FINAL REPORT 1

Final Report

Marion (Mary) Gillie

Sheridan College

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Table of Contents

Abstract 3

Final Report 4

Background 4

Evolution of Artwork 5

Conclusion 10

References 11

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Abstract

This report examines the life of Francisco Goya (1746–1828), and the events that

occurred during his lifetime, which became the subject of his artwork. This report displays

a few representative paintings and etchings that demonstrate Goya’s interpretation of

humanity from a world of tranquility to a nightmarish realm. This report examines and

analyses Goya’s artwork and the history behind it.

The information in this report was compiled from multiple articles, texts and

knowledge gained from my high school history class.

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Final Report

Francisco Goya, a Spanish artist, witnessed the atrocities that were committed in

Spain during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. At the start of Goya’s

career, his artwork had a peaceful tranquility to it. Over the years, it descended slowly into

disturbing, lurid statements of humanity due to the social and political upheaval in Spain.

This unique artwork satirizes the righteousness of the clergy and nobility while revealing

humanity’s most cruel and sinful form. His artistic vision rebelled against authority and

eventually took priority over his need to make a sustainable living. However, Goya’s

artwork has helped shape the artistic community by inspiring artists to question the

boundaries that constrain them through political censorship.

Background

Goya is a Spanish artist who is known for his grotesque “black paintings” and

etchings. Goya’s early works are not well known compared to his later works. The “black

paintings” were known to have made women faint and men cringe when they gazed upon

them. The darkness that is present in the paintings bears witness to numerous events that

Goya had witnessed, such as the effects of Spanish Inquisition (1400−1834), and the

Napoleonic invasion of Spain (1790−1810) where French soldiers tortured and killed

Spanish citizens and rebel troops. Goya suffered an ailment that caused the permanent loss

of his hearing. As Goya grew older, he began to combat his own demons and fell into

despair. All of these traumatic events stirred Goya to create the lurid paintings and sketches

that revolutionized the artistic world.

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The Spanish Inquisition. The Spanish Inquisition was a tribunal established in 1480

by the Catholic monarchs. Its original purpose was to maintain a Catholic orthodoxy of

those who converted from Jewish or Islamic religions. The Catholic monarchy wanted to

keep the country purely Catholic and twice issued royal decrees, in 1492 and in 1501, that

acted more like ultimatums, ordering Jews and Muslims to convert to Catholicism or leave

the country.

The Inquisition also ran the censorships, dealt with heresy, and occupied itself with a

wide variety of offences that indirectly related to religious heterodoxy. Their methods of

procuring information were based on accusations, hearsay, and inflicting torture to gain

confessions. People were jailed for months, sometimes years, without knowing the charges

against them. The Spanish Inquisition was abolished in 1834 when it began to lose its

influence over the public during the reign of Isabella II.

Evolution of Artwork

Blind Man’s Bluff

Goya clandestinely criticized figures that held power, such as the clergy and

aristocracy; however, Goya’s “royal patrons protected him after he was denounced from

the Inquisition. Goya had been appointed ‘pintor del rey’ (painter to the king) by two

successive monarchs” (Schwendener, 2011). The criticism in his earlier works is not as

apparent as in his later creations. Blind Man’s Bluff, (Figure 1) is an earlier piece that has

an unexciting yet joyful quality about it. The artwork shows “[a] theme of innocent but

highly civilized amusement” (Licht, 1979). This painting would “decorate a suite of rooms

in a pleasure palace” (Lilcht, 1979) and was likely created during a peaceful time in Spain.

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Goya’s perception of

humanity still has an

innocent quality to it, yet

the painting is a little

satirical considering the

nobles are depicted playing

in a field instead of in an

area of power. Their size

seems relatively small

compared to the world

around them.

The Third of May, 1808

“The year 1814 marks the creation of Goya’s most emblematic work: The Execution

of Madrilenos on the Third of May, 1808” (Licht, 1979) (Figure 2). This painting clearly

describes the “revolutionary spirit that marked Goya’s day and is still the primary force of

our own day … painted to celebrate the return of the Spanish Bourbons after the fall of

Napoleon” (Licht, 1979).

In this painting “Goya throws aside all traditions in a way that will deliberately make

us aware of the traditions he is about to destroy” in order to reveal the horrors that have

taken place (Licht, 1979).

Figure 1. Goya, Blind Man’s Bluff (La gallina ciega). Prado, Madrid http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Francisco_de_Goya_y_Lucientes_-_Blind_Man's_Buff_-_WGA10006.jpg

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In The Third of May, 1808, the viewer is pulled into the “brutal scene of murder and

anguish” (Licht, 1979). The

power behind the painting is the

ferocious shock value depicted

by the cold-blooded murder of

Spanish civilians. The central

figure “calls out in the hope of

being heard” (Licht, 1979);

however, seeing the corpses

that lie beside the men, the

viewer concludes that his cries

for help will go unanswered.

Moreover, the composition of the painting was well planned. The cadaver lying in the

foreground tells the viewer that he used to be standing with the other men moments ago

and that they will be joining him soon.

