How the artist Francisco Goya turned the art world: "The first of modern"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

For innovations in painting technique, obsessive satire of his works and personal belief that the artist's vision is more important than tradition, Goya is often called "the first of modern". His uncompromising portrayal of the reality of his time marks the beginning of a new art of the 19th century.

Biography

Francisco Goya y Lucientes was born on March 30, 1746 in an Aragonese village and studied painting in the workshop of the Saragossian artist Jose Luzano Martinez. The work of the Spanish artist, which developed at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, opens up the art of a new historical era. His paintings, drawings and prints reflected historical turmoil and influenced many talented artists. Goya's imaginative solutions were marked by a special, different from the past, artistic vision of the world. Like none of the great masters of Spain, Goya embodied in his art the tragedy and heroic aspirations of the Spanish people, who were going through one of the most turbulent periods of their history at that time. Francisco Goya claimed to admire three masters: Velazquez, Rembrandt and, above all, nature. Rembrandt's etchings were his source of inspiration and taught him the language of realism. Velazquez's paintings guided and pacified his creative rebellious character. And nature … nature has given the world an incredibly talented artist and master of all times.

Interesting facts about the artist

The official portraits of Goya at the Spanish court are painted in a luxurious virtuoso style and emphasize the wealth and power of the royal family. On the other hand, in his works, Goya masterfully concealed criticism of the inexpediency and ineffectiveness of the rule of the rulers and their inner circle.

Goya is one of the greatest master etchers. During his career, he created four main series of etchings. These works reflect the artist's originality and his true opinion of the social and political events of his day even more than his paintings. The subject of his etchings changes from the fabulous to the grotesque, the documentary to the imaginary, and from the humorous to the satirical.

Women are central to Goya's work, and his depictions of the Mahas (outlandish representatives of Spain's lower classes in the 18th and 19th centuries), witches and queens are some of his boldest and most modern interpretations.

Goya's later paintings are some of the darkest and most mysterious of his creations. Three years before he left his home country, Goya painted 14 paintings directly on the plaster walls of his farmhouse in Madrid. These works, collectively known as Black Painting (1821), depicted gruesome supernatural scenes. These works had no analogues in painting at that time, expressing the tragic products of the artist's fantasy. These are pessimistic expressions of an aging, deaf genius who has become disenchanted with society and struggles with his sanity. While living in exile in Bordeaux, France, the artist died on April 16, 1828.

Caprichos

"Caprichos" - the famous series of works, consisting of 83 etchings of the graphic series (1793-1797) - an unsurpassed example of fantastically bold, uniquely sharp realistic grotesque. These works were an artistic experiment: a means of condemning the artist for the follies of the Spanish society in which he lived. The criticism is widespread and acidic: he speaks out against superstition, ignorance and ineffectiveness of government of various members of the ruling class. Goya himself described this cycle as depicting "the innumerable flaws and stupidity that can be found in any civilized society." Caprichos was a massive criticism of 18th century Spain and humanity in general. The informal style, as well as the depiction of modern society found in etchings, make Goya the forerunner of the modernist movement nearly a century later.

Mach in the paintings of Francisco Goya

Goya's masterpieces include Maha Nude and Maha Clothed (c. 1800-05).

Disasters of War

1808 was a year of turmoil for the whole of Spain. It was occupied by the French, an uprising broke out in Madrid, which led to a protracted guerrilla war. Impressed by the chaos in the country, Goya took up the chisel and created a cycle of etchings The Disaster of War (1810–1814), which tells the story of the horrors of the Napoleonic invasion.

With or without common sense? (Lo mismo). A man prepares to chop off a soldier's head with an ax.

Truth has died (Murió la Verdad). Final engraving. It depicts a woman lying with a bare chest, an allegory of the Spain of Truth, or the Spanish Constitution, surrounded by men praying in sorrow. Justice (right) hides in the Shadow.

Nothing can be done (Y no hay remedio). Shooting of prisoners. Reminiscent of the Third of May 1808 in Madrid

Goya's portraits

A significant place in the work of the master was taken by the portrait. And here the scope of Goya's creative evolution from ceremonial portraits in the spirit of the traditions of the 18th century is striking. (for example, Portrait of the Marquise of Pontejos, c. 1787; Washington, National Gallery) to works that anticipate the most daring achievements of the realistic portrait of the 19th century. The Goya portrait painter has an unusually vivid sense of personality - the ability to reproduce with breathtaking power the real appearance of a person and the individual characteristics of his mental makeup, which always has some kind of heightened tension.

Francisco Goya had no immediate followers, but his original achievements deeply impressed French artists of the late 19th century, such as Eugene Delacroix, who was one of his great admirers. Goya's work continues to be admired by the expressionists and surrealists of the 20th and 21st centuries.