an impoverished Spanish noble family. Goya's grandfather was a city notary, which gave the whole family a lower middle-class position and allowed for a better education for the offspring. The future painter was given the name Francisco José at his baptism. He was the fourth of six children; he had three brothers and two sisters.

Brother Tomás took over his father's profession, and Camillo became a priest. In Fuendetodos, where the family was staying temporarily (presumably because of his father's work), they lived in his mother's modest family home, the remains of a landed estate. After a brief stay in Fuendetodos, which coincided with Goya's birth, the family returned to Zaragoza, where the artist spent his childhood.

Francisco Goya's Years of study

Education in Spain

From 1756, he attended one of the free schools run by the Piarists (Escuelas Pías de San Antón), founded in the 17th century by St. Joseph Calasante. There he met Martín Zapatera, who remained his friend for the rest of his life. Goya's voluminous correspondence with Zapatero (131 letters written between 1755 and 1801), which has survived to this day, is an important source of knowledge about the painter and his era.

At just 13 years old, he began his training in the studio of local painter José Luzán (1710-1785), who met Goya's father through his goldsmith brothers. Luzán, who had previously lived in Italy, paid homage to the Neapolitan Baroque style and the works of Luca Giordano.

During his four years in Luzán's studio, Goya learned the principles of drawing and painting techniques and made numerous copies of engravings from his teacher's collection. Twice (in 1763 and 1766), but without success, he attempted to enter the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of St. Ferdinand in Madrid.

Between 1762 and 1763, he was commissioned by the parish priest of Fuendetodos to work on decorations in the sacristy of the local church. This is Goya's oldest documented commission; unfortunately, the church was destroyed during the Spanish Civil War. A copy of the painting Tobias and the Angel by Pietro da Cortona, most likely done as part of his training in 1762, is still known from this period.

In 1763 Goya participated in an open competition of the Royal Academy seeking a scholarship. The task of the competition was to draw a sculpture of the Silene. The competition was won by Gregorio Ferro, Goya's drawing has not survived.

An important role in Goya's life was played by the Aragonese Bayeu family: three painter brothers, also students of Luzán: Francisco (1734-95), Ramón (1746-93) and Manuel Bayeu (1740-1809). The eldest of the three, Francisco, was Goya's teacher (he joined his studio in 1766) and later a protector and collaborator at the royal court.

However, there was no shortage of jealousy and rivalry in their relationship. At the age of 27, Goya married Josefa Bayeu, the sister of friendly painters.

In 1766 Goya took over the commission that Francisco Bayeu had abandoned, leaving for Madrid, and completed his frescoes on the pendentives of the dome of the Jesuit temple in Calatayud depicting the Church Fathers.

Learning in Italy

In 1770, the young Goya traveled to Italy, where talented artists of the era went to study and interact with art. Although many Spanish painters received scholarships to study abroad (awarded by, among others, the Academy of St. Ferdinand), Goya had to pay for his stay in Italy himself. Most likely, he first visited Milan, Bologna and Naples before stopping for a longer period in Rome.

There he stayed with the Polish painter Tadeusz Kuntze-Konicz, known as Taddeo Pollacco. In April 1771, he took part in a competition announced by the Academy of Fine Arts in Parma, depicting the work Hannibal the victor looking from the Alps towards Italy for the first time.

He was anxious to be able to boast of even the slightest success in Italy upon his return home. When presenting the painting, Goya embellished his background and introduced himself as Italian Francesco Goia, a pupil of court painter Francesco Vayeu (Francisco Bayeu). Goya's work did not win first prize, but it did receive an honorable mention.

While in Rome, Goya also painted several paintings with mythological themes (including Sacrifice to the idol of Pan and Sacrifice to Vesta). Goya's handy sketchbook-notebook, called cuaderno italiano, also survives from this period.

Beginnings of his career

The beginnings of his career are related to religious painting. Upon his return to the country, he won a commission to paint the frescoes in the choir of the Basilica of Nuestra Señora del Pilar in Zaragoza because, as a beginning painter, he offered the lowest price.

The theme was the adoration of the Divine Name by saints and angels. Before his design was accepted, Goya had to prove his knowledge of fresco technique by painting a sample. In 1772, the completed painting won praise from the commissioners and the public.

That same year Goya married one of the Bayeu brothers' sisters, Josefa. According to historians, this was not a choice dictated by passion or mutual infatuation - this is evidenced, among other things, by the fact that Josefa had never been Goya's model.

The young painter rightly counted on the connections provided by his entry into the Bayeu family. Little is known about their relationship or Josefa herself. The artist had six children with her (Josefa had multiple miscarriages), but only their son Francisco Javier (1784-1854) lived to adulthood.

By 1774 Francisco Goya was already a well-known and respected painter in Zaragoza, which translated into numerous commissions. Thanks to Manuel Bayeu's intercession, he executed a series of paintings on the walls of the Aula Dei cartouche in Zaragoza.

