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Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 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 engravings reflected contemporary historical upheavals and influenced important 19th- and 20th-century painters. Goya is often referred to as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Goya was born in Fuendetodos,
Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...
to a middle-class family in 1746. He studied painting from age 14 under José Luzán y Martinez and moved to
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
to study with
Anton Raphael Mengs Anton Raphael Mengs (12 March 1728 – 29 June 1779) was a German Neoclassicism, Neoclassical painter. Early life Mengs was born on 12 March 1728, at Ústí nad Labem in the Kingdom of Bohemia, the son of Ismael Mengs, a Danish-born painter wh ...
. He married Josefa Bayeu in 1773. Goya became a court painter to the Spanish Crown in 1786 and this early portion of his career is marked by portraits of the Spanish
aristocracy Aristocracy (; ) is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocracy (class), aristocrats. Across Europe, the aristocracy exercised immense Economy, economic, Politics, political, and soc ...
and royalty, and
Rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...
-style tapestry cartoons designed for the royal palace. Although Goya's letters and writings survive, little is known about his thoughts. He had a severe and undiagnosed illness in 1793 that left him deaf, after which his work became progressively darker and more pessimistic. His later easel and
mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...
paintings, prints and
drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...
s appear to reflect a bleak outlook on personal, social, and political levels and contrast with his social climbing. He was appointed Director of the
Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...
in 1795, the year Manuel Godoy made an unfavorable treaty with France. In 1799, Goya became ''Primer Pintor de Cámara'' (Prime Court Painter), the highest rank for a Spanish court painter. In the late 1790s, commissioned by Godoy, he completed his '' La maja desnuda'', a remarkably daring nude for the time and clearly indebted to
Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptised 6 June 15996 August 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the Noble court, court of King Philip IV of Spain, Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He i ...
. In 1800–01, he painted '' Charles IV of Spain and His Family'', also influenced by Velázquez. In 1807,
Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
led the French army into the
Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...
against Spain. Goya remained in Madrid during the war, which seems to have affected him deeply. Although he did not speak his thoughts in public, they can be inferred from his '' Disasters of War'' series of prints (although published 35 years after his death) and his 1814 paintings '' The Second of May 1808'' and '' The Third of May 1808''. Other works from his mid-period include the '' Caprichos'' and '' Los Disparates''
etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other type ...
series, and a wide variety of paintings concerned with insanity, mental asylums, witches, fantastical creatures and
religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...
and
political corruption Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain. Forms of corruption vary but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influen ...
, all of which suggest that he feared for both his country's fate and his own mental and physical health. His late period culminates with the '' Black Paintings'' of 1819–1823, applied on oil on the plaster walls of his house the Quinta del Sordo (''House of the Deaf Man'') where, disillusioned by political and social developments in Spain, he lived in near isolation. Goya eventually abandoned Spain in 1824 to retire to the French city of
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...
, accompanied by his much younger maid and companion, Leocadia Weiss, who may have been his lover. There he completed his '' La Tauromaquia'' series and a number of other works. Following a
stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...
that left him paralyzed on his right side, Goya died and was buried on 16 April 1828 aged 82.


Early years (1746–1771)

Francisco de Goya was born in Fuendetodos, Aragón,
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
, on 30 March 1746 to José Benito de Goya y Franque and Gracia de Lucientes y Salvador. The family had moved that year from the city of
Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...
, but there is no record of why; likely, José was commissioned to work there.Hughes (2004), 32 They were lower middle-class. José was the son of a
notary A notary is a person authorised to perform acts in legal affairs, in particular witnessing signatures on documents. The form that the notarial profession takes varies with local legal systems. A notary, while a legal professional, is distin ...
and of
Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
origin, his ancestors being from Zerain, earning his living as a gilder, specialising in religious and decorative craftwork.Connell (2004), 6–7 He oversaw the gilding and most of the ornamentation during the rebuilding of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar (''Santa Maria del Pilar''), the principal cathedral of Zaragoza. Francisco was their fourth child, following his sister Rita (b. 1737), brother Tomás (b. 1739) (who was to follow in his father's trade) and second sister Jacinta (b. 1743). There were two younger sons, Mariano (b. 1750) and Camilo (b. 1753).Hughes (2004), 27 His mother's family had pretensions of nobility and the house, a modest brick cottage, was owned by her family and, perhaps fancifully, bore their crest. About 1749 José and Gracia bought a home in Zaragoza and were able to return to live in the city. Although there are no surviving records, it is thought that Goya may have attended the Escuelas Pías de San Antón, which offered free schooling. His education seems to have been adequate but not enlightening; he had reading, writing and numeracy, and some knowledge of the classics. According to Robert Hughes the artist "seems to have taken no more interest than a carpenter in philosophical or theological matters, and his views on painting ... were very down to earth: Goya was no theoretician."Hughes (2004), 33 At school he formed a close and lifelong friendship with fellow pupil Martín Zapater; the 131 letters Goya wrote to him from 1775 until Zapater's death in 1803 give valuable insight into Goya's early years at the court in Madrid.


