THE LIFE AND WORKS OF

Janice Anderson

Boston Public Library

9T

THE LIFE AND WORKS OF

Janice Anderson

A Compilation of Works from theBRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY

BR BRYAND813.G7A71996x

Goya

This edition first published in 1996 byParragon Book Service LtdUnits 13-17 Avonbridge Industrial EstateAtlantic RoadAvonmouthBristol BS 11 9QD

1996 Parragon Book Service Limited

All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, sorted in aretrieval system', or transmitted in any way or by any means, electronic,mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permissionot the copyright holder.

ISBN' 75251 126 2

Printed in Italy

Editors: Barbara Horn, Alexa Stace, Alison Stace, Tucker Slingsby Ltd andJennifer Warner.Designers: Robert Mathias and Helen MathiasPicture Research: Kathy Lockley

The publishers would like to thank Joanna Hardey at theBridgeman Art Librarv for her invaluable help.

Francisco de Paula Jose de Goya y Lucientes1746-1828

9?Francisco de Paula Jose de Goya y Lucientes was a gifted and

versatile artist, with an approach to the techniques and subject-matter of painting which now seem to pre-figure, even to anticipate,the great art movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Francisco Goya was born on 30 March 1746, in the small village ofFuendetodos. On leaving school, he was apprenticed for a time to alocal artist, Jose Luzan. He went to Madrid in 1763 to compete for aplace at the Academy of San Fernando. Although he failed to win aplace then, and again in 1766, he was able to continue studyingpainting in Madrid, notably in the studio of the court painter,Francisco Bayeu. Goya decided to widen his horizons, and in 1770went to Italy. There, he was able to study at first hand the work of thegreat artists of the Renaissance.Goya had more success in Italy than in Spain, winning a competition

at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of the City of Parma in 1771. Withthis recommendation, he returned to Spain, where he received his firstcommission, to paint frescos for the Pilar Cathedral in Saragossa.By 1773, Goya was back in Madrid, where he felt sufficiently confident

in the future to marry, choosing as his bride Josefa Bayeau, sister of thecourt painters Francisco and Ramon Bayeu. It was through FranciscoBayeu that Goya was commissioned by Anton Mengs, Director of theRoyal Santa Barbara tapestry factory, to paint a series of cartoons whichwould form the basis of tapestries to be hung in a royal palace.By 1780, Goya had made so strong an impression with his tapestry

cartoons and other work that when he submitted his painting Christ on

the Cross, now in the Prado in Madrid, he was elected to the Academyof San Fernando. Two years later, he found a new patron in the Countof Floridablanca. Goya's portrait of the Count now seems stiff andformal when compared with the portraits that came later, but it gotGoya's feet on the ladder to success.

In 1784, when the great Church of San Francisco el Grande wasinaugurated in Madrid, Goya's magnificent alterpiece, St Bernardin ofSiena Preaching in the Presence of King Alfonso V, was unveiled by CharlesIII. Two years later, Goya was appointed Court Painter.The accession of Charles IV in 1789 saw no diminution in Goya's

standing: his first royal portraits date from this time. The new kingwas more concerned with the Revolution in France than with art in hispalace, however, and soon became suspicious of the liberal tendenciesshown by some of his courtiers. Many, Goya's friends, supporters andpatrons among them, were imprisoned or exiled. Goya himselfgradually became disenchanted with the new court, where corruptionand dishonesty seemed rife. Being a wise and cautious man, Goya saidlittle, though he wrote to his friend Zapater expressing his dismay.A grave illness in 1792 really changed the course of Goya's life and

art. For several months, during part of which he lay paralysed andnearly blind, Goya's life was despaired of. Although he recovered, hewas left stone deaf. As soon as he could, he was back at work. Amongmany notable works of this period was a set of eleven paintings for theAcademy of San Fernando.

It was while Goya was recovering from his illness that his friendshipwith the Duchess of Alba grew. He stayed for a time at her countryhome and after the death of the Duke, the friendship seemed to turninto a much stronger relationship. By this time, Goya was Director ofPainting at the Academy of San Fernando, having succeeded hisbrother-in-law, Francisco Bayeu in the post in 1795.

In 1798, Goya began work on what would become some of his finestpaintings, a series of frescoes for the Church of San Antonio de laFlorida. The theme was the life of St Anthony of Padua.

