Marina NebroArt History 246 – Professor Nici

Goya: A RetrospectiveIn this exhibition, we will explore the progression of style and subject matter

in Goya’s oeuvre throughout his artistic career, looking at his unique approach to each work. Beginning with his Tapestry Cartoons, we see Goya’s entrance into Madrid as a notable painter. The style he uses is simple and clear, as these paintings are not meant to be final masterpieces, but only to serve as blueprints for a future, textile. As he grows in prominence, Goya moves on to royal and aristocratic portraiture, and receives commissions from very prominent figures in Spanish society. As he ages, grows ill, and is influenced by the challenges of the wars in Spain, Goya’s works become darker, more brooding, and serious. Corral de Locos is a commentary on society, associating war with an insane asylum. In The Second of May, his specifically chooses to feature common folk rather than men of prominence. And lastly, he expresses turmoil in his Black Paintings, brought upon by a compilation of his personal illness and societal destruction.

Marina NebroArt History 246 – Professor Nici

Riña en la Venta Nueba

Goya

Medium: Oil on canvasDate: 1777Location: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Goya’s oil painting of a brawl at a local inn depicts a

group of lower-class individuals, some majos and some peasants, in a fictional yet true-to-life inspired setting. Majos is the term given to the fashionable plebeians of 18th century Spain. These were a very common subject for paintings and tapestries that would adorn royal courts, and were meant to convey a romanticized view of the life of the lower classes. Goya was a great admirer of using majo and maja (female) figures in his works, and dedicated an entire series of tapestry cartoons to this theme. Some of his paintings, like this one, depict slightly comical fight scenes, while others, such as Merienda a orillas del Manzanares, depicted majos and majas in a calm, picnicking setting. Aristocrats dressing up as these lower class individuals, just as Marie Antoinette enjoyed playing peasant in her “backyard,” also serve as a theme in some of his works, such as El quitasol.

Images like these don’t carry strong symbolism, as they were meant to be fanciful adornments to royal houses. The details, instead, are meant to better convey who the individuals in the piece are and what they may be doing. For example, the clothing worn by the men in the fight identify them as majos from the south of Spain, belt and cropped jacket, and peasants from the province of Murcia. At the right of the canvas, a table is set up, showing that the men were about to begin a game of cards, which eventually leads to a physical struggle.

This painting was not meant to be the final product. Goya would have created several sketches, and eventually sent them off to the Royal Tapestry Factory to get converted into a textile piece. For this reason, many of Goya’s works from this time are referred to as Tapestry Cartoons, and the style employed can be described as simpler than his later works, where he includes intricate details – delicate fabrics, impasto details, and smooth skin.

The style evident here can be traced back to Watteau and French Rococo, as well as Michel-Ange Houasse, a Spanish artist that brought the aesthetic to the Spanish courts (Hughes, 84). The Royal Family commissioned these tapestries, and this particular image adorned the dining room the El Pardo palace.

1. Espinoza, Patricia. "Goya." Lecture, Spanish Art History: 17th Century - Present, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, June 2014.

2. Hughes, Robert, and Francisco Goya. "From Tapestry to Silence." In Goya, 83-89. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.

Marina NebroArt History 246 – Professor Nici

The Family of the Duke of Osuna

Goya

Medium: Oil on canvasDate: 1788Location: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

This oil painting by Goya is an official portrait of the Duke of Osuna and his family. When the court painter Raphael Mengs died in 1779, Goya was quick to pick up many of his royal portrait commissions.Portraiture at this time came in various forms.

Individual portraits were done of important aristocrats and nobles, and family or group

portraits were often executed in what Robert Hughes describes as the “English tradition,” where the individuals are interacting with each other in a posed, yet believable scene. Hughes notes that during this period in Spain, family portraits were quite rare. This painting, however, breaks from that tradition, and Goya has his subjects sit squarely and purposefully in front of the viewer.

The Duke of Osuna, in the far back, is wearing an almost completely black outfit. Black is the color of mourning, and in this image, represents the recent passing of the Duke’s own father. The sons, placed towards the bottom left of the canvas, are shown with objects that represent their masculinity, such as the coach pulled by a string. The eldest son, far left, holds his father’s cane, a symbol of his eventual assumption as heir of the Osuna family.

The Duke of Osuna commissioned this particular canvas. Goya received 4,000 reales for the piece, and later became very close to the Osuna family, receiving countless more commissions.

Goya went on to paint many other royal and aristocratic portraits, one of the best known being the Family of Charles IV. His main inspiration was Velazquez in terms of the colors he employed, which are quite dull, and do not overpower the piece.

1. Espinoza, Patricia. "Goya." Lecture, Spanish Art History: 17th Century - Present, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, June 2014.

2. Hughes, Robert, and Francisco Goya. "From Tapestry to Silence." In Goya, 120-122. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.

Marina NebroArt History 246 – Professor Nici

Corral de locos

Goya

Medium: Oil on tin-plated ironDate: 1794Location: Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, Dallas

In this petite oil painting, measuring about the size of printer paper, Goya depicts a scene of chaos and lunacy in what is believed to be the Saragossa Asylum. It has also been suggested that this is a depiction of a

contemporary stage play set in an asylum. Among various explanations for this discrepancy of interpretation is the fact that “corral” can mean courtyard, as in the courtyard of an asylum, as well as courtyard theatre. Typical representations of lunatics in asylums are filled with chained and writhing figures. Goya’s Corral de locos differs from this traditional imagery, as the Saragossa asylum was known for its progressive practice of limiting physical restrictions – at most, straightjackets were used to restrain patients, as seen in the left foreground of this image.