The subject of the eleven paintings was the life of the Virgin Mary and the birth of Christ. Goya diligently carried out commissions for the Aragonese clergy, but his goal was to work and have a career in the capital, where he wanted to move as soon as possible. In the spring of 1775, he went to Madrid, to his brother-in-law Ramon Bayeu.

At the royal court

In 1775, thanks to the patronage of Francisco Bayeu, his talent was spotted by court painter Anton Raphael Mengs, who commissioned him to make the first series of tapestry cartoons - oil paintings of considerable size prepared as models for the weaving workshops of the Royal Tapestry Manufactory of Santa Bárbara in Madrid. Based on them, colorful tapestries were woven to decorate the interiors of royal estates.

This marked the beginning of his career at court. Goya made 63 paintings for tapestries for two royal palaces, including nine hunting scenes for the dining room at the Escurial and 10 at El Pardo. Because of the complicated content of one of the paintings, El ciego de la guitarra (The Blind Guitarist), the tapisserie returned the design, demanding that it be simplified. Goya, before simplifying it, thanks to Mengs' suggestion, made an original copperplate according to it, the largest he had ever created.

Mengs' neoclassical influence is evident in the first portraits painted by the artist. However, Goya soon found his own style - Romanticism, of which he became a precursor. While Neoclassicism referred to ancient culture, Romanticism was seen as a modern style, influenced by the wild and uncontrolled aspects of nature. The artist then moved permanently to Madrid, where he settled in a rented house on Carrera de San Jerónimo.

In 1777 he fell seriously ill for the first time and came close to death. However, he quickly recovered. In 1778, he was commissioned by the King to produce engravings reproducing Velazquez's paintings - an opportunity for him to study in depth the works of an artist he admired.

In 1779 Anton Raphael Mengs died, vacating the prestigious position of court painter, for which Goya and Mariano Salvador Maella had applied. It was eventually given to Maella, who already held the title of royal painter and had priority in the promotion.

This setback, which Goya perceived as a humiliation, was rewarded when he was unanimously elected a member of the Academy of St. Ferdinand. At the inauguration on May 5, 1780, Goya presented the members of the selection committee with a neoclassical Christ on the Cross, painted according to the canons of the academy.

It was a very conservative choice - Goya was rightly convinced that such a work would meet with recognition. A more original work carried the risk of rejection, which the artist could not afford.

In 1781 Goya's father (who left no will, as he had no estate) and the painter's sister Rita died. In correspondence with his friend Zapatero, Goya lamented that he could not accompany them in their last moments of life.

Conflict with Francisco Bayeu

In 1780, a dispute arose between Goya and his brother-in-law Francisco Bayeu over the completion of frescoes in the Basilica del Pilar in Zaragoza. Bayeu, who was responsible for the entire project, commissioned Goya to paint the frescoes on one of the church's vaults while he and his brother decorated the others.

The theme of the frescoes was a depiction of Mary Queen of Martyrs. Goya's design was accepted, but the way he finished his frescoes (in a light style based on quick, sketch-like brushstrokes) differed from the other paintings. His work also received criticism because he finished it much faster than the others. Bayeu called it "one big sketch" and demanded corrections.

Goya refused and asked for an expert opinion from the Academy of St. Ferdinand, revealing his proud and impulsive character. Goya tried to demonstrate his independence, but Bayeu proved to him that he had not yet achieved so much as to dictate terms to his master.

Eventually, under the mediation of his friends and brothers from the Aula Dei Cartagena, Goya agreed to let Bayeu "improve" his frescoes. Goya's light style was exchanged for Bayeu's classical version. Also involved in the conflict was Goya's wife (even though she had no education), who sided with her brother.

In 1781 Goya received an important commission in the capital, which did not come to him through the Bayeu brothers, but on the recommendation of Count Floridablanca. Charles III was the caretaker of one of the largest temples in Madrid - the Basilica of San Francisco el Grande.

Benefiting from the king's patronage, the Franciscan order commissioned seven paintings to adorn the temple's altars, and they were commissioned from seven well-known painters of the era. Among the artists awarded the undoubted honor were Goya and: Francisco Bayeu, Gregorio Ferro, Mariano Salvador Maella, Andrés de la Calleja, Antonio González Velázquez and José del Castillo.

The paintings were created between 1781 and 1783, with Goya producing a huge work for the church (measuring 4.8×3 meters) entitled The Sermon of Saint Bernardino of Siena before Alfonso of Aragon. All of the works received a reserved reaction from the court; to Goya's satisfaction, the most critical comments came from his brother-in-law Bayeu.

Patronage and work for the aristocracy

In the early 1880s, Goya slowly opened the way to a career among the Madrid aristocracy. He made the acquaintance of Jovellanos, an Enlightenment lawyer and literary figure well-established at court. In 1783, he executed a portrait of the royal prime minister, Count Floridablanca - the first portrait he painted for such an important figure.