Visit to Italy

At age 14 Goya studied under the painter José Luzán, where he copied stamps for 4 years until he decided to work on his own, as he wrote later on "paint from my invention". He moved to Madrid to study with
Anton Raphael Mengs Anton Raphael Mengs (12 March 1728 – 29 June 1779) was a German Neoclassicism, Neoclassical painter. Early life Mengs was born on 12 March 1728, at Ústí nad Labem in the Kingdom of Bohemia, the son of Ismael Mengs, a Danish-born painter wh ...
, a popular painter with Spanish royalty. He clashed with his master, and his examinations were unsatisfactory. Goya submitted entries for the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in 1763 and 1766 but was denied entrance into the academia. Rome was then the cultural capital of Europe and held all the prototypes of classical antiquity, while Spain lacked a coherent artistic direction, with all of its significant visual achievements in the past. Having failed to earn a scholarship, Goya relocated at his own expense to Rome in the old tradition of European artists stretching back at least to
Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer ( , ;; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, Old master prin ...
.Hughes (2004), 34 He was an unknown at the time and so the records are scant and uncertain. Early biographers have him travelling to Rome with a gang of bullfighters, where he worked as a street acrobat, or for a Russian diplomat, or fell in love with a beautiful young nun whom he plotted to abduct from her convent.Hughes (2004), 37 It is possible that Goya completed two surviving mythological paintings during the visit, a ''Sacrifice to Vesta'' and a ''Sacrifice to Pan'', both dated 1771. In 1771 he won second prize in a painting competition organized by the City of
Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...
. That year he returned to Zaragoza and painted elements of the
cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...
s of the Basilica of the Pillar (including '' Adoration of the Name of God''), a cycle of frescoes for the monastic church of the Charterhouse of Aula Dei, and the frescoes of the Sobradiel Palace. He studied with the Aragonese artist Francisco Bayeu y Subías and his painting began to show signs of the delicate tonalities for which he became famous. He befriended Francisco Bayeu and married his sister Josefa (he nicknamed her "Pepa") on 25 July 1773. Their first child, Antonio Juan Ramon Carlos, was born on 29 August 1774. Of their seven children only one, a son named Javier, survived into adulthood.


Madrid (1775–1789)

Francisco Bayeu (Josefa Bayeu's brother), 1765 membership of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, and directorship of the tapestry works from 1777 helped Goya earn a commission for a series of tapestry cartoons for the Royal Tapestry Factory. Over five years he designed some 42 patterns, many of which were used to decorate and insulate the stone walls of
El Escorial El Escorial, or the Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (), or (), is a historical residence of the king of Spain located in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, up the valley ( road distance) from the town of El Escorial, Madrid, El ...
and the Palacio Real del Pardo, the residences of the Spanish monarchs. While designing tapestries was neither prestigious nor well paid, his cartoons are mostly popular in a
rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...
style, and Goya used them to bring himself to wider attention.Hagen & Hagen, 7 The cartoons were not his only royal commissions and were accompanied by a series of engravings, mostly copies after old masters such as Marcantonio Raimondi and Velázquez. Goya had a complicated relationship with the latter artist; while many of his contemporaries saw folly in Goya's attempts to copy and emulate him, he had access to a wide range of the long-dead painter's works that had been contained in the royal collection. Nonetheless, etching was a medium that the young artist was to master, a medium that was to reveal both the true depths of his imagination and his political beliefs. His etching of ''The Garrotted Man'' ("El agarrotado") was the largest work he had produced to date, and an obvious foreboding of his later " Disasters of War" series. Goya was beset by illness, and his condition was used against him by his rivals, who looked jealously upon any artist seen to be rising in stature. Some of the larger cartoons, such as ''The Wedding'', were more than 8 by 10 feet, and had proved a drain on his physical strength. Ever resourceful, Goya turned this misfortune around, claiming that his illness had allowed him the insight to produce works that were more personal and informal. However, he found the format limiting, as it did not allow him to capture complex color shifts or texture, and was unsuited to the
impasto Impasto is a technique used in painting, where paint is laid on an area of the surface thickly, usually thick enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas. When dry, impasto provides tex ...
and glazing techniques he was by then applying to his painted works. The tapestries seem as comments on human types, fashion and fads. Other works from the period include 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.


