''Self-Portrait with Dr Arrieta'' is the English title given to a painting by Spanish artist
Francisco 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 ...
. The work is an oil on canvas, painted in 1820, and is currently held in the
Minneapolis Institute of Art
The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...
,
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
. Many scholars have seen religious themes in the work. Other interpretations compare and contrast the painting with Goya's series of
Black Paintings
The ''Black Paintings'' (Spanish: ''Pinturas negras'') is the name given to a group of 14 paintings by Francisco Goya from the later years of his life, likely between 1819 and 1823. They portray intense, haunting themes, reflective of both his ...
, contextualizing the work within his career at large.
Background
In 1792, Goya developed a sudden, serious illness which included dizziness, weakness, delirium, sickness, abdominal pain, deafness, and partial blindness.
[Foy J. L. ''The Deafness and Madness of Goya: Conscious and Unconscious Expressive Art''. Vol 3. Basel: Karger, 1971. (Cited in M.P. Park and R.H.R. Park, "The Fine Art of Patient-Doctor Relationships." ''BMJ'' 329 (2004): p. 1,475, and notes 1, 2.)][Cawthorne, Terrance. "Goya's Illness." ''Proc Roy Soc Med'' 55 (March 1962): 213–217.] By the time he returned to
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, in 1793, Goya was completely deaf. Various diagnoses of this illness have been offered:
syphilis
Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, an ...
,
lead poisoning
Lead poisoning, also known as plumbism and saturnism, is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. The brain is the most sensitive. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, inferti ...
,
cerebrovascular disease
Cerebrovascular disease includes a variety of medical conditions that affect the blood vessels of the brain and the cerebral circulation. Arteries supplying oxygen and nutrients to the brain are often damaged or deformed in these disorders. The ...
, acute infection of the central nervous system, and the rare condition of
Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome—temporary inflammation of the uveal tract associated with permanent deafness.
In 1819 Goya had a second serious illness. Little information is available on the nature of the illness or the treatment provided by Eugenio García Arrieta beyond the painting ''Self-Portrait with Dr. Arrieta''. An inscription below the figures explains why Goya made the picture:
''Goya, in gratitude to his friend Arrieta: for the compassion and care with which he saved his life during the acute and dangerous illness he suffered towards the end of the year 1819 in his seventy-third year''. ''He painted it in 1820''.
Goya may have expected to die, but under Arrieta's care, he was nursed back to health and lived another eight years. Thus, the work was a present for Arrieta, painted in gratitude for the gift of life. However, it is uncertain how long the painting remained in Arrieta's possession. In 1820 the doctor traveled to Africa to study bubonic plague, and it is probable that the painting remained in Spain. By 1860, when exhibited in Madrid, it was in the collection of Mr Martinez of Madrid. Later the painting was recorded in various private collections in Paris before being acquired by the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Compositional Analysis
In the painting, Goya is seated on his bed and is obviously weak from his illness. He grasps his bed-sheet as if clinging onto life and is supported from behind by the arm of Arrieta. The doctor gently encourages his patient to take medicine. Shadowy figures in the background seem to be faces of doom.
The entire portrait is composed of contrasts. In the foreground, Dr. Arrieta and Goya are depicted naturalistically in a dim light, with the red bed-sheet at the bottom of the painting bringing warmth to the setting. This warmth is juxtaposed against the darker, phosphorescent tones used to depict the shadow-like figures appearing in the background.
Further, Arrieta's gaze demonstrates focus and determination, with the tone of red in his complexion suggesting his good health, whereas Goya's closed eyes signify a lack of awareness and an inability to support himself, and the grayer tones used in Goya's face make him appear sick and sullen.
The weakness of Goya is emphasized by his hands that clutch the bed linens and his head that slopes backwards – a posture set in contrast with Arrieta who stands upright and firmly supports his patient while holding the glass to his lips.
The dress of each of the figures amplifies their differences, as Goya wears a gray robe while Arrieta poses in a coat of green – a color observed to be associated with hope.
Interpretations
Religious Themes in Secular Context
![La_última_comunión_de_san_José_de_Calasanz](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/La_%C3%BAltima_comuni%C3%B3n_de_san_Jos%C3%A9_de_Calasanz.jpg)
The inscription found attached to ''Self-Portrait with Dr. Arrieta'' leads many scholars to liken the work to
ex-voto
An ex-voto is a votive offering to a saint or to a divinity; the term is usually restricted to Christian examples. It is given in fulfillment of a vow (hence the Latin term, short for ''ex voto suscepto'', "from the vow made") or in gratitude o ...
s typically found in churches during the period, depicting religious scenes as a demonstration of gratitude for divine intervention.