His acquaintance with Jovellanos led to numerous commissions for portraits of important personalities, as well as the king himself. Soon Goya became a well-known and well-paid portraitist.

During the same period, thanks to his family connections, he came into contact with Infante Louis Anthony Bourbon (younger brother of Charles III), who had been expelled from the court, and his wife Maria Teresa de Vallabriga y Rozas. Goya visited them in the summers of 1783 and 1784 in Arenas de San Pedro.

Goya's relationship with the infanta couple was very cordial - they became not only important clients for him, but also patrons. Maria Teresa, like Goya, came from Zaragoza. The couple twice invited the painter to their estate and spared him no praise or evidence of kindness. Goya's wife also came to Arenas de San Pedro in the summer of 1784 at Maria Teresa's invitation.

Between 1783 and 1784, Goya produced a total of 16 paintings for them. The most important of these was Portrait of the Family of the Infanta don Luis, which became the model for a group portrait. Recognition from members of the royal family set the pace for his career as a portraitist.

The Infante appointed Camil, Goya's brother, as chaplain at his residence in Chinchón. Louis Antoni, who did not enjoy good health, died in 1785; for Goya, this meant the loss of a valuable client and patron.

Goya was also patronized by important representatives of the Enlightenment - the Duke and Duchess of Osuna. Beginning in 1785, Goya painted several portraits for them (including the Duke and Duchess of Osuna with their children), a series of paintings on folk themes to decorate their summer residence, as well as religious paintings.

In 1785, through Ceán Bermúdez, he received a commission for portraits of the directors of the newly established Banco de San Carlos, a financial institution that preceded the current Bank of Spain. One of the six bankers Goya portrayed was Vicente Joaquín Osorio de Moscoso y Guzmán, Count of Altamira - a wealthy art collector belonging to the old aristocracy.

Satisfied with his portrait, the count hired Goya to portray his immediate family, although he had previously used the services of Agustin Esteve. Between 1787 and 1788, Goya painted three more paintings for the Count: he portrayed the Countess with her daughter, and his sons Vicente and Manuel. The boys' likenesses are considered the most successful children's portraits in the painter's career.

Career development of Francisco Goya

Goya quickly climbed the career ladder by gaining increasingly important positions at the court and academy. In 1785, he was appointed deputy director of the Academy of St. Ferdinand, and then director of the painting department (a position he resigned in 1797 due to health reasons).

At that time he prepared a reform of teaching, in which he boldly stated that "there are no rules in painting," and stressed the importance of creative freedom and imagination. He rejected copying classical works of art and engravings as the best method of learning and recommended that students create directly from nature.

In 1786, along with Ramon Bayeu, he was officially appointed royal painter (Pintor del Rey) with an annual salary of 15,000 reals. In 1789, he was given the title of court painter (Pintor de Cámara) to the new royal couple, Charles IV and Maria Louisa of Parma, and in 1799 he was promoted to the top position of first court painter (Primer Pintor de Cámara) with a salary of 50,000 reals and 50 ducats for living expenses.

Attack of illness

In the fall of 1792, Goya became seriously ill; he was troubled by acute and chronic abdominal pain, had a disturbed sense of balance and hallucinations, and temporarily lost his hearing and eyesight. After two months of illness, he asked the king for permission to travel to Andalusia to save his health. He left Madrid in January 1793, but the long journey triggered another bout of illness, probably a stroke.

From the Seville area, where the deterioration occurred, he was taken to Cadiz, to the home of his friend Sebastian Martinez. Martinez's family and two well-known doctors of the era (Catalan Francisco Canivell and Italian José Salvarezza) oversaw his treatment and recovery.

It is not known exactly what disease the painter suffered from, researchers suggest the following possibilities: sequelae of venereal disease, venous thrombosis, Ménière's disease, Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome, lead poisoning from paint or botulism, polio, jaundice or otitis media or meningitis.

He fought death, paralysis and blindness for almost a year - he returned to Madrid in June 1793. He recovered only partially, but remained deaf for the rest of his life.

Upon his return to Madrid, he tried to convince art circles that the illness had not impaired his painting abilities, as rumors of his infirmity could have seriously damaged his future career.

He quickly returned to work, even though he was still feeling the repercussions of his illness. He worked on tapestry cartoons, although he more often painted smaller cabinet paintings that did not strain his physical condition.

Friendship with the Duchess of Alba

Around 1795 Goya met the wife of the Marquis de Villafranca - the Duchess of Alba. The Duchess was not only beautiful, but also a very intelligent and progressive woman for her time. She surrounded herself with artists and people of the Enlightenment. After her husband's death in 1796, the painter spent many months in the Duchess' company at her Andalusian residence in Sanlúcar.

They shared a deep intimacy, and according to some historians, it was even a love affair. Goya may have been in love with her, and was certainly filled with adoration - this is evidenced by the portraits he made of the duchess, full of allusions to the painter's persona.