Court painter

In 1783, the Count of Floridablanca, favorite of
King Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...
, commissioned Goya to paint his portrait. He became friends with the King's half-brother Luis, and spent two summers working on portraits of both the Infante and his family. During the 1780s, his circle of patrons grew to include the Duke and Duchess of Osuna, the King and other notable people of the kingdom whom he painted. In 1786, Goya was given a salaried position as a painter to Charles III. Goya was appointed court painter to Charles IV in 1789. The following year he became First Court Painter, with a salary of 50,000 reales and an allowance of 500
ducat The ducat ( ) coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages to the 19th century. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wide inter ...
s for a coach. He painted portraits of the king and the queen, and the Spanish Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy and many other nobles. These portraits are notable for their disinclination to flatter; his '' Charles IV of Spain and His Family'' is an especially brutal assessment of a royal family. Modern interpreters view the portrait as satirical; it is thought to reveal the corruption behind the rule of Charles IV. Under his reign his wife Louisa was thought to have had the real power, and thus Goya placed her at the center of the group portrait. From the back left of the painting one 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. Goya earned commissions from the highest ranks of the
Spanish nobility The Spanish nobility are people who possess a title of nobility confirmed by the Spanish Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, as well as those individuals appointed to one of Spain's three highest orders of knightho ...
, including Pedro Téllez-Girón, 9th Duke of Osuna and his wife María Josefa Pimentel, 12th Countess-Duchess of Benavente, José Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba and his wife María del Pilar de Silva, and María Ana de Pontejos y Sandoval, Marchioness of Pontejos. In 1801 he painted Godoy in a commission to commemorate the victory in the brief War of the Oranges against Portugal. The two were friends, even if Goya's 1801 portrait is usually seen as satire. Yet even after Godoy's fall from grace the politician referred to the artist in warm terms. Godoy saw himself as instrumental in the publication of the Caprichos and is widely believed to have commissioned '' La maja desnuda''.


Middle period (1793–1799)

