Running head: Final Report 1

Final Report

Marion (Mary) Gillie

Sheridan College

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Table of Contents

Summary 3

Introduction 3

Background 4

Evolution of Artwork 5

Conclusions

Illustration List

Figure

1. Goya, Blind Man’s Bluff (La gallina ciega). Prado, Madrid 5

2. Goya, The Third of May, 1808. 6

3. Plate 37: Esto es peor (This is worse). 7

4. Goya. A Heroic Feat! With Dead Men! 7

5. Goya, Hobgoblins 8

6. Goya, Saturn Devouring his Sons. 9

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Summary

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.

Introduction

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.

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Background

Goya is a Spanish artist that 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.

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.

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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 M. 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, F.1979). This

painting would “decorate a

suite of rooms in a pleasure palace” (1979) and was likely created during a peaceful time in

Spain. 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.

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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The Third of May

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

Madrilenos on the Third of May” (1979). (Figure 2, seen below). 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” (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 (1979).

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

(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”

(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

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

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viewer] only behind the French execution squad” (1979). Observably Goya’s oeuvre begins to

shift into a more dark and

despairing view of humanity.

Etchings

The reason behind the change of

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 M. 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, G. pp.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

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

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

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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 M. 2011). Goya challenged the authority of

the clergy by depicting them as disingenuous, demeaning

their 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 A. 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 M. 2011). These paintings are “depictions of desperation and darkness” (Singer

M. 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 A. 2010).

Figure 5. Goya. Hobgoblins.

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

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Saturn Devouring his Sons (Figure 6) is a prime example of the decent into darkness in Goya’s

paintings. The gore and disturbing pose in the

painting are polar opposites to 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 A. 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 in these

images” (2010). Goya is just one of very few

artists that 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

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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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=2.1&u=ko_acd_sch&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w

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