However, the artist was already about 50 years old at the time, he was almost completely deaf, and moreover, his social standing and education could not be compared with that of the Duchess - their alleged relationship would have been a scandal. It seems more likely that the Duchess valued his talent and fame and was flattered by the fact that she was a model and muse of a famous artist.

The Duchess died suddenly in 1802 at the age of 40, setting aside part of her legacy as a life annuity for Goya's son Francisco Javier. For Goya, her death was a real blow that took a toll on his work. For the next two years he accepted few commissions, and it was only the birth of his grandson Mariana in 1806 and major changes in the country's political scene that restored his strength and will to work.

A period of war and restoration

Between 1807 and 1814, the Iberian Peninsula war waged against Napoleon continued. The King and Queen were detained in France and forced to abdicate, and Joseph Bonaparte took their place in the capital. Spaniards did not accept the imposed ruler; in 1808, the bloodily suppressed Dos de Mayo uprising broke out in Madrid.

During the first months of the occupation, Goya traveled to Zaragoza to paint a portrait of General José de Palafox, the heroic defender of the city, and to depict the post-war devastation in his hometown. Upon his return to the capital on December 23, 1808, he swore allegiance to Joseph Bonaparte, who retained him as court painter.

Goya adopted an attitude close to conformism, and was even considered by some to be a pro-French collaborator. On the one hand, he depicted the suffering of his compatriots struggling against the occupying forces, famine and epidemics (The horrors of war), while on the other he painted portraits of people from Bonaparte's circle.

He also supported himself by selling portraits and small easel paintings. During this period he also painted a series of still lifes alluding to the war, including Still Life with a Turkey, and pessimistic paintings denouncing Spanish superstition, backwardness and prostitution, including Procession of the Flagellants, Burial of a Sardine, Maya and Celestine. On November 11, 1811, he was awarded the Occupation Order of Spain.

Only after the fall of Napoleon in 1813 did his legitimate successor Ferdinand VII ascend to the Spanish throne, restoring the old order. The new king settled accounts with liberals, supporters of the constitution and backers of the French (the so-called afrancesados). A period of persecution and mass emigration began, and the Inquisition was reinstated.

Goya was interrogated because of his professional activity during the years of occupation and for painting the nude Maya. He was quickly cleared of the charges of a political nature, of a moral offense (the possession and painting of nudes was forbidden and severely prosecuted) the painter was freed by the opinion of an expert who showed the inquisitors the Titian inspiration of the work.

Goya's relations with the new king were rather cool, and while he retained his position as court painter, he was not called upon to work at court.

In 1814, the Regency Council commissioned Goya to paint "the most noble and heroic deeds or scenes from the glorious uprising against the tyrant of Europe." The artist painted two large canvases illustrating the uprising of the people of Madrid against Napoleon's troops (the so-called Dos de Mayo), which broke out on May 2, 1808 and was bloodily suppressed.

The first is The Execution of the Madrid Insurgents, whose original title of the painting was: The Shooting on the Hill of the Prince of Pío, and the second is The Charge of the Mamelukes. These canvases inspired, among others, Edouard Manet (Execution of Emperor Maximilian, 1867-68), Vasily Vereshchagin (Execution of the Arsonists of Moscow - 1897-98) and Pablo Picasso (Massacre in Korea, 1951).

After the end of the war and the restoration of the absolute monarchy, disillusioned with politics, Goya removed himself from public life. He devoted himself to working on a series of engravings entitled Tauromachia, the subject of which was his great passion - bullfighting.

The House of the Deaf

Amid distrust and suspicion, in 1819, Goya left Madrid and acquired a property on the outskirts of the city called the House of the Deaf (Quinta del Sordo).

The previous owner suffered from deafness, and although it was to him that the house's name referred, it also fit Goya, who became deaf after his illness in 1792. It is believed that Goya chose such a secluded location to get away from the court of Ferdinand VII, or to live with his married mistress Leocadia Weiss (née Zorrilla) away from the gossip.

Also living with them were Leocadia's two children, Guillermo and Rosario, who may have been Goya's daughter.

In November 1819, Goya survived an attack of severe illness (historians have not been able to clearly identify it), which was unlikely to be a recurrence of the 1792 ailment. At the time, he was cared for by his friend, physician Eugenio García Arrieta, a specialist in infectious diseases.

As a token of his gratitude for his care and saving his life, Goya immortalized the doctor in a very personal Self-Portrait with Dr. Arrieta, which he later gave to the medic. Many critics believe that it was under the influence of his illness that Goya began working on a series of fourteen mysterious and pessimistic black paintings, which he painted on the walls of his home.

Like Goya, many artists and politicians supported the ideas of the French Enlightenment and their important fruit - the Constitution of 1812. It is known that on April 8, 1820, Goya was present at the Academy of St. Ferdinand for the swearing in of the restored constitution. Eventually Ferdinand VII rejected it again three years later.

Last years in France

After the restoration of absolute monarchy, terror and persecution of pro-French collaborators and liberals, with whom Goya sympathized, took hold in the country. Fearing the confiscation of his property in September 1823, he transcribed his house to his grandson Marian, who was still a minor at the time.