''La Maja Desnuda'' (''La maja desnuda'') has been described as "the first totally profane life-size female nude in Western art" without pretense to allegorical or mythological meaning. The identity of the ''Majas'' is uncertain. The most popularly cited models are the Duchess of Alba, with whom Goya was sometimes thought to have had an affair, and Pepita Tudó, mistress of Manuel de Godoy. Neither theory has been verified, and it remains as likely that the paintings represent an idealized composite. The paintings were never publicly exhibited during Goya's lifetime and were owned by Godoy.The unflinching eye.
''The Guardian'', October 2003.
In 1808 all Godoy's property was seized by Ferdinand VII after his fall from power and exile, and in 1813 the
Inquisition The Inquisition was a Catholic Inquisitorial system#History, judicial procedure where the Ecclesiastical court, ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various med ...
confiscated both works as 'obscene', returning them in 1836 to the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. In 1798 he painted luminous and airy scenes for the pendentives and cupola of the Real Ermita (Chapel) of San Antonio de la Florida in Madrid. His depiction of a miracle of Saint Anthony of Padua is devoid of the customary angels and instead treats the miracle as if it were a theatrical event performed by ordinary people. At some time between late 1792 and early 1793, an undiagnosed illness left Goya deaf. He became withdrawn and introspective while the direction and tone of his work changed. He began the series of aquatinted
etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other type ...
s, published in 1799 as the '' Caprichos''—completed in parallel with the more official commissions of portraits and religious paintings. In 1799 Goya published 80 ''Caprichos'' prints depicting what he described 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". The visions in these prints are partly explained by the caption "The sleep of reason produces monsters". Yet these are not solely bleak; they demonstrate the artist's sharp satirical wit, as in ''Capricho'' number 52, ''What a Tailor Can Do!'' While convalescing between 1793 and 1794, Goya completed a set of eleven small pictures painted on tin that marked a significant change in the tone and subject matter of his art, and drew from the dark and dramatic realms of fantasy nightmare. '' Yard with Lunatics'' is a vision of loneliness, fear and social alienation. The condemnation of brutality towards prisoners (whether criminal or insane) is a subject that Goya assayed in later works that focused on the degradation of the human figure. It was one of the first of Goya's mid-1790s
cabinet painting A cabinet painting (or cabinet picture) is a small painting, typically no larger than in either dimension, but often much smaller. The term is especially used for paintings that show full-length figures or landscapes at a small scale, rather th ...
s, in which his earlier search for ideal beauty gave way to an examination of the relationship between naturalism and fantasy that would preoccupy him for the rest of his career. He was undergoing a nervous breakdown and entering prolonged physical illness, and admitted that the series was created to reflect his own self-doubt, anxiety and fear that he was losing his mind. Goya wrote that the works served "to occupy my imagination, tormented as it is by contemplation of my sufferings." The series, he said, consisted of pictures which "normally find no place in commissioned works". Goya's physical and mental breakdown seems to have happened a few weeks after the French declaration of war on Spain. A contemporary reported, "The noises in his head and deafness aren't improving, yet his vision is much better and he is back in control of his balance." These symptoms may indicate a prolonged viral encephalitis, or possibly a series of miniature strokes resulting from high blood pressure and which affected the hearing and balance centres of the brain. Symptoms of
tinnitus Tinnitus is a condition when a person hears a ringing sound or a different variety of sound when no corresponding external sound is present and other people cannot hear it. Nearly everyone experiences faint "normal tinnitus" in a completely ...
, episodes of imbalance and progressive
deafness Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is writte ...
are typical of Ménière's disease. It is possible that Goya had cumulative
lead poisoning Lead poisoning, also known as plumbism and saturnism, is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, infertility, numbness and paresthesia, t ...
, as he used massive amounts of lead white—which he ground himselfHistorical Clinicopathological Conference (2017)
University of Maryland School of Medicine, Retrieved 27 January 2017.
—in his paintings, both as a canvas primer and as a primary colour.Connell (2004), 78–79 Other postmortem diagnostic assessments include Susac's syndrome or may point toward paranoid dementia, possibly due to brain trauma, as evidenced by marked changes in his work after his recovery, culminating in the "black" paintings. Art historians have noted Goya's singular ability to express his personal demons as horrific and fantastic imagery that speaks universally, and allows his audience to find its own catharsis in the images.


Peninsular War (1808–1814)