What makes Goya's work distinct from these votive offerings is the secular context in which he places the scene. The painting directs its gratitude towards the physician rather than towards the church, and attributes his recovery to works of science rather than works of divinity. Brown and Galassi suggest that the framing of the portrait in such a way may have been done with the intention of portraying Dr. Arrieta as a saintly figure for his assistance in Goya's escape from death.
![Goya_Christ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Goya_Christ.jpg)
Other references to Christianity have also been observed by scholars, such as the portrait's apparent theme of communion, which was often found to be presented in a secular context amongst Spanish artists at the time. This theme is read through Arrieta's action of raising the cup to Goya's lips, reminiscent of the sacramental
Blood of Christ
Blood of Christ, also known as the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in Christian theology refers to (a) the physical blood actually shed by Jesus Christ primarily on the Cross, and the salvation which Christianity teaches was accomp ...
offered at Christian communion ceremonies. Additionally, the theme of
Gethsemane
Gethsemane () is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem where, according to the four Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus underwent the agony in the garden and was arrested before his crucifixion. It is a place of great resona ...
, where Christ appears with the cup-bearing angel, is also observed. In the year prior to his painting of ''Self-Portrait with Dr. Arrieta'', Goya completed ''The Last Communion of San Jose de Calasanz'' (see right) and ''Agony in the Garden'' (see left), each of which deal with these exact religious themes.
Other links have been made between the portrait and traditional religious images such as the ''
Pieta'' and religious ideas like ''
Ars moriendi
The ''Ars moriendi'' ("The Art of Dying") are two related Latin texts dating from about 1415 and 1450 which offer advice on the protocols and procedures of a good death, explaining how to "die well" according to Christian precepts of the late Mi ...
''.
Across the different religious allusions, scholars agree that the themes are all presented in a distinctly secular way within the portrait.
The Background Figures & Goya's "Black Paintings"
Some interpretations of ''Self-Portrait'' suggest that the figures appearing in the background are meant to be seen as humans, reading the figure on the left side of the painting as a woman offering help, and the figure on the right as a neighbor displaying concern for the patient; others view the left-most figure as a priest preparing to practice common deathbed rituals of Christianity.
Yet there is also a collection of scholars who see these dark and shadow-like figures as signifying a connection between ''Self-Portrait with Dr. Arrieta'' and Goya's later collection of
Black Paintings
The ''Black Paintings'' (Spanish: ''Pinturas negras'') is the name given to a group of 14 paintings by Francisco Goya from the later years of his life, likely between 1819 and 1823. They portray intense, haunting themes, reflective of both his ...
.
This interpretation likens the figures in the background of ''Self-Portrait'' to the feverish visions depicted in the Black Paintings – visions which are thought to have resulted from the artist's illnesses. In this line of thought, ''Self-Portrait'' is viewed as a window into Goya's experiences with illness, as the painting explicitly deals with that very subject.
However, there is no clear consensus; Baldwin, for one, raises instead the idea that, rather than being seen as similar, ''Self-Portrait'' stands in contrast with the Black Paintings. While the Black Paintings explicitly deal with themes of violence and conflict in the public sphere, the scene in ''Self-Portrait'' shows men caring and healing one another within the private sphere. In this way, rather than being pessimistic or nightmarish, ''Self-Portrait with Dr Arrieta'' is viewed as a painting about hope.
Significance
Goya's ''Self-Portrait with Dr. Arrieta'' has been described as an emblem of a shift in Spanish portraiture towards both the Modern Period and the secularization of portraits.
Further, the painting is also demonstrative of a shift within Goya's own portraiture, particularly in his depiction of himself before and after his encounters with illness. In a drawing completed by Goya sometime before 1792 – prior to his first encounter with death – the artist's use of defined lines and distinct shadows depict him in a youthful, lively manner. This representation is markedly different from the way Goya represents himself in ''Self-Portrait'', with a hanging jaw and weakened body.
Thus, the portrait, especially when seen in relation to earlier works, aids in analyzing and tracking this shift in Goya's art.
Additionally, ''Self-Portrait with Dr. Arrieta'' can be situated within the context of themes carried throughout Goya's artistic career. As Baldwin observes, there exists a continuous interaction between contrasting ideas of pessimism and hope, forgetting and relearning, destruction and salvation across many of Goya's works. ''Self-Portrait'' is significant within this context as it presents a scene of weakness and death, yet simultaneously provides hope and the anticipation of healing.
See also
*
List of works by Francisco Goya
The following is an incomplete list of works by the Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco Goya.
Paintings (1763–1774)
Paintings (1775–1792)
''see also: List of Francisco Goya's tapestry cartoons''
Paintings (1793–1807)
Paintings (1 ...
References
Sources
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov – ''The fine art of patient-doctor relationships''* John J. Ciofalo. "The Artist in the Vicinity of Death." ''The Self-Portraits of Francisco Goya'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001)
External links
*
{{goya
Portraits by Francisco Goya
Self-portraits
Paintings in Minnesota
Medicine in art