He spent the first months of 1824 hiding in the home of his Jesuit friend José Duaso y Latre. During this time, with the help of the young painter Antonio de Brugada, he drew up an inventory of the possessions housed in the House of the Deaf.

In 1824, the king declared a general amnesty, rightly hoping that oppositionists would leave the country. Goya also took advantage of it, asking permission on May 2 to go to the spa town of Plombières in France "to treat his ailments." He never made it to the hot springs at Plombières - he went straight to Bordeaux, where many Spanish emigrants were already staying.

At first he was followed by the king's agents, but they quickly became convinced that the 78-year-old deaf artist was harmless to the monarch. In Bordeaux, he stayed with his friend, the writer Leandro Moratin, whom he portrayed the same year. He received a letter of recommendation from him, with which he went to Paris.

Little is known about his stay in the French capital - he was not a well-known artist there, and only a few had the opportunity to encounter his engravings, not to mention his paintings. He did not speak French and was deaf, which made communication very difficult. He may have met the young Delacroix or Dominique Ingres, or visited the Paris Salon of 1824, but there is no evidence of this.

He had no studio of his own, and painted only two portraits and one bullfighting scene while in Paris. He met with friends from Spain, including the Countess Chinchón, who he portrayed several times. In the fall of 1824, he returned to Bordeaux, where he was joined by the then 36-year-old Leocadia and her two children, son Guillermo and 10-year-old Rosario. Goya took special care of Rosario, gave her painting lessons and tried to send her to school in Paris.

At the end of 1825, he became interested in a new artistic technique - lithography. In this way he made prints whose subject was bullfighting (the Bulls of Bordeaux series). This Spanish pastime, loved by Goya, had no enthusiasts in France, so his works did not receive much attention. Some of the last works he painted were watercolor miniatures on ivory plates.

Unlike traditional miniatures, they were not characterized by attention to detail; their style was sweeping. During this period, the painter's eyesight weakened to the point that he could only create with the help of a magnifying glass. Nevertheless, he did not lose his vigor and willingness to work. His last two collections of black pencil drawings (Album G and H) are full of energy and fascination with human madness.

In 1825 Goya asked Ferdinand VII for financial provision for his old age while recalling his many years of service to the Crown. In 1826, despite health problems, he traveled to Madrid on the matter. Thanks to the intercession of the director of the Prado Museum, José Rafael de Silva Fernandez, Prince de Híjar, the King recognized his merits and granted him a pension of 50,000 reals a year and granted him permission to continue his stay in France.

Just before his departure, the king's court painter Vicente López drew up a portrait of the old Goya. Goya returned to Madrid once more, in the summer of 1827, at which time he painted a portrait of his grandson Marian. After returning to Bordeaux, he suffered a stroke on April 2, 1828, after which he fell into a coma and died on the night of April 15-16, 1828 at the age of 82.

He was accompanied in his last moments by Leocadia, painter Antonio de Brugada and friend José Pío de Molina. Francisco Javier, summoned by his father, did not make it in time; his daughter-in-law, Gumersinda Goicoechea, was on the scene with his grandson Marian. The scene at Goya's deathbed was immortalized by the young lithographer Francisco de la Torred.

Goya was buried in the Carthusian cemetery of La Chartreuse in Bordeaux in the crypt of the family of his relative Juan Bautista Muguiro (whose portrait he painted in 1827), next to Martin Miguel de Goicoechea, his son's father-in-law, who had died three years earlier.

In 1899, at the initiative of the Spanish government, his ashes (because they could not be identified together with those of Goicoechei) were taken to Madrid and buried in the Collegiate Church of St. Isidore, later in the pantheon of prominent figures there.

In 1929, they were moved to the crypt of the Church of San Antonio de la Florida, whose vault is covered by a Goya fresco depicting the miracle of the resurrection of the dead. It was then discovered that the painter's skull was missing among the remains.

Francisco Goya's Creativity

He was a very prolific and versatile painter, open to new painting techniques, as a result, his style was constantly evolving. He created easel and altar paintings, tapestry designs, wall paintings, graphic series, sketches, drawings and miniatures.

He painted portraits, hunting and genre scenes, religious, mythological, historical and allegorical paintings and still lifes. He did not shy away from engraving, creating etchings. He left about 700 paintings, 280 prints and a thousand drawings. The largest collection of his works (about 130 canvases) is in the Prado Museum in Madrid.

He created during the Neoclassical period, but his work evolved from late Baroque forms of religious painting (frescoes in churches), through serene Rococo compositions (tapestry designs), to dark phantasmagorias in the spirit of Romanticism.

Topics

The themes he tackled are very broad, and include socio-political and historical themes, war, criticism of the aristocracy and clergy, criticism of insincere religiosity, glorification of labor, prostitution, begging, and the use of witchcraft.

