Art e Dossier

This painting was probably done during Goya’s 1771 Roman sojourn. It is the pair to the Sacrifice to Vesta where we can see the pyramid of Cestius in the background. Here Goya demonstrated a profound knowledge of classical sculpture: he took his inspiration for Pan from the Farnese Hercules, even if the profile rendering mitigates the definition of the shapes while the bright light gives it physicality. The style is still immature in the schematic rendering of the of young girl’s face and in he clearly cut light, but we can already see the fluidity of the brush strokes outlining the bodies and the drapings with clear highlighting. The trees in the background that are rendered concisely become almost a stage set from which the harmonious figures emerge while the sky on the right heralds the brilliant colors for the colors of the cartoons for the Santa Barbara tapestry factory.

This is part of a series of seven cartoons for tapestries that Goya prepared for the prince’s bedroom in the Pardo. The canvas, one of the best of the series, grasps the spontaneous and cheerful atmosphere of market day when a pottery seller from Valencia shows his wares to some women while a lady observes the scene through her carriage window. The structure of the painting is articulated on a sequence of oblique planes that unite the various figures in a single space. The intersection visual lines expand the image and create a sensation of broadness that goes beyond the edges of the canvas.

Goya painted the family of Luis during his sojourn with Prince Luis, brother of King Carlos III at Arenas de San Pedro on two separate occasions in 1783 and 1784. For this group portrait he avoided the official tones of court paintings and selected the intimate atmosphere of “any” evening: Don Luis plays solitaire in the faint candlelight as his friends watch, his wife has her hair dressed, and the maids are surprised as they unknowingly enter the scene. Only the little Maria Teresa reveals the sham by curiously watching the painter at work. The intonation is simple and natural, each person is rendered with precision, expressing both state of mind and social and professional standing. Just like Las Meninas by Velàzquez, Goya portrayed himself in the painting to show the friendship and esteem that bound him to the princes.

This painting is one of a group of thirteen tapestry cartoons Goya prepared between 1786 and 1788 for the princes’ dining room at the Pardo Castle. The subjects, the four seasons in a typically rococo mode were, however, treated with intense realism. In The Snowstorm the artist portrays the effects of a harsh winter on the poor and indigent. The men are bent like bