Francisco Goya

Francisco
Jos
de
Goya
y
Lucientes (Spanish: [fanisko xose e oa i
lujentes]; 30 March 1746 16 April 1828) was
a
Spanish
romantic
painter
and printmaker regarded both as the last of
the Old Masters and the first of the moderns.
Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown,
and through his works was both a commentator
on and chronicler of his era. The subversive
imaginative element in his art, as well as his bold
handling of paint, provided a model for the work
of
later
generations
of
artists,
notably Manet, Picasso and Francis Bacon.[1]

Early years

The Sleep of Reason Produces

Monsters, c. 1797, 21.5 cm 15
cm. One of the most famous prints
of the Caprichos
Goya was born
in Fuendetodos, Aragn, Spain, in
1746 to Jos Benito de Goya y
Franque and Gracia de Lucientes y
Salvador. His family lived in a house
bearing the family crest of his
mother. His father, who was
of Basque origin, earned his living
as a gilder.[2] About 1749, the
family bought a house in the city
of Saragossa and some years later
moved into it. Goya may have
attended school at Escuelas Pias.

 He formed a close friendship with Martin Zapater

at this time, and their correspondence from the
1770s to the 1790s is a valuable source for
understanding Goya's early career at the court of
Madrid. At age 14, Goya studied under the
painter Jos Luzn. He moved to Madrid where
he studied with Anton Raphael Mengs, a painter
who was popular with Spanish royalty. He clashed
with his master, and his examinations were
unsatisfactory. Goya submitted entries for
the Royal Academy of Fine Art in 1763 and 1766,
but was denied entrance.

La cometa, 17771778

La cometa
one of Goya's tapestry cartoons
He then relocated to Rome, where in
1771 he won second prize in a painting
competition organized by the City
of Parma. Later that year, he returned to
Saragossa and painted parts of the
cupolas of the Basilica of the
Pillar (including Adoration of the Name
of God), a cycle of frescoes in the
monastic church of the Charterhouse of
Aula Dei, and the frescoes of the
Sobradiel Palace. He studied
with Francisco Bayeu y Subas and his
painting began to show signs of the
delicate tonalities for which he became
famous.

Retrato de Martn
Zapater(1970) at Museo de Arte de
Ponce,Ponce, Puerto Rico

In 1783, the Count of Floridablanca, a

favourite of King Carlos III, commissioned
Goya to paint his portrait. He also became
friends with Crown Prince Don Luis, and
spent two summers with him, painting
portraits of both the Infante and his family.
During the 1780s, his circle of patrons grew
to include the Duke and Duchess of Osuna,
whom he painted, the King and other
notable people of the kingdom. In 1786,
Goya was given a salaried position as
painter to Charles III. After the death of
Charles III in 1788 and revolution in
France in 1789, during the reign of Charles
IV, Goya reached his peak of popularity with
royalty.[3]

Charles IV of Spain and His Family,

1800

Thophile Gautier described the figures as

looking like "the corner baker and his wife after
they won the lottery".[4]
In 1789 he was made court painter to Charles IV
and in 1799 he was appointed First Court Painter
with a salary of 50,000 reales and 500 ducats for
a coach. He painted the King and the Queen,
royal family pictures, portraits of the Prince of
the Peace and many other nobles. His portraits
are notable for their disinclination to flatter, and
in the case of Charles IV of Spain and His Family,
the lack of visual diplomacy is
remarkable.[5] Modern interpreters have seen
this portrait as satire; it is thought to reveal the
corruption present under Charles IV. Under his
reign his wife Louisa was thought to have had
the real power, which is why she is placed at the
center of the group portrait. From the back left
of the painting you can see the artist himself
looking out at the viewer, and the painting
behind the family depicts Lot and his daughters,
thus once again echoing the underlying message
of corruption and decay.

 Goya received orders from many within

the Spanish nobility. Among those from whom
he procured portrait commissions were Pedro
Tllez-Girn, 9th Duke of Osuna and his
wife Mara Josefa Pimentel, 12th CountessDuchess of Benavente, Mara del Pilar de Silva,
13th Duchess of Alba(universally known
simply as the "Duchess of Alba"), and her
husband Jos Mara lvarez de Toledo, 15th
Duke of Medina Sidonia, and Mara Ana de
Pontejos y Sandoval, Marchioness of Pontejos.

 At some time between late 1792 and early 1793,

a serious illness (the exact nature of which is not
known), left Goya deaf, and he became
withdrawn and introspective. During his
recuperation, he undertook a series of
experimental paintings. His experimental art
which would encompass paintings, drawings as
well as a bitter series of aquatinted etchings,
published in 1799 under the title Caprichoswas
done in parallel to his more official commissions
of portraits and religious paintings. In 1798 he
painted luminous and airy scenes for
the pendentives and cupula of theReal Ermita
(Chapel) of San Antonio de la Florida in Madrid.
Many place miracles of Saint Anthony of Padua in
the midst of contemporary Madrid

The Third of May 1808, 1814. Oil on canvas, 266 345

cm. Museo del Prado, Madrid

The Milkmaid of
Bordeaux, 182527, is
the third and final
Goya portrait which
may depict Leocadia
Weiss. This might also
be of Leocadia's
daughter
Rosario.[11] Its
colourisation and
mood is very similar to
the Lecodia "Black
Painting

Josefa Bayeu or
of Leocadia
Weiss(1805)

The Nude Maja, ca. 1800.

The Clothed Maja, ca. 1803,

Two of Goya's best known paintings are The

Nude Maja (La maja desnuda) and The
Clothed Maja (La maja vestida). They depict
the same woman in the same pose, naked and
clothed, respectively. Without a pretense to
allegorical or mythological meaning, the
painting was "the first totally profane life-size
female nude in Western art".[15]

Yard with Lunatics is a

horrifying and
imaginary vision of
loneliness, fear and
social alienation, a
departure from the
rather more
superficial treatment
of mental illness in the
works of earlier artists
such as Hogarth. The
condemnation of
brutality towards
prisoners (whether
criminal or insane) is
the subject of many of
Goyas later paintings.
.

 The Disasters of War, 181215

 Witches' Sabbath or Aquelarre is one of 14 from

the Black Paintings series.