The years which followed were ones of great activity for Goya. HisCaprichos etchings were being published and many more fineportraits were done. Then, in 1808, came the abdication of Charles IVand the invasion of Spain by French troops. The Spanish royal familywas expelled and Joseph Bonaparte became king. Soon, Spain knewthe horrors of war and civil war. Goya's long-held feeling that much oflife was a tragedy seemed confirmed by these terrible events. In 1810he began publishing his series of engravings, The Disasters of War, onwhich he later based several monumental paintings. Personal tragedyalso affected Goya during the war years, for his wife died in 18 12.The year 1814 was to see the restoration of the Spanish royal family,

in the person of Ferdinand VII. Although Goya was reinstated asCourt Painter, his position was precarious for a time; he was evencalled before the Inquisition to answer charges of obscenity broughtagainst The Naked Maja and The Clothed Maja.

After another serious illness in 1819 and now living near Madrid,Goya devoted himself to his sombre pinturas negras ('black paintings'),full of witches, demons and grotesque, mis-shapen people, and to theDisparates (or 'Proverbs'), a set of 22 etchings and aquatints.

For the present, it seemed as if Goya's disenchantment with life inSpain was complete. However, he changed tack again in the 1820s.Despairing of the repressive regime in Spain, in 1824 he askedFerdinand VII's permission to go to France. Although he visited Parisand returned twice to Madrid, where Ferdinand VII directedVincente Lopez to paint an official portrait of him, Bordeaux becamehis last home. There he painted several more fine portraits and therehe died, on 16 April 1828.

> The Parasol 1777

Oil on canvas

This Delightfully airypicture was one of a series often cartoons for tapestries that

Goya did in 1777. Thepictures, intended for thedining room of the Prince ofthe Asturias in the Palace of ElPardo, depicted costumes andpastimes of the period. Despitethe aristocratic ambience forwhich they were intended,Goya did not hesitate toinclude a vulgar brawl outsidean inn in one. There is nothing

vulgar about the charmingcouple in this picture, however.The girl's elegant clasp on herfan and the well-bred lap-logcurled on her knee, detailsseen in Goya's portraits ofsociety ladies, suggest that thisis a well-born couple, perhapsdeliberately wearing theclothes of Spanish peasants.Taking part in masqueradeswas a popular pastime amongthe Spanish aristocracy in thelatter half of the 18th century.

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> The Pottery Vendor 1778

Oil on canvas

Between 1775 and 1792, Goyapainted nearly 60 tapestrycartoons, all of them inspiredby the rich life ofcontemporary Madrid, whichhe experienced on every level.This light-heartedpicture of an outdoor crockerysaleswoman is typical of them,both in its portrayal ofeveryday life, with the workingpeople of the town and thegilded aristocracy apparentlyhappy to rub shoulders intheir daily lives, and in itsclean lines and simple shapes,so necessary to the technicalrequirements of the men whowould weave the tapestries.Goya's insistence on paintingreality as truthfully as hecould, at a time when muchcourt painting was given overto what was artificial and false,was getting him noticed. In1779, the year after he paintedthis picture, Goya was receivedat court.

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The Snowstorm 1 786-7

Oil on canvas

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[> Autumn: The Vintage 1 786

Oil on canvas

This stylish cartoon wasprobably painted by Goya whilehe was staying at the Duke andDuchess of Alba's country estate,Piedrahita, in the country near

Avila. Goya painted a companionpicture, Summer: The Harvest, atmuch the same time, and it ispossible that the working life of theAlba estate gave him all theinspiration he needed to completethe two lively and elegant pictures.Not highly valued in its day - onlyone tapestry was woven from thedesign - this picture is now amongthe most admired of all Goya'stapestry cartoons.

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< Transporting a Stone Block 1786-7

Oil on canvas

This picture was one of anumber commissioned forhanging in the Alameda, thecountry house of Goya'spatron, the Duke of Osuna.Although all the pictures wereintended to be views ofeveryday life in the country,Goya gave this one a gloomyovertone far removed from

most of his light-heartedtapestry cartoons of the late1770s. Goya seems to be tellingus that building in stone is hardwork, and injuries are all toolikely. There is a tapestrycartoon of this same subject inthe Prado in Madrid, to whichGoya gave the title 'TheInjured Mason', thus

highlighting a less happy aspectof the working life. In his owndescription of the paintingGoya made it clear that here heintended to emphasize thehard reality of being alabourer, in great contrast tomany of his other, jollier,pictures of contemporaryworking life in Spain.