The French army invaded Spain in 1808, leading to the
Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...
of 1808–1814. The extent of Goya's involvement with the court of the "intruder king", Joseph I, the brother of
Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
, is not known; he painted works for French patrons and sympathisers, but kept neutral during the fighting. After the restoration of the Spanish King Ferdinand VII in 1814, Goya denied any involvement with the French. By the time of his wife Josefa's death in 1812, he was painting '' The Second of May 1808'' and '' The Third of May 1808'', and preparing the series of etchings later known as '' The Disasters of War'' (''Los desastres de la guerra''). Ferdinand VII returned to Spain in 1814 but relations with Goya were not cordial. The artist completed portraits of the king for a variety of ministries, but not for the king himself. Although Goya did not make his intention known when creating ''The Disasters of War'', art historians view them as a visual protest against the violence of the 1808 Dos de Mayo Uprising, the subsequent Peninsular War and the move against liberalism in the aftermath of the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1814. The scenes are singularly disturbing, sometimes macabre in their depiction of battlefield horror, and represent an outraged conscience in the face of death and destruction.Wilson-Bareau, 45 They were not published until 1863, 35 years after his death. It is likely that only then was it considered politically safe to distribute a sequence of artworks criticising both the French and restored Bourbons.Jones, Jonathan.
Look what we did
. ''The Guardian'', 31 March 2003. Retrieved 29 August 2009.
The first 47 plates in the series 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, Goya's scenes of atrocities, starvation, degradation and humiliation have been described as the "prodigious flowering of rage".Connell (2004), 175 File:El Tres de Mayo, by Francisco de Goya, from Prado thin black margin.jpg, '' The Third of May 1808'', 1814. Oil on canvas, . , Madrid File:El dos de mayo de 1808 en Madrid.jpg, '' The Second of May 1808'', 1814 File:Prado - Los Desastres de la Guerra - No. 04 - Las mugeres dan valor.jpg, Plate 4: ''Las mujeres dan valor'' (''The women are courageous''). This plate depicts a struggle between a group of civilians fighting soldiers. File:Prado - Los Desastres de la Guerra - No. 05 - Y son fieras.jpg, Plate 5: ''Y son fieras'' (''And they are fierce'' or ''And they fight like wild beasts''). Civilian women fight against soldiers with spears and rocks. File:Prado - Los Desastres de la Guerra - No. 46 - Esto es malo.jpg, alt=Soldiers in large fur hats, long coats and winter uniforms murder priests by running them through with their long bladed swords., Plate 46: ''Esto es malo'' (''This is bad''). A monk is killed by French soldiers looting church treasures. A rare sympathetic image of clergy, who were generally shown on the side of oppression and injustice.Fremont-Barnes, Gregory. "The Napoleonic wars: the Peninsular War 1807–1814". Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2002. 73. File:Prado - Los Desastres de la Guerra - No. 47 - Así sucedió.jpg, Plate 47: ''Así sucedió'' (''This is how it happened''). The last print in the first group. Murdered monks lie by French soldiers looting church treasures. His 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''.


Quinta del Sordo and Black Paintings (1819–1822)

Records of Goya's later life are relatively scant, and ever politically aware, he suppressed a number of his works from this period, working instead in private. He was tormented by a dread of old age and fear of madness. Goya had been a successful and royally placed artist, but withdrew from public life during his final years. From the late 1810s he lived in near-solitude outside Madrid in a farmhouse converted into a studio. The house had become known as "La Quinta del Sordo" (The House of the Deaf Man), after the nearest farmhouse that had coincidentally also belonged to a deaf man. Art historians assume Goya felt alienated from the social and political trends that followed the 1814 restoration of the Bourbon monarchy, and that he viewed these developments as reactionary means of social control. In his unpublished art he seems to have railed against what he saw as a tactical retreat into Medievalism.Larson, Kay. "Dark Knight". ''New York Magazine'', Volume 22, No. 20, 15 May 1989. 111. It is thought that he had hoped for political and religious reform, but like many liberals became disillusioned when the restored Bourbon monarchy and Catholic hierarchy rejected the Spanish Constitution of 1812. At the age of 75, alone and in mental and physical despair, he completed the work of his 14 '' Black Paintings'', all of which were executed in oil directly onto the plaster walls of his house. Goya did not intend for the paintings to be exhibited, did not write of them, and likely never spoke of them. Around 1874, 50 years after his death, they were taken down and transferred to a canvas support by owner Baron Frédéric Émile d'Erlanger. Many of the works were significantly altered during the restoration, and in the words of Arthur Lubow what remain are "at best a crude facsimile of what Goya painted." The effects of time on the murals, coupled with the inevitable damage caused by the delicate operation of mounting the crumbling plaster on canvas, meant that most of the murals suffered extensive damage and loss of paint. Today, they are on permanent display at the , Madrid.


