Francisco Goya---------------------

Early Career

Initially, a well respected portraitist and genre painter with a Neoclassic style

With the unique vision of a master artist, he uses art to document his world, complete with nightmares

He was the first artist to repeatedly render warfare as useless, disgusting and disastrous to all involved

Mid Career

“His analysis in paint, chalk and ink of mass disaster and human

frailty pointed to someone obsessed with the chaos of

existence..."

From the book on Goya by Sarah Symmons

Prints

• Replicated cheaply and in great quantity – art for the people!

• Three great sets:– Los Caprichos– The Disasters of War– The Proverbs

• "[An] extraordinary mingling of hatred and compassion, despair and sardonic humor, realism and fantasy."

From the foreword by Aldous Huxley to THE COMPLETE ETCHINGS OF GOYA (1962).

Los Caprichos

A set of 80 aquatint prints created during the 1790s.

AN ARTISTIC EXPERIMENT: a visual voice for his condemnation of the universal follies and foolishness in the society in which he lived. The criticisms are far-ranging and acidic; he speaks against

– the predominance of superstition, – the ignorance and inabilities of the various members of the ruling

class, pedagogical short-comings (poor teaching), – marital mistakes, – and the decline of rationality - among other things.

Don’t Scream Silly

Goya described the series as depicting

"the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilized society, and from the common prejudices and deceitful practices which custom, ignorance, or self-interest have made usual".

(Linda Simon, The Sleep of Reason)

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

The Disasters of War

Contrary to Romantic and Neoclassic traditions, Goya views of war depict savagery, disgust and depravity –

war is no longer a heroic enterprise

Late CareerThe Black Paintings

Las Pinturas Negras– expressive (and definably Romantic in essence) scenes of dark, evil worlds; painted directly to the wall of his manor: La Quinta del Sordo