The Meadow of San Isidro 1788

Oil on canvas

C> Overleafpages 18-19

The spires, towers and wallsof the great city of Madrid,bathed in the glorious light ofearly summer, dominate theskyline of this superblandscape. Goya's painting isreally a preliminary sketch fora tapestry cartoon, probably atleast partly done in difficultconditions on the spot, but theeffect is impressive,

particularly in the way herenders the clear light bathingthe scene. His picture capturesall the holiday spirit integral tothe celebration of the Fiesta ofSt Isidro, patron saint ofMadrid, on 15 May. It isthought that Goya may havegot his inspiration for thispicture from a short theatricalsketch by the Spanish

playwright Ramon de la Cruz,which told how two youngservants abandoned theirhousehold tasks to join in the15 May festivities. Goya wouldseem to have been carriedaway by his subject: his picturewas so complicated, so full ofpeople and movement, that itwas never made into atapestry.

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A The Meadow of San Isidro (detail)

Some ten years before hepainted this picture, Goya wasable to study in great detail thepaintings by Velazquez in theroyal collection while making aseries of engravings based onthem. He himself said severaltimes that his own work owedmuch to what he had learned'from studying Velazquez'. Inthis painting, the first in whichGoya could be said to havemade his mark as a majorpainter in his own right, the

debt to Velazquez may be seenin the broad treatment of thegroups of figures and in theway in which they have beenscattered across thecomposition, almost as if theywere part of the landscape.Goya said of this painting thatit had been 'the most difficultthing I ever did.' Thedelightfully light-hearted groupof charming women and theirescorts in the foreground givesno hint of Goya's difficulty.

> Blind Man's Buff c.1789

Oil on canvas

At the time he produced thispainting, yet another tapestrycartoon, Goya was coming tothe end of the early, carefree,wonderfully successful part ofhis long career. While 1789was the year in which he wasappointed Court Painter bythe new king, Charles IV, itwas also the year of the FrenchRevolution, and theatmosphere of the Spanishcourt became markedly lessliberal as a result of what theysaw happening north of thePyrenees. Goya, too, wasgrowing older, more mature,with a wife and child to thinkabout. From now on therewould be fewer of suchcarefree pictures as thischarmingly detailed picture ofchildren playing the age-oldgame of Blind Man's Buff.

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> The Wedding 1791-2

Oil on canvas

Satire replaces the charm ofinnocence in this marvellouslyobserved picture of a villagewedding: the bride is youngand lovely, her richly dressedgroom an ugly buffoon. Itwould seem that the pair aremaking an unromanticmarriage of convenience: atheme which Goya would useagain in later pictures. Theclear, bright colours andstrong lines of the composition

indicate that this is anothertapestry cartoon; in fact, it was

part of Goya's last series ofsuch cartoons, and wasintended for the Palace of SanLorenzo. There is a strongelement of the theatrical aboutthe picture, both in the sharplycharacterized faces andattitudes of the peoplesurrounding the couple and inthe stage set treatment of thebackground and its lighting.

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> The Wedding (detail)

The small boy standing onthe cart, arms in the air, on theleft of The Wedding is a typicallyGoya creation: he, or perhapshis brother, may be seen againin another tapestry cartoon,Pick-a-Back, still with his armswaving in the air, despite thefact that he is sitting onanother boy's shoulders. Goyaseems to have taken aparticular pleasure in paintingchildren at this time, when hisown son, Xavier, would havebeen about seven years old. Ofall Goya's five children, Xavierwas the only one to survivechildhood.

D> The Straw Mannequin1791-2

Oil on canvas

This was one of Goya's lasttapestry cartoons and, as heinformed the King, hisemployer, represented fourwomen tossing a maskeddummy dressed in men'sclothes. He was doing morethan just depicting a jollygame. Spanish emblem booksof previous centuries hadmade clear the significance ofsuch scenes: one might havepersonal power over a doll ora puppet, but it would be brief.For women, in particular,playing with men was tobehave foolishly, for they werelikely to end by being cheated.The folly of women was atheme Goya would return toagain, notably in one of his LosDisparates drawings of the1820s.