Technique and style of Francisco Goya

The main means of artistic expression for Goya was color. However, his color palette was not very extensive. It consisted of about 10 colors, and over time was reduced to three or four. After his illness in 1792, his color register became progressively lower and darker.

He was the first painter to express emotions (e.g. fear, cruelty) not through facial features, gestures or facial expressions, but through the expression of the formal elements themselves: the vehemence of contrasts, especially black and white, the clash of directions of tension or the shape of the stain. He often painted on a base of red primer, thanks to which the faces of those portrayed acquired warm reflections. He also used lasers.

In Goya's early works one feels the influence of his teacher Luzan and the Neapolitan school he represented, as well as Neoclassical artists. In his first tapestry designs, the influence of Giaquint and then Tiepolo is evident, from whom he borrowed compositional and color solutions.

In the 1980s he developed his own style characterized by quick brushstrokes, sometimes resembling a sketch. At that time he rejected the minuteness and perfection of the Rococo or préciosité style, often exposing himself to criticism.

Goya demonstrated a knowledge of artistic techniques as a painter, draughtsman and engraver. Being of advanced age, he also took an interest in lithography. Toward the end of his life, he produced some 40 miniatures on ivory (e.g., Man Iskaing a Dog), of which 25 have so far been identified.

Francisco Goya's Genres

Tapisserie designs

Between 1775 and 1792, engaged by Anton Raphael Mengs, he made several series of tapestry designs for the Royal Tapisserie of Santa Bárbara in Madrid. These were oil paintings on canvas made on a 1:1 scale (in a strictly defined format), based on which tapestries were woven (sometimes in several versions), intended for specific rooms of the royal palaces of Escurial and El Pardo.

Almost all of the designs (63 patterns) have survived, as well as documentation that makes it possible to determine the exact dates of their creation and the location of each one. They can now be seen in Madrid's Prado. They were mostly idyllic genre scenes in the Rococo style, depicting the lives of simple people indulging in outdoor games, hunting scenes, children's games, and the cycle of the seasons.

The first series of nine designs was made in 1775 and was intended for the dining room of the Duke of Asturias in Escurial, depicting scenes related to hunting, including the Quail Hunt.

The second and third series consisted of ten and twenty designs, respectively, and were intended for the dining room of the Pardo Palace. They were genre scenes, showing majas (seductive folk girls with hot tempers) and majos (young, bloodthirsty plebeian bachelors) at play, dancing and other folk entertainments.

In 1788, five oil sketches were created for tapestry designs, which were not realized due to the death of the commissioner, King Charles III. They were intended for the bedrooms of the princesses at the Pardo Palace, including: An Afternoon in the Countryside, The Hermitage of St. Isidore and The Meadow of St. Isidore.

The latter canvas depicts the annual pilgrimage of the citizens of Madrid, which took place on May 15, the day of the city's patron saint, St. Isidore the Ploughman. A large meadow on the banks of the Manzanares River is filled with a celebrating crowd of representatives of all social classes. In the background you can see the skyline of the city, with the dominant blocks of the Royal Palace and the Basilica of San Francisco el Grande.

By Goya's time, the pilgrimage had lost its religious character and had become an occasion for a festive picnic. Goya depicted the same motif again many years later, in one of his black paintings, viewing the pilgrimage to the source of St. Isidore as a grim nightmare, a frightening symptom of physical, mental and moral degeneration.

The last series of seven designs was completed in 1792 for the royal cabinet in Escurial. According to the king's wishes, these were to be "rural and cheerful" scenes, but there were clear touches of social criticism, among others: The Wedding and The Muppet.

Portraits

Goya painted numerous portraits of reigning kings, members of the royal family, court dignitaries, Spanish aristocrats, famous toreadors and children. These were usually full-figure depictions (en pied), against neutral backgrounds. The people depicted often give the impression of being lonely, alienated, overwhelmed by sadness (Portrait of Countess Chinchón).

A strong influence of Velazquez is evident in his portraits, especially in his handling of light and space and the application of paint patches. He did his first commissioned portrait in 1783 for the Count of Floridablanca. He portrayed many figures several times, including the Duchess of Alba, King Charles IV and Queen Marie Louise, King Ferdinand VII.

Between 1800 and 1808 he painted some 50 images, harmoniously combining the lightness of Rococo, the restraint of Classicism and the freedom of early Romanticism. He also left more than a dozen self-portraits. He focused his attention on his models' faces, trying above all to explore their psyches.

He was able to show on canvas the mood, personality or social status of the model. Breaking with all idealization, he mercilessly brought to light the most characteristic features of the depicted figures, often verging on caricature.

Of particular note are his group portraits. In 1784, he created Portrait of the Family of the Infanta Don Luis, the younger brother of King Charles III. The artist portrayed the family and servants in the evening - the master of the house is playing cards, the servant is combing his wife's hair. The scene is characterized by an atmosphere of familial intimacy and unusual color effects. In 1788, a portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Osuna with their children was painted in blue-gray tones. Goya almost penetrates into the soul of the models, highlighting the good-naturedness of the prince, the deep intelligence of the duchess and the grace of their four children.