The scene is filled with maniacs, ranging from those in the act of fighting to those who are isolated and keep to themselves. There is also the presence of asylum personnel, trying to maintain order within the courtyard. The whip used by the asylum employee halos the restrained patient’s head in the left foreground. Due to the timely proximity of this painting to the wars with France, it has been postulated that the relationship between the violent nature of the whip and the bicorn-hat shape it creates over the inmate symbolizes the lunacy of war. The figure hidden in shadow towards the right of the canvas has been described as a representation of Goya – as an artist trying to break the mold of the academy, and as an individual, himself, struggling with mental illness.

Goya later painted a similar asylum scene titled Casa de locos in 1812. Many of his later paintings explore the nature of lunacy, chaos, and darkness.

There is no clear or specific influence to this particular work, but it can be linked to a tradition of imagery of the sublime and mixed emotions. Subjects like these became popular, and even royal patrons such as the Duke of Osuna would commission dark and murky works like these. This particular painting, however, was not commissioned by anyone in particular, and was an exercise for Goya to relieve his internal demons and express his own creativity. It is one of many “Cabinet Pictures.”

1. Nebro, Marina. "Goya’s Corral De Locos – A Tiny Painting with Tons of Meaning." Marina Nebro Arts and Culture. December 13, 2014. Accessed November 17, 2015. http://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/artsandculture/2014/12/13/goyas-corral-de-locos-a-tiny-painting-with-tons-of-meaning/#more-1798.

Marina NebroArt History 246 – Professor Nici

El Dos de Mayo de 1808 en Madrid

Goya

Medium: Oil on canvasDate: 1808-1814Location: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

This image depicts a scene from a battle in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, between Spaniards, Frenchmen, and Mamelukes, North Africans

fighting on the side of the French. This composition differs quite drastically from traditional depictions of war. Generally, military heroes are conveyed heroically and dressed in full regalia. The organization of a traditional military scene is usually structured and staged, to better identify the people and locations in the work.

Goya’s depiction of war, however, does not include honored military men, but instead, illustrates the common people of Madrid in the midst of violent struggle. The action is spread across the entire canvas, creating a chaotic atmosphere more similar to an actual scene of battle than generally depicted by artists. It can be described as a journalistic account of action, with a cropped scene, almost like a photograph.

The magic of the piece is in the facial expressions of those engrossed fighting. The man in the right foreground exhibitis in hesitation and fear while ferocity and anger are evident in figures such as the Spaniard in the center, stabbing the Mameluke, and the central North African fighter atop his horse. By painting the same, crazed countenance on the face of men from both sides of the struggle, Goya is making a statement: “fury and fear dissolve identity by stripping the human animal to its most primitive essences” (Hughes, 313).

This canvas wasn’t so much inspired by the military works of painters such as Rubens, but competed and challenged their traditional aesthetic. El Dos de Mayo 1808 en Mardid, along with the Third of May 1808, was commissioned by Fernando VII, but ended up not being displayed due to its glorification of the common people in lieu of notable military figures.

1. Espinoza, Patricia. "Goya." Lecture, Spanish Art History: 17th Century - Present, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, June 2014.

2. Hughes, Robert, and Francisco Goya. "War with Napoleon." In Goya, 309-313. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.

Marina NebroArt History 246 – Professor Nici

Las Parcas

GoyaMedium: Oil transferred to canvas from a muralDate: 1820-1824Location: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Goya’s painting of The Fates comes from a classical myth written about by Greek authors such as Homer and Virgil. Generally, a depiction of this myth features three figures – Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. The three Fates represent the three phases of human existence: birth, life, and death. According to myth, all beings are subject to the three Fates, and not even Zeus could dictate or control his path. Goya’s representation of the myth, however, differs.

Goya includes an extra figure in his image, a male figure. Because of the disparity between the artist’s image and the myth, it is difficult to identify who this male character may be. Hughes proposes the idea that he may represent Prometheus, another classical figure, but there is little evidence to confirm this.

The three Fates, floating above a river, are identifiable through the objects that they hold. Clotho, the Fate of birth, holds a small doll to represent life. Here, too, Goya strays from the traditional iconography, as she is generally depicted with a spool, spinning the beginnings of life’s thread. Lachesis is seen with a magnifying glass, looking at the thread of life. Atropos, the Fate of death, holds scissors and severs the thread, representing death.

In this period of his own life, Goya created many dark and morbid paintings similar to this one. They are part of a group now identified as the Black Paintings. Others feature mystical figures such as witches, giants, and devils. These works were painted for the artist himself, with no thought of commission or patron. The aesthetic – expressionistic, grim, ugly, and dull – was absolutely forward thinking and modern for his time, showing no direct influence from any particular artist. He painted these works out of a need to express himself as he had been affected by the war years, illness, and deafness that left him isolated.

1. Espinoza, Patricia. "Goya." Lecture, Spanish Art History: 17th Century - Present, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, June 2014.

2. Hughes, Robert, and Francisco Goya. "Exile in France." In Goya, 385-389. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.