[Prev] [Next] [Up] [Top] [Search] [Index] [Home]
Francisco Goya
("The Disasters of War," 1810-14)
Goya (y Lucientes), Francisco (José) de (b. March 30, 1746,
Fuendetodos, Spain d. April 16, 1828, Bordeaux, Fr.), consummately
Spanish artist whose multifarious paintings, drawings, and engravings
reflected contemporary historical upheavals and influenced important
19th- and 20th-century painters. The series of etchings
Los desastres de la guerra
("The Disasters of War," 1810-14) records the horrors of
the Napoleonic invasion. His masterpieces in painting include
The Naked Maja and
The Clothed Maja (c. 1800-05).
[Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994]
For the bold technique of his paintings, the
haunting satire of his etchings, and his belief that the artist's vision is
more important than tradition, Goya is often called "the first of the
moderns." His uncompromising portrayal of his times marks the beginning of
19th-century realism.
Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes was born on March 30, 1746, in
Fuendetodos, a village in northern Spain. The family later moved to
Saragossa, where Goya's father worked as a gilder. At about 14 young Goya was
apprenticed to Jose Luzan, a local painter. Later he went to Italy to
continue his study of art. On returning to Saragossa in 1771, he painted
frescoes for the local cathedral. These works, done in the decorative rococo
tradition, established Goya's artistic reputation. In 1773 he married Josefa
Bayeu, sister of Saragossa artist Francisco Bayeu. The couple had many
children, but only one a son, Xavier survived to adulthood.
From 1775 to 1792 Goya painted cartoons (designs) for the royal tapestry
factory in Madrid. This was the most important period in his artistic
development. As a tapestry designer, Goya did his first genre paintings, or
scenes from everyday life.
The experience helped him become a keen observer of human behavior. He was
also influenced by neoclassicism, which was gaining favor over the rococo
style. Finally, his study of the works of
Velazquez
in the royal collection
resulted in a looser, more spontaneous painting technique.
At the same time, Goya achieved his first popular success. He became
established as a portrait painter to the Spanish aristocracy. He was elected
to the Royal Academy of San Fernando in 1780, named painter to the king in
1786, and made a court painter in 1789.
A serious illness in 1792 left Goya permanently deaf. Isolated from others
by his deafness, he became increasingly occupied with the fantasies and
inventions of his imagination and with critical and satirical observations of
mankind. He evolved a bold, free new style close to caricature. In 1799 he
published the
Caprichos,
a series of etchings satirizing human folly and
weakness. His portraits became penetrating characterizations, revealing their
subjects as Goya saw them. In his religious frescoes he employed a broad,
free style and an earthy realism unprecedented in religious art.
Goya served as director of painting at the Royal Academy from 1795 to 1797
and was appointed first Spanish court painter in 1799. During the Napoleonic
invasion and the Spanish war of independence from 1808 to 1814, Goya served
as court painter to the French. He expressed his horror of armed conflict in
The Disasters of War,
a series of starkly realistic etchings on the
atrocities of war. They were not published until 1863, long after Goya's
death.
Upon the restoration of the Spanish monarchy, Goya was pardoned for
serving the French, but his work was not favored by the new king. He was
called before the Inquisition to explain his earlier portrait of
The Naked Maja,
one of the few nudes in Spanish art at that time.
In 1816 he published his etchings on bullfighting, called the
Tauromaquia.
From 1819 to 1824 Goya lived in seclusion in a house outside
Madrid. Free from court restrictions, he adopted an increasingly personal
style. In the
Black Paintings,
executed on the walls of his house, Goya
gave expression to his darkest visions. A similar nightmarish quality haunts
the satirical
Disparates,
a series of etchings also called
Proverbios.
In 1824, after the failure of an attempt to restore liberal government,
Goya went into voluntary exile in France. He settled in Bordeaux, continuing
to work until his death there on April 16, 1828. Today many of his best
paintings hang in Madrid's Prado art museum.
Contributors:
Mark Harden and
Carol Gerten-Jackson.
[Prev] [Next] [Up] [Top] [Search] [Index] [Home]
|
|
|