Bordeaux (October 1824 – 1828)

Leocadia Weiss (née Zorrilla, 1790–1856), the artist's maid, younger by 35 years, and a distant relative, lived with and cared for Goya after Bayeu's death. She stayed with him in his Quinta del Sordo villa until 1824 with her daughter
Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...
.Buchholz, 79 Leocadia was probably similar in features to Goya's first wife Josefa Bayeu, to the point that one of his well-known portraits bears the cautious title of ''Josefa Bayeu (or Leocadia Weiss)''. Not much is known about her beyond her fiery temperament. She was likely related to the Goicoechea family, a wealthy dynasty into which the artist's son, Javier, had married. It is known that Leocadia had an unhappy marriage with a jeweler, Isidore Weiss, but was separated from him since 1811, after he had accused her of "illicit conduct". She had two children before that time, and bore a third, Rosario, in 1814 when she was 26. Isidore was not the father, and it has often been speculated—although with little firm evidence—that the child belonged to Goya. There has been much speculation that Goya and Weiss were romantically linked; however, it is more likely the affection between them was sentimental. Goya died on 16 April 1828. Leocadia was left nothing in Goya's will; mistresses were often omitted in such circumstances, but it is also likely that he did not want to dwell on his mortality by thinking about or revising his will. She wrote to a number of Goya's friends to complain of her exclusion but many of her friends were Goya's also and by then were old men or had died, and did not reply. Largely destitute, she moved into rented accommodation, later passing on her copy of the '' Caprichos'' for free. Goya's body was later re-interred in the Real Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida in Madrid. Goya's skull was missing, a detail the Spanish consul immediately communicated to his superiors in Madrid, who wired back, "Send Goya, with or without head."


Goya's influence on modern and contemporary artists and writers

Goya is often referred to as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Among the 20th-century painters influenced by Goya are the Spanish masters
Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...
and
Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...
who drew influence from '' Los caprichos'' and the '' Black Paintings'' of Goya. In the 21st century, American postmodern painters such as Michael Zansky and Bradley Rubenstein draw inspiration from "The Dream of Reason Produces Monsters" (1796–98) and Goya's '' Black Paintings''. Zanksy's "Giants and Dwarf Series" (1990–2002) of large-scale paintings and wood carvings use imagery from Goya. Goya's influence has extended beyond the visual arts: * The Spanish composer Enrique Granados wrote a suite for solo piano in 1911 based on Goya's paintings called '' Goyescas'', and later wrote an opera of the same name based on the suite. *Spanish author Fernando Arrabal's novel ''The Burial of the Sardine'' was inspired by Goya's painting. * Russian poet Andrei Voznesensky's ''I Am Goya'' was inspired by Goya's anti-war paintings. * The video game Impasto was based on the works of Goya. In 2024, an extensive exhibition of Goya's etchings was held at the Norton Simon Museum in Southern California.


Films and television

* ''Goya: Crazy Like a Genius'' (2002), a documentary by Ian MacMillan, presented by Robert Hughes * '' Goya's Ghosts'' (2006), directed by Miloš Forman * '' Volavérunt'' (1999), directed by
Bigas Luna José Juan Bigas Luna (19 March 1946 – 5 April 2013) was a Spanish film director, designer and artist. His films are typically characterised by a strong emphasis on the erotic film, erotic, often related to food, something for which he admitte ...
and based on the novel by Antonio Larreta * '' Goya in Bordeaux'' (1999), Spanish historical drama film written and directed by Carlos Saura about the life of Francisco de Goya * '' Goya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment'' (1971) (German: ''Goya – oder der arge Weg der Erkenntnis'') is a 1971 East German drama film directed by Konrad Wolf. It was entered into the 7th Moscow International Film Festival where it won a Special Prize. It is based on a novel with the same title by Lion Feuchtwanger. * '' The Naked Maja'' (1958), directed by
Henry Koster Henry Koster (born Hermann Kosterlitz, May 1, 1905 – September 21, 1988) was a German-born film director. He was the husband of actress Peggy Moran. Early life Koster was born to Jewish parents in Berlin, Germany. He was introduced to cin ...
. A film about the painter Francisco Goya and the Duchess of Alba; Anthony Franciosa played Goya and
Ava Gardner Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' att ...
played the Duchess. * ''Tiempo de ilustrados (Time of the Enlightened)'' in the series '' The Ministry of Time''. Goya (played by Pedro Casablanc) must repaint '' La maja desnuda'' after a cult called the Exterminating Angels destroy it.


