''A Procession of Flagellants'' (''Procesión de disciplinantes'', or ''Procesión de flagelantes'') is an oil-on-panel painting produced by

Francisco de Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and ...

between 1812 and 1819. In the foreground is a procession of Roman Catholic men dressed in white, wearing pointed hats and whipping their bared backs in

penitence Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of repentance for sins committed, as well as an alternate name for the Catholic, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. It also plays a part i ...

. Their backs are bleeding and they pull over-life-size statues of Nuestra Señora dela Soledad, the Ecce Homo and the

Crucifixion of Christ The crucifixion and death of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea, most likely in AD 30 or AD 33. It is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by other ancient sources, and considere ...

. Other devotees, who are kneeling and wearing black hoods, line the route. On the right a man is impaled and all are carrying banners, crosses and lamps. The painting belongs to a series which also includes ''

The Inquisition Tribunal ''The Inquisition Tribunal'', also known as ''The Court of the Inquisition'' or ''The Inquisition Scene'' (''Spanish'': ''Escena de Inquisición''), is an 18x29 inch oil-on-panel painting produced by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya between 181 ...

'', ''

The Madhouse ''The Madhouse'' (Spanish: ''Casa de locos'') or ''Asylum'' (Spanish: ''Manicomio'') is an oil on panel painting by Francisco Goya. He produced it between 1812 and 1819 based on a scene he had witnessed at the then-renowned Zaragoza mental asylum ...

'' and '' The Bullfight''. This series illustrates aspects of Spanish life which liberals (of whom Goya was then one) wished to reform but whose reform was opposed by

Ferdinand VII of Spain , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles IV of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Parma , birth_date = 14 October 1784 , birth_place = El Escorial, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Madrid, Spain , burial_plac ...

's absolutist policy. A common feature of the series is the presence of cruelty, here shown by the blood flowing out onto the white garment of the central figure, and two contrasting zones of light and dark – here, all the figures in the foreground are in the light, well-characterised and individualised, but the background is left as an anonymous crowd of the faithful, dimly lit under a cloudy blue sky. The two zones are divided by a dark wall, possibly symbolising the heavy weight of religion. The series played an important part in creating the legend of 'Black Spain'. It does not go beyond the usual point of view on the Spanish mindset of its era among most other Europeans, interested in Spain as an exotic and picturesque land, an interest first aroused by the French contact with Spain that led to the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

. Paintings such as these, with a terrible and romantic aura, inspired several later prints.

References

* BOZAL, Valeriano: ''Francisco Goya, vida y obra'', Madrid, Tf, 2005, 2 vols. (Aficiones, 5–6), vol. 2, pages 169–170. .

External links

*
''Procesión de disciplinantes'' on «Artehistoria.com».
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Procession of Flagellants, A 1819 paintings Paintings by Francisco Goya Paintings in the collection of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando

See also

References

External links