Table of contents:
- History of the House of the Deaf
- Reasons for creating the darkest painting in history
- The most famous and terrible fresco
Video: "Black Painting" by the deaf Goya - the artist who created the darkest paintings of all time
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
There is absolutely no one person who, looking at Goya's creations, would remain indifferent or at least not amazed at what he saw. But not everyone will even dare to look at these frescoes. "Black Painting" by Francisco Goya was created more than 200 years ago, but to this day it amazes with its fantasticness and horror.
Black Painting (Spanish: Pinturas negras) is the name of a cycle of 14 frescoes by Francisco Goya on the wall of his house. These wall frescoes were painted by the artist between 1819 and 1823. They describe difficult psychological themes that reflect his madness and dark view of humanity. None of the frescoes were named by Goya himself; art historians themselves provided them with names and their own interpretations of each work.
History of the House of the Deaf
In 1819, at the age of 72, Goya moved to a two-story house outside Madrid called the House of the Deaf. Named after its previous deaf owner, Goya also moved into this dwelling practically deaf (the consequences of a fever that the artist suffered from at the age of 46). It is believed that Goya deliberately bought this house to live with Leocadia Weiss, away from prying eyes, because her companion was still married to Isidoro Weiss. Goya created murals over the wallpaper that covered the walls of the villa. Goya's "black" composition was based on rural scenes and small figures described from the surrounding landscapes. He covered the walls of the rooms of the house with 14 dark, oil-painted panels of a fantastic nature. Seven images were on the first floor and 7 on the second. Located on the walls of a modest dwelling, these frescoes resemble huge easel canvases. The palette, which is dominated by olive-gray and black colors with rare disturbing spots of white, yellow and pinkish-red, is also unusual.
These images are now in the Prado Museum in Madrid. In modern times, Goya is considered one of the three Spanish titans in the permanent exhibition of the Prado, along with his idols Diego Velazquez and Peter Paul Rubens. It is believed that this work paves the way between these old masters and great contemporaries, prophesying Expressionism and Surrealism.
Reasons for creating the darkest painting in history
After the Napoleonic wars and internal political unrest in Spain, Goya became rather cruel to humanity. The situation in the country influenced the fact that the artist perceived all the accompanying emotions of terror, fear, hysteria and reflected them especially vividly in the "Black Painting". A dark, ominous beginning dominates in the frescoes of The House of the Deaf, where images appear as in a nightmare. The themes of the works of "Black Painting" are gloomy: evil, cruelty, ignorance, death. In addition to political factors, personal tragic reasons also influenced the painting: he survived two deadly illnesses and became more and more restless, fearing a relapse. Using oil paints and working directly on the walls of his dining room and living room, Goya created works with dark, disturbing themes. The frescoes were not ordered and should not have left his home. It is likely that the artist never intended these frescoes for public display.
The most famous and terrible fresco
Perhaps the most famous and scary fresco of the cycle is Saturn Devouring His Son, which describes the Titan Cronos (Saturn in Roman mythology), the father of Zeus, eating one of his children. Fearing the prophecy that one of his children would overthrow him, Saturn ate each of his children after birth. Goya portrays this act of cannibalism with startling savagery. The background is black, while the limbs and head of Saturn appear bright and pop out of the shadows. The eyes of Saturn are huge and truly ominously terrible. Goya's frescoes are unusual and unique. They may well be placed in the chain of development of works of monumental painting.
"Black painting" was written by an artist who creates in his own space and time, does not tell anyone anything and expresses himself in solitude. The results remain as personal, indelible and confusing as dreams. Goya's works maintain an exhilarating modernity, inspiring many of the world's foremost artists to create masterpieces.
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