See also

* Francisco Goya's tapestry cartoons


References


Footnotes


Citations


Further reading

* Baticle, Jeannine. ''Goya: Painter of Terrible Splendor'', "
Abrams Discoveries Abrams may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Abrams (surname), a list of notable people with the surname Places United States * Abrams, Wisconsin, a town * Abrams (community), Wisconsin, an unincorporated community * Abrams Mountain, Colorado * Abr ...
" series. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994 * Buchholz, Elke Linda. ''Francisco de Goya''. Cologne: Könemann, 1999. * Ciofalo, John J. ''The Self-Portraits of Francisco Goya.'' Cambridge University Press, 2002 * Connell, Evan S. ''Francisco Goya: A Life''. New York: Counterpoint, 2004. * Eitner, Lorenz. ''An Outline of 19th Century European Painting''. New York: Harper & Row, 1997. * Gassier, Pierre. ''Goya: A Biographical and Critical Study''. New York: Skira, 1955 * Gassier, Piere and Juliet Wilson. ''The Life and Complete Work of Francisco Goya''. New York 1971. * Glendinning, Nigel. ''Goya and his Critics''. New Haven 1977. * Glendinning, Nigel. "The Strange Translation of Goya's Black Paintings". ''The Burlington Magazine'', Volume 117, No. 868, 1975 * Hagen, Rose-Marie & Hagen, Rainer. ''Francisco Goya, 1746–1828''. London: Taschen, 1999. * Havard, Robert. "Goya's House Revisited: Why a Deaf Man Painted his Walls Black". ''Bulletin of Spanish Studies'', Volume 82, Issue 5 July 2005 * Hennigfeld, Ursula (ed.). ''Goya im Dialog der Medien, Kulturen und Disziplinen.'' Freiburg: Rombach, 2013. * Hilt, Douglas. "Goya: Turmoils of a Patriot" ''History Today'' (Aug 1973), Vol. 23 Issue 8, pp 536–545, online * Hughes, Robert. ''Goya''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. * Junquera, Juan José. ''The Black Paintings of Goya''. London: Scala Publishers, 2008. * Kravchenko, Anastasiia. ''Mythological subjects in Francisco Goya's work''. 2019 * Licht, Fred S. ''Goya in Perspective''. New York 1973. * Licht, Fred. ''Goya: The Origins of the Modern Temper in Art''. Universe Books, 1979. * Litroy, Jo. ''Jusqu'à la mort''. Paris: Editions du Masque, 2013. * Martín-Estudillo, Luis. ''Goya and the Mystery of Reading''. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2023. * Symmons, Sarah. ''Goya: A Life in Letters''. Pimlico, 2004. * Tomlinson, Janis. ''Francisco Goya y Lucientes 1746–1828''. London: Phaidon, 1994. * Tomlinson, Janis. "Burn It, Hide It, Flaunt It: Goya's Majas and the Censorial Mind". ''The Art Journal'', Volume 50, No. 4, 1991


External links


Francisco Goya's Cats

www.FranciscoGoya.com

Goya in Aragon Foundation: Online catalogue

''Goya, the Secret of the Shadows''
a documentary film by David Mauas, Spain, 2011, 77'
Goya: The Most Spanish of Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
*   (PDF in th
Arno Schmidt Reference Library
) *   (PDF in th
Arno Schmidt Reference Library
)
Etching series by Goya
* *
Bibliothèque numérique de l'INHA – Estampes de Francisco de Goya

''Goya in the Metropolitan Museum of Art''
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF)
''Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures''
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains a significant amount of material on the prints of Goya
Francisco Goya Prints
in the Claremont Colleges Digital Library


A Closer Look at Francisco Goya's 'Disasters of War' (Spanish title: 'Los Desastres de la Guerra')
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goya, Francisco 1746 births 1828 deaths 18th-century Spanish painters 18th-century Spanish male artists 19th-century Spanish painters 19th-century Spanish male artists Painters from Aragon Burials in Madrid Court painters Deaf artists Spanish deaf people People from the Province of Zaragoza Royal Order of Spain members Spanish battle painters Spanish people of Basque descent Spanish printmakers Spanish Roman Catholics Spanish romantic painters Spanish satirists Romantic painters Spanish fantasy artists Spanish horror artists Spanish war artists