O The Marquesa de la Solana1794-5

Oil on canvas

this superb portrait, arelatively simple compositionin shades of grey with touchesof pink to lighten it,demonstrates why Goya wasthe greatest portrait painter ofhis generation - and of severalgenerations to come. It is anextraordinarily honest portraitof a formidable lady. TheMarquesa de la Solana was alsothe Condesa del Carpio and,from historians' accounts, aproud and characterful ladyand this picture is made withgreat respect but with noattempt to flatter. TheMarquesa stands straight-backed and totally composed,gazing out from the picturewith a certain,characteristically Spanishmelancholy in her dark eyes.Not content with showingmerely the outward form ofhis sitter, Goya has produced amagnificent study of character.

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Self-portrait in the Studio1794-5

Oil on canvas

Goya painted his own portraitmany times, sometimes in thebackground of larger pictures,as in the well-known groupportrait, The Family of CharlesIV, and often in unusualsituations: one of the mostfamous, painted in 1820 whenhe was 74, shows him as hehad been a few months before,desperately ill, in the arms ofhis doctor. This self-portrait isof a much younger Goya,apparently in good health,though there is a rathercareworn expression on hisface, as if the strain of thecomplete deafness which nowafflicted him was considerable.Goya seems also intent onshowing us the trappings of asuccessful man - which,indeed, by this period in hislife he certainly was. He showshimself in a richly ornamentedjacket and wearing a smarthat. while the pierced tray withits bottles (possibly a writingset) is clearly silver.

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The Bewitched 1797-8

Oil on canvas

Previous page 33

In 1797-8, Goya painted sixwitch pictures for his patron,the Duke of Osuna. The dukepaid the surprisingly large sumof 1000 reales each for them.More light-hearted than thefrightening pictures of witchesGoya produced later, the sixwere all composed as if against

a theatrical backdrop. Three ofthe pictures, including thisone, actually illustrated scenesfrom popular plays. The playchosen here was El Hechizadopor Fuerza ('Bewitched byForce') by the 17th-centurydramatist Antonio de Zamora.The picture shows a burlesque

priest, believing himself tohave been put under a spell,pouring oil into a lamp held bya devil in the form of a goat.Goya, as well as indulging hislove of the theatre, is satirizingthe superstition and ignoranceof much of the Spanishpriesthood of his time.

> Josefa Bayeu, the Artist's Wife 1 790-98

Oil on canvas

Goya married Josefa Bayeu,sister of his master and patron,Francisco Bayeu, in 1773 inMadrid. Since Francisco Bayeuwas Court Painter at the timeand therefore a useful contact,it is generally assumed that

Goya married as much forprofessional prudence as forromance. This delicatelycharming picture, so differentin tone from Goya's forcefuland aristocratic portraits of thegreat ladies of his day,

indicates at least a considerableaffection for his wife on Goya'spart. The couple had fivechildren, only one of whom,their son Xavier, born in 1784,survived to adulthood. Josefadied in 1812.

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\> The Condesa de Chinchon1800

Oil on canvas

The Condesa de Chinchonhad been just a child, the four-year-old daughter of theInfante Don Luis de Borbon,when Goya first painted her, asone in a family group. Nowthe child has grown up, ismarried and is expecting achild of her own. But Goyaknows too much of thebackground to her life at theSpanish Court to be able to doa typical society portrait of agreat lady. The Condesa wasmarried in her teens toManuel Godoy, a formerGuards officer risen to greatheights as favourite of both theking, Charles IV and hisqueen, the loathed MariaLuisa, whose paramour Godoywas said, probably wrongly, tobe. In this wonderfully tenderportrait, painted by an artist atthe height of his powers as aportrait painter and using theglorious silver tones whichmarked his finest portraits,Goya conveys his sympathy forthe innocent girl, forced to livein humiliating circumstancesin a corrupt court.

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The Madhouse c.1800

Oil on wood panel

> Overleafpages 40-1

At first glance this is atypically 18th-century view ofan asylum: the crazy, nakedfigures, some of them clearlybelieving they are kings, orperhaps an Indian brave,being looked at by members ofthe public behaving likespectators at a fairground sideshow, builds up to a picturestrongly reminiscent of theBedlam scene in Hogarth's TheRake's Progress. But Goya's

picture is more horrific thanHogarth's, because Goya'spainting conveys the pity theartist feels for the sufferings ofthe inmates of the madhouse.The clear grey light of the sky,glimpsed through the barredwindow, seems to emphasizethe dark corners of theinterior, whose shadowsmirror the darkness in theminds of all who end up in thisterrible place.

