Often called "the first of the moderns," Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes trailed legend behind him wherever he went. Even casual acquaintances were struck by Goya's surplus of personality: he was fiercely independent, an amateur toreador, a relentless adventurer, at...
[more]Often called "the first of the moderns," Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes trailed legend behind him wherever he went. Even casual acquaintances were struck by Goya's surplus of personality: he was fiercely independent, an amateur toreador, a relentless adventurer, at times a street fighter, and (sigh) a reputable lover. Goya believed that an artist's vision should outweigh tradition. He was uncompromising in his portrayal of society, politics, and humanity, even when his risked punishment by his choices. He was summoned before the King of Spain to explain his "Maja" paintings: one woman was clothed and smirking, one nude and smirking. At the time, painters who portrayed women in the flesh (especially young, reclining, flirtatious women) were putting themselves in harm's way. Goya didn't care.
While still a frisky adolescent, Goya apprenticed to an accomplished local painter named Jose Luzan, then shipped off to Italy to further his study. After he return to Saragossa in 1771, Goya painted frescoes in the decorative rococo manner for the local cathedral. A few years later he married the sister of court painter Francisco Bayeu, whose job Goya would later hold. From 1775 to 1792 Goya revolutionized the Spanish tapestry industry as the designer for the royal tapestry factory
in Madrid. Until Goya, the industry monotonously
reproduced seventeenth-century Flemish genre scenes; Goya introduced candid views of daily Spanish life.
During a holiday in 1792 Goya contracted a serious illness that left him permanently deaf. His new condition drastically altered his personality and interests; he became obsessed with the limits and origins of the imagination, was drawn to satire, and developed a new style that resembled modern-day caricature. In his religious frescoes, Goya introduced an earthly realism; his portraits evolved into chilling characterizations; his etchings explored human folly. In a self-portrait done shortly after his illness, Goya's glare is directed downward as if fixated on the prospect of a long fall. Through his eyes the viewer understands the possibilities of madness and introspection. In the etching "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters," the artist has collapsed at his desk while owls, bats, and large cats descend upon him. Goya subtitled the piece "Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters; united with her, she is the mother of the arts."
Napoleon's invasion of Spain had an even more profound effect on the artist. "The Third of May," painted in 1808, commemorates the execution of a group of Madrid citizens. The sky is an unearthly black, a light box illuminates a man moments before death by firing squad. His arms are extended, like those of a crucifix, in fear, anger, and defiance. Soldiers with their faces hidden bend over their guns, prisoners twist away, and dead bodies are piled at the knees of the next victim. With unprecedented realism, Goya depicts war as hero-less, an event that involves only killers and their victims.
The restored Spanish monarchy brought a new wave of repression after the defeat of Napoleon. Devastated, Goya responded with his famous "Black Paintings," which many view as the pinnacle of his strange genius. Goya covered the walls of his Deaf Man's House with nightmarish images of witchcraft and death. After their completion, he retreated into voluntary exile in Bordeaux, France, and died shortly thereafter.
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