In 1800-1801, he created the large-format monarchical representational portrait The Family of Charles IV, which mercilessly exposed all the moral wretchedness of the august figures, peeking out from beyond the superficial pomp and official pomposity.

Contrasting reality with appearances even rubbed against caricature. The making of the painting was preceded by preliminary studies of all the people (five of them are kept in the Prado Museum).

Around 1805, two famous works were commissioned by Minister Godoy, Maya Naked and Maya Clothed, both of which figured in Godoy's collection as gypsies. One of the minister's mistresses and later his wife, Pepita Tudó, probably posed for the paintings. Both canvases were confiscated from Godoy in 1815, and for many years the canvases were kept at the headquarters of the San Fernando Academy. It was not until 1901 that they were opened to the public at the Prado Museum.

Frescoes

After returning from Italy in 1771, despite his lack of academic training, Goya won a competition to create a series of frescoes in the Basilica of Nuestra Señora del Pilar in Zaragoza. Ten years later, he decorated the vault of that church with a painting of Our Lady as Queen of Martyrs.

Thanks to his brother-in-law Manuel Bayeu, who was a Carthusian and also dabbled in painting, he was commissioned to create 11 paintings with scenes from the life of Mary on the walls of the oratory in the Aula Dei Carthusia in Zaragoza (1773-74).

He was also the author of the original frescoes in the chapel of San Antonio de la Florida in Madrid (1798). In wall paintings, he was influenced by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Corrado Giaquinta.

Graphics

Goya's first known graphic print, The Flight of the Holy Family into Egypt, made in the traditional etching technique, was created in connection with the execution of the frescoes in the cartouche in the Aula Dei. In 1778, after an illness, he became more interested in the technique, but his first engravings were not successful.

It was not until 1799 that he published a series of prints entitled Caprices. Here the painter masterfully combined two techniques - etching and aquatint. The author's original intention was for the series to be titled Dreams. The engravings were not arranged according to a specific order.

The purpose of the series, as stated in the notice advertising the series, was to "condemn human errors and vices" and the "extravagances and follies" inherent in any civilized society. The theme of the series was the title of engraving No. 43: When Reason Sleeps, Demons Awaken, which was originally intended to open the series, but was replaced by a self-portrait.

Out of 300 copies, only 7 tek were sold. The remainder of the print run was sold to the king. The reason may have been the fear of the Inquisition's intervention. Already after the painter's death, in 1863, The horrors of war were published. The series of 82 engravings (etchings with aquatint) was created between 1810 and 1815, influenced by the experience of the Spanish-French War.

Also after the artist's death, the prints developed between 1815 and 1823, titled Follies, were published. The publishers of the series, experts from the Academy of St. Ferdinand, unaware of the existence of the prints bearing Goya's titles, called them Proverbs, recognizing them as illustrations of well-known Spanish proverbs.

The engravings expressed the absurdity of existence, the power of evil, the omnipresence of hypocrisy, the inevitable triumph of suffering, old age and death. The place of the crowd was filled by menacing monsters, absurd and unreal phantoms - the fruits of hallucinations and delusions.

At the age of 79, Goya mastered a new graphic technique - lithography. He made his first one in 1819 (The Old Spinner). A series of lithographs entitled Bulls of Bordeaux was published in 1825.

Drawings

All of Goya's drawings were collected in eight albums and labeled A through H. The albums show how Goya's attitude to drawings changed: from quick notes and supporting sketches towards treating them as autonomous works with full artistic value.

They are characterized by their spontaneity and directness, as well as their personal nature. Some of Goya's best-known drawings are those depicting the Duchess of Alba and the painter's moving alter-ego - a cane-backed old man - bearing the caption Aún aprendo (I am still learning).

Black paintings

After a crisis caused by a severe illness in 1792, which left him almost completely deaf and seriously threatened the painter's life, deformity, ugliness, monstrosity and phantoms, ghouls and witches' sabbaths became an integral part of his painting vision. He stopped painting on commission, mastered his own vision of the world.

A recurrence of severe illness in 1819 threw the painter into an even greater crisis, which was reflected in his so-called "black paintings" and his series of prints Madness. Between 1821 and 1823 he painted 14 paintings on the walls of his residence Deaf House.

The paintings were executed with oil paint directly on the plaster, without the proper preparation of the walls proper for frescoes. He limited the dark palette to a few colors. The paintings are a poignant vision of the collapse of the old world, depicting misery and the decay of traditional values, destruction and self-destruction (e.g. Saturn devouring his own children).

Thanks to German banker Emil d'Erlanger, later owner of the house, they were transferred to canvas and donated to the Prado Museum in 1881.

Influence on painting

Goya had a significant influence on the face of art in the following centuries. He was able to combine the techniques and themes of ancient art with elements close to modern painting. For this reason, he has been called "the last old master and the first modern painter." His later works in particular seem to foreshadow Impressionism and Expressionism.