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O The Naked Maja 1800-5

Oil on canvas

The nude in Spanish paintingis a rare thing. As painted byGoya, it is sensational. Itsfrank realism, probably theresult of Goya's desire to painta nude unencumbered bymythological or classicalassociations, caused thepainting and its companionstudy, The Clothed Maja, to becondemned as immoral andobscene by the Holy Office inSpain. It is not known exactlywhen Goya painted the twopictures, although they arelisted among the pictures ofManuel Godoy in 1808.Although rumour has linkedthe Duchess of Alba to thispicture, it seems highlyunlikely that it was anyoneother than a courtesan whoposed for it. The most likelylink between the Duchess andthe painting lies in herownership of Velazquez's TheToilet of Venus (known as TheRokeby Venus, now in theNational Gallery, London), forif Goya's naked woman hasany precedent, it is surelyVelazquez's equally sensationalVenus.

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< The Clothed Maja 1800-5

Oil on canvas

Goya has chosen to put hisclothed maja in Moorish-styledress. Her clothing seemsmore suggestive than the franknudity of the picture'scompanion painting, TheNaked Maja. It is also paintedmuch more boldly. Bothpaintings were at one time inthe private collection ofManuel Godoy, one of themost powerful figures in thecourt of Charles IV and aconsiderable patron of thearts. It is possible that it wasGodoy who commissioned thepair of paintings - acommission which couldaccount for the unusualsensualness of Goya'streatment of their subjects.When Godoy's property wasconfiscated by the state duringthe repression which followedFerdinand VII's restoration in1814, Goya was summonedbefore the Tribunal of theInquisition to say whether ornot he had painted these'obscene' works. His reply isnot known. It is possible thatinfluential friends ensured thatGoya was not harassed overthe matter.

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> The Colossus 1808-12

Oil on canvas

Spain had been at war with theFrance of the EmperorNapoleon when Goya paintedthis powerful picture, whichwas probably executed whileNapoleon's brother Josephruled Spain. Goya is thought tohave been inspired by somelines of the poet Juan BautistaArriaza, written about theNapoleonic Wars:

On a height above yondercavernous amphitheatre apale Colossus rises...;the Pyrenees are a humbleplinth for his gigantic limbs.

Goya was deeply affected bythe way in which the horrorsof war were being visited onhis country and theconsequences for his art wereconsiderable, with manyextraordinary works emergingfrom his studio. The Colossuswas an early example of anobsession with the gigantic,which was a theme of Goya'slater work.

Deltiil

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> The Village Bullfight 1808-14

Oil on wood panel

The date of this painting is indispute. It is one of a series ofpanel paintings by Goya whichhang in the Academy of SanFernando in Madrid. Goyamay have been referring tothese pictures in a note of1793 in which he said that, inorder to recover some of thegreat costs of his recent illness,he was painting 'a set ofpictures in which I havesucceeded in givingobservation a place usually

denied it in works made toorder'. The works wereintended to be 'popular inappeal'. The style andtechnique of this picturewould seem to date it to muchlater in Goya's working life,and the subject is undoubtedly'popular'. The setting is avillage square, and thebullfight taking place isdistinctly rustic in style. It is apicture full of life andmovement.

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> A Dead Turkey 1808-10

Oil on canvas

This still-life probably datesfrom the end of the firstdecade of the 19th century,when Goya was experimentingwith this, for him, unusual artform, painting numerousbodegones ('kitchen still-lifes'),done for his own satisfactionand not as commissionedworks. It is a remarkablyuncompromising study of adead bird; despite the fact thatthe picture is said to have been

given to a friend as aChristmas present, Goya seemsto be emphasizing the darkerside of providing food forpeople, with the turkeydisplayed as a horribly deadobject. Perhaps he was notthinking of the turkey as foodat all, but rather as anothercorpse, like the many he hadseen as a result of the warwhich was tearing Spain apartat the time.

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< The Knife Grinder 1810-12

Oil on canvas

Unlike some of his earlierpictures depicting the workingpeople of Spain going abouttheir various tasks, thispicture, and its companionpicture, The Water Carrier, aremore like portraits in formalstyle of the workman (orwoman, in the case of thelatter picture) than a study ofthe work being carried on.The paintings are thought tobe connected to a cycle ofdrawings Goya was doing inaround 1810, in which he wasrecording the behaviour anddress of people in everydaylife. Both paintings show Goyausing his paint thickly and inbroad brushstrokes, perhapsbecause he was painting overold canvases: X-rays haverevealed the remains of flowerstill-lifes beneath the KnifeGrinder and the WaterCarrier.