In addition, the figures are placed

“leaving room for [the viewer] only

behind the French execution squad”

(Licht, 1979). Observably Goya’s oeuvre

begins to shift into a more dark and

despairing view of humanity.

Figure 2. Goya, The Third of May, 1808. http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/assets/images/images/goya3may.jpg

Figure 3 Plate 37: Esto es peor (This is worse). http://www.artchive.com/artchive/g/goya/goya_worse.jpg

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Etchings

The reason behind the

change in Goya’s perception of

humanity is what he witnessed.

Goya recorded a variety of

atrocities that were committed

in “two sketchbooks, detailing

abuses by the Roman Catholic Church, societal ills from pedophilia to prostitution, and

rampant superstition in an age of revolution and terror” (Schwendener, 2011). He also

“was witness to the brutality of Napoleonic occupation in his country. His series of

engravings, The Disasters of War, is a collection of prints that depict the horror and cruelty

inflicted upon Spain by Napoleon” (Newman, 2002, p. 274). Goya witnessed the aftermath

of the battles when French troops would dismember Spaniards and then hang their torsos

and severed limbs in trees as if they were decorative

ornaments. Goya recorded the brutality in his sketchbooks

and later made them into etchings, capturing the horror and

cruelty of the French troops. This senseless violence

shocked Goya and started to make him question the virtue

of humanity.

Goya also criticized the clergy by creating a piece “in

which they are shown as drunken, gluttonous ghouls”

(Schwendener, 2011). Goya challenged the authority of the

clergy by depicting them as disingenuous, demeaning their

Figure 4. Goya. A Heroic Feat! With Dead Men! http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l43ahgwv6s1qbpv32o1_500.jpg

Figure 5. Goya, Hobgoblins http://a1reproductions.com/hobgoblins-by-francisco-de-goya-y-lucientes-oil-painting.html

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stature and removing all virtuousness from their position.

Goya continued to comment socially on the upper class

“and somehow managed to survive the political turmoil

ravaging Spain” (Lui, 2010). The darkness in his artwork

increased as more mayhem occurred in Goya’s life.

Saturn Devouring his Sons

Near the end of his life, Goya began to combat

psychological demons of his own. He created the “’Black

Paintings, applied directly on the plaster walls of the house

outside Madrid” (Schwendener, 2011). These paintings are

“depictions of desperation and darkness” (Singer, 2007). Historians believe that these

paintings were inspired from Goya’s maddening world that grew darker until the day he

died. In Goya’s “black paintings,” creatures and monsters were used as “representatives of

depraved humanity emerg[ing] from the shadow” (Lui, 2010).

Saturn Devouring his Sons (Figure 6) is a prime example of the descent into darkness

in Goya’s paintings. The gore and disturbing pose in the painting are the polar opposites of

his earlier oeuvre. These paintings all “contain some of the most horrifying and fantastic

creations of Goya’s imagination” and they all “evoke a timeless response that both repulses

and invites for a closer inspection” (Lui, 2010).

Throughout history, people and “many artists have been drawn to things dark and

fantastic, but few have probed the human condition with the insight and truthfulness found

Figure 6. Goya, Saturn Devouring his Sons. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/Francisco_de_Goya,_Saturno_devorando_a_su_hijo_(1819-1823).jpg/300px-Francisco_de_Goya,_Saturno_devorando_a_su_hijo_(1819-1823).jpg

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in these images” (Lui, 2010). Goya is one of very few artists who challenged human

morality, crimes against humanity and the dualistic aristocratic way of life.

Conclusion

The Spanish Inquisition and the Napoleonic invasion of Spain influenced Goya’s

psyche. These events helped to shape his attitudes towards the people who held power and

the disintegration of moral humanity during that time. His beliefs and righteousness pushed

him to create pieces of art that could have put his life in jeopardy. His controversial

depictions of the era are now studied and considered to be national treasures of Spain.

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References

Licht, F. (1979). Goya, the origins of the modern temper in art. New York: Universe.

Liu, A. (2010, June). Fear and folly: Francisco Goya and Federico Castellon. World and I,

25(6). Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.library.sheridanc.on.ca/ps/i.do?

id=GALE%7CA231408881&v=2.&u=ko_acd_sch&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w

Newman G. (2002). Legacy: The west and the world. pp. 274−275. Toronto: McGraw-Hill

Ryerson Limited.

Schwedener, M. (2011, October 30). Goya’s dark etchings from a past full of horrors. The

New York Times, p. 10(L). Retrieved from

http://go.galegroup.com.library.sheridanc.on.ca/ps/i.do?id=GALE

%7CA271106477&v=2.1&u=ko_acd_sch&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w

Singer, M. (2007, July 23). Ghostly. The New Yorker, 83(20), 22. Retrieved from

http://go.galegroup.com.library.sheridanc.on.ca/ps/i.do?id=GALE

%7CA166721416&v=2.1&u=ko_acd_shc&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w