The sweeping way of applying paint is sometimes close to abstraction, and the rebellion against conventions in art brings to mind the tenets of Surrealism. Goya became a source of inspiration for 19th century painters such as Eugène Delacroix, Édouard Manet, Honoré Daumier and 20th century painters such as Edvard Munch, Otto Dix, and Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon. He inspired the Impressionists, Symbolists, Expressionists, Fauvists and Surrealists.

Goya's thoughts on art

• "I had three masters: Velazquez, Rembrandt and Nature," he says.
• "In painting, there are no rules or norms."
• "In nature there are no lines or color, only the sun is there and there are shadows. With a piece of coal I can make a painting"
• "The best portrait is the one painted from nature"
• "If artists only wanted to work under a just government, when would they be able to work at all?"
• "The world is a masquerade; the face, the clothes, the voice - everything is a lie. Everyone pretends to be someone he is not, everyone deceives everyone else, no one knows himself" (author's comment on engraving No. 6 from the Caprices series)
• "Just don't say it's my doing!" (to a friend, standing in front of one of his works)

Goya in the eyes of posterity

• "In order for him to fully develop his genius, he had to run the risk that his art would cease to please." (André Malraux, 1950)
• "Goya's compositions are shrouded in a deep night, from which a flash of light brings out pale silhouettes and bizarre wraiths." (Théophile Gautier, 1840)
• "In his work, the paths of art and beauty diverged. The content that Goya came to (...) speak of required other aesthetic categories." (Jan Bialostocki, 1963)
• "The strength of his art is provocative mockery. This laughter can be contemptuous or flattering. Goya does not vie for our favor: it is you who are at his mercy. He grooms you and puts you to the test." (André Suares, c. 1938)
• "Everything that modern art owed to him was in total contradiction to the academic and neoclassical painting of his era." (Pierre Gassier, 1970)
• "Goya shows one of the most important qualities of art, which is its ability to brutally force us to see the most horrible sides of life, something we usually try to avoid at all costs." (José Ortega y Gasset, 1950)
• "Goya's eccentric way of painting was not inferior to the eccentricity of his talent. He kept the paint in a large vat. He applied it with whatever he could: brush, spatula, cloth, sponge, or when he had something else on hand, something else. He pounded the pigments like a bricklayer with mortar, and then chiseled the tones with strokes of his thumb." (Théophile Gautier, 1845)
• "With astonishing ease he grasped the characteristic features of each of his models and the deepest essence of their personalities. This mining of layers of consciousness, insight and irony of observation made him an unparalleled portraitist. Majestic like Titian, luminous like Veronese, powerful like Rembrandt, real like Velázquez, elegant like Watteau - he was all these things at once." (Xaviere Desparment Fitzgerald, 1956)
• "Goya is an artist always great, often terrifying. Along with the merriment, the joviality, the Spanish satire of Cervantes' beautiful age, he combines a spirit much more contemporary, or at least one that is much more sought after in modern times: expressed in a love of elusive things, a predilection for violent contrasts, the horrors of nature, human physiognomies savagely animalized by circumstances." (Charles Baudelaire, 1857)
• "Goya's great merit lies in creating a monstrosity that is plausible. His monsters are born capable of life, harmonious. No one has gone as far as he has in the direction of the possible absurd. All these convulsions, these bestial faces, these diabolical grimaces are imbued with 'humanity'." (Charles Baudelaire, 1857).
• "Goya (...) foreshadows the artist of Romanticism: lonely, cursed, but free. It is no small matter that at the same moment two geniuses who do not know each other, both afflicted with deafness, Goya and Beethoven, open the way for the art of the new century. Neither of them is a Romantic, but it is in them that the Romantics see a model." (Alfonso Pérez Sánchez, 1989).
• "The horror, the fears, the mockery, the cruelty that come to the fore in Goya's work, express pain, and he who is capable, communing with this work, of feeling pain, will touch himself. Thus, one can also call Goya the first existentialist in painting." (Gerard Legrand, 2005).
• "Goya never strove for picturesque poses or fancy groupings of his models. He did not acknowledge makeup or mannequin models, as was often practiced so as not to fatigue dignified people. He always painted the whole thing from nature, rarely using preparatory sketches." (Maria Rzepinska, 1979).
• "(...) he left behind paintings and drawings, prints full of monstrosities, demons and all that man can do to man if left free - and from which remorse and art are later born." (Jacek Kaczmarski, 2000).

Francisco Goya in Literature and film

• The 1998 film The Hour of the Brave, directed by Antonio Mercero
• The 1999 film Volavérunt, directed by Bigas Luna
• The 1999 film Goya, directed by Carlos Saura
• The 2006 film Goya's Ghosts, directed by Miloš Forman
• The novel Saturn. Black Images from the Lives of the Men of Goya by Jacek Dehnel, 2011
• The poem Judgment on Goya by Jacek Kaczmarski, 1999