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> A Prison Scene 1810-14

Oil on tin plate

The turmoil and repressiongoing on in the political life ofSpain after the Frenchinvasion of 1808 seems to havebeen mirrored in Goya's workof the time. Again and againamong his drawings andpaintings of the period arefound scenes done in a narrowrange of dark hues and tones,dominated by dark areas ofgloom pierced by shafts ofmisty light. There are terribledrawings of crimes, includingmurder and robbery, andscenes set in madhouses orprisons. The figures in thispainting, some in chains, somenaked, as if they were madpeople rather than prisoners,are similar to others inetchings made by Goyaaround this period.

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O The Burial of the Sardine c. 1812-19

Urtail

Oil on wood panel

Variously dated around1793, 1800, and as late as1820, this disturbing picture,with its scene of festivityovershadowed by grotesqueimages of witchcraft andmonsters, depicts the mockfuneral which traditionallyended the Corpus ChristiFestival in Madrid on AshWednesday. The dancers areable to mock Death from the

shelter of the anonymity giventhem by their masks. Despitethe vivid white of the dressesworn by the women in theforeground (the high-waistedstyle of which suggests a laterrather than earlier date for thepicture), the dominant moodhere is black; it is a scene offrenzy rather than jollity, of ahectic rather than innocentcelebration.

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O The Duke of Wellington'1812

Oil on wood panel

Britain's great general,Arthur Wellesley, who hadbeen fighting his way throughPortugal and Spain since 1809,driving the French before him,had been made an earl a fewmonths before his triumphantentry into Madrid in August1812. Goya is believed to havepainted this famous portrait inthat month, though two yearslater he was still tinkering withthe orders and decorations,which were showered onWellington by gratefulgovernments and which Goyanever did manage to includecorrectly. Wellington, who hadbeen made a duke in 1814, isthought not to have beenentirely satisfied with theportrait and gave it to a distantrelation. It was sold to theNational Gallery in 1961, wasstolen shortly afterwards andwas recovered in 1965.

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> Old Women 1812

Oil on canvas

It is not old age that Goya ismocking in this satiricalpicture, but the vanity of oldage. The two crones, dressedin clothing more suited toinnocent young girls, gaze attheir reflection in a mirror, onthe back of which is written'Que tal?' - ('Can this be me?')One the old women may bewearing a bejewelled arrow -Cupid's dart - in herimprobably blonde hair, but itwill be Time, leaning over hershoulder with a broom in hishand, who will have the finalsay as to her inevitable destiny,not Cupid.

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D> The Second of May, 1808:The Riot Against MarmelukeMercenaries 1814

Oil on canvas

The incident which sparkedoff guerilla warfare in Spaintook place in Madrid in May,1808, and Goya made copiousnotes of it and of the tragicreprisals of the following day.He carried his thoughts of theterrible events in his head forsix years before he turned hisdrawings into two superbpaintings. This one depicts therevolt of the people of Madridagainst the French, who hadjust forced Ferdinand VII toretire to Bayonne, on 2 May1808. The French general,Murat, sent in his cavalryagainst the largely unarmedinhabitants to put down therevolt. Goya's portrayal of theevent is a tangle of men andhorses, whirling across thecanvas and depicted in a stormofbrushstrok.es of vivid,violent colours.

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< The Third of May, 1808:The Execution of theDefenders of Madrid 1814

Oil on canvas

The French carried outsevere reprisals against thepeople of Madrid in 1808. Theday after the revolt, massexecutions were carried out inMadrid, with about a hundredordinary people being shot:'Peasants - our commonenemy,' wrote Muratdismissively. Goya's painting ofthe executions ranks withPicasso's Guernica as one of thegreatest cries against thehorrors of war ever made byan artist. Abandoning the vividcolours of The Second ofMay,1808, Goya uses dark browns,greys and greens as thebackground for his dramaticdepiction of an execution inthe dead of night. Theexecutioners are faceless; thefaces of those about to die arelit by a lantern set at thesoldiers' feet. The central,white-shirted figure has flungup his arms in a gesture, halfof defiance, half of despair. It isa tragic, unforgettable image.

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> Self-portrait 1815

Oil on canvas

There are two versions ofthis, probably the best-knownof Goya's portraits of himself.This one, now in the Prado inMadrid, is the smaller of thetwo and may have been apreliminary study, indicatingthe care Goya put into thisdeeply personal work. Criticshave pointed out that he hasprobably depicted himself aslooking rather younger andless careworn than in reality atthe time. He was nearly 70now, not in the best of healthand had been living a solitarylife since the death of his wifein 1812. Or perhaps he hadnot. His young housekeeperand distant relative, LeocadiaWeiss had given birth to adaughter, Rosario, in 1814,although she had beenseparated from her husbandfor some time. Although thechild's parentage has neverbeen proved, it is thoughtlikely that Goya was, in fact,the father.

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D> The Court of theInquisition 1815-19

Oil on wood panel

One of the better movesmade by Napoleon in Spainwas to abolish the notoriousSpanish Inquisition.Ferdinand VII resurrected iton his restoration in 1814though, to judge from Goya'scouple of brushes with it,which seemed to have noadverse effect on his position,it had long lost much of itsimportance. This study of theInquisition at workquestioning a 'victim' mayhave been born of Goya's ownsense of outrage at having hiswork questioned by such anorganization. The details inthe picture are more likely tohave come from Goya's studyof published reports of thework of the Inquisition, thanfrom actual experience. In1812 he had painted theportrait ofJuan AntonioLlorente, former SecretarvGeneral of the Holy Office,who had published in Madridan account of the Inquisitionin which he had criticized itsactivities.

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.< The Agony in the Garden1819

Oil on wood panel

In 1819, the increasinglyreclusive Goya wascommissioned to paint The LastCommunion of StJoseph ofCalasanz for the Church of SanAnton in Madrid. With thismasterpiece, Goya displays, forthe first time in his life, anintensely felt identificationwith the mysteries of the faithat the heart of CatholicChristianity. This intensityremains in The Agony in theGarden (also known as Christ onthe Mount of Olives), a smallerpicture which Goya painted atthe same time. It is paintedwith great freedom, the pale-robed figure of Christ, hisarms outflung in a wayreminiscent of the centralfigure in The Third ofMay1808, dramatically emphasizedin the picture by the deepshadows which surround him.

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> The Agony in the Garden(detail)

Andre Malraux writing anessay on Goya and his art in1957, said that Goya 'did notanticipate any one of ourpresent-day artists - heforeshadowed the whole ofmodern art.' It was Goya'sfreedom of expression and thepower with which he paintedthat were uppermost inMalraux' mind as he wrote.Certainly, the extraordinarilyexpressiveness of Goya'sbrushstrokes as he painted theface of Christ in The Agony inthe Garden seems to be aspowerful as anythingproduced in the twentiethcentury.

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D> The Procession of theFlagellants c. 1815-20

Oil on wood panel

Public flagellation as aninspiring expression ofreligious fervour had been afeature of Spanish life fromthe 16th century, though byGoya's time it had lost much ofits popularity, suggesting thatGoya may have painted thislively scene as an illustration oflife in past times in Spain,rather than as a record ofsomething he had actuallywitnessed. He has set hisgroup of flagellants firmly inthe centre of a Holy Weekprocession, with a statue of theVirgin, carried on theshoulders of a group of priests,dominating the scene.

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> A Fantastic Vision (detail)1820-3

Oil on plaster, later transferredto canvas

Another of the 'blackpaintings' from the upperroom of Goya's house, theQuinto del Sordo, this strangevision dates from a time afterGoya's serious illness of 1819which had such a profoundeffect on his mental state. Hiswaking hours haunted by thefantastic nightmares whichdisturbed his sleep, Goya tookto recording his memories ofthem on the inner walls of hishouse. Perhaps it was a form ofcatharsis which kept him sane.Whatever the reason for thesepaintings, they have comedown to us as some of the mostextraordinarily mysteriouspaintings every produced by agreat artist. Goya did notname any of the paintings, buttheir contents recalled themesof earlier work. In this one,Goya has inserted a fantasticallandscape, peopled with small,

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scattered figures and with twogiant flying figures (are theywitches, flying to a sabbath?),recalling The Colossus. In thecomplete picture, the witchfigures are themselvesmenaced by an armed soldierwho appears to have comefrom the execution squad inThe Third ofMay, 1808.

.< Tio Paquette 1820-3

Oil on canvas

The angle of the head in thisportrait recalls Goya's self-portrait of 1815, but thetreatment of the subject hasbecome more satiric, less good-humoured. The portrait isbelieved to be that of a beggar,singer and guitar player well-known in Madrid for hisperformances outside theChurch of San Felipe. Goyaincluded a singer and guitarplayer in another of the 'blackpaintings' of this period, ThePilgrimage to the Pool of SanIsidro, the model for whichcould well have been TioPaquette again.

GOYA 73

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A Pilgrimage to the Pool of San Isidro (detail) 1821-3

Oil on plaster, later transferred to canvas

Goya's 1788 painting TheMeadow at San Isidro, was alight-hearted, sun-lit picture ofpeople enjoying themselvesduring Madrid's annual fiestadedicated to its patron saint,St Isidro. Nearly 40 years

later, when he returned tothe subject, his mood haddarkened and the 'blackpainting' he added to thecollection on the walls of hishouse depicted a crowd ofblack-robed, wild-eyed

grotesques, their moodanything but sunny as theyprocessed, headed by ablind guitarist (the blindleading the blind?) - to thepool of San Isidro.

74

A The Witches' Sabbath, or the Great He-Goat c. 182 1-3

Oil on plaster, later transferred to canvas

Goya was returning to an oldtheme in this picture, anotherof the 'black paintings' fromthe Quinta del Sordo. Goyahad shown an interest inwitchcraft back in the 1790s,

most notably in the picture,Scene of Witchcraft, in which agreat he-goat, his hornsgarlanded with twigs of laurel,sat in the centre of a circle ofwitches. Although a night-time

scene, moonlight had giventhe picture an attractivesilveriness. With this 'blackpainting', the mood hasbecome blacker, moremenacing and very

GOYA 75

disquieting. There is still agreat strength about thepainting, however; itproclaims not defeat, but theartist's strength of body andof spirit.

76

> The Bullfight c.1825

Oil on canvas

Goya retained his interest inthe bullfight to the end of hislife. This oil, probably paintedwhile Goya was living inBordeaux where the 78-year-old artist had fled in June1824, may have been a studyfor a scene in his last series ofbullfighting prints. In 1816,Goya had advertised LaTauromaquia, a series of 33prints which 'representdifferent suertes (actions) of the

art of bullfighting'. Nine yearslater came Bulls of Bordeaux, a

set of lithographs published inBordeaux. Goya was one ofthe first European artists toexperiment with thecomparatively new graphicprocess of working onlithographic stone. Despite thegreat quality of Goya'sbullfighting lithographs, therewas little public demand forthem at the time.

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GOYA 79

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The publisher would like to thank the following for their kind permission toreproduce the paintings in this book:

Bridgeman Art Library, London/Prado, Madrid: 8-9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 18-19, 20,21, 22-23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 35, 42-43, 44-45, 46, 47, 50-51, 54, 55, 58-59, 60-61,62, 63, 70, 71, 73, 74-75, 76-77; /Prado, Madrid/Index, Barcelona: 78;/Private Collection: 16, 37; /Louvre, Paris: 27; /Palacio de Liria, Madrid: 30(also used on front cover, back cover detail and half-title page detail); /Academia deSan Fernando, Madrid: 31, 40-41, 48-49, 64-65, 68-69; /Courtauld InstituteGalleries, University of London: 32; /National Gallery, London: 33, 56;/Fondazione Contini-Bonacossi, Florence: 38; /Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest:52; /Bowes Museum, Co. Durham: 53; /Musee des Beaux-Arts, Lille/Giraudon:57; /Colegio Escolapios de San Anton, Madrid/Index, Barcelona: 66, 67;/Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: 72;

NB: Numbers shown in italics indicate a picture detail.

Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders and we apologise inadvance for any unintentional omissions. We would be pleased to insert theappropriate acknowledgement in any subsequent edition of this publication.

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

3 9999 03175 337 7

Francisco de GOYA, one of Spain's greatestpainters, has been called a classical painter and thefirst of the moderns - the latter because of hisgreat influence on 19th century French artists. But

the breadth of his genius ensures that Goya defiessuch categorizing, as the superb paintings in thisbook demonstrate. They show Goya in all hismoods. Here is the honest portrait painter, layingbare the characters of his sitters in such paintings

as The Duchess ofAlba and The Duke of Wellington.Here, too, is the painter of everyday life, in such

lively pictures as The Parasol and A Milage Bullfight.Goya's interest in witchcraft and the fantastic isillustrated by The Witches' Sabbath and FantasticVision. That Goya could seduce with a sweet charmis demonstrated by The Milkmaid of Bordeaux.

ISBN 0-7525-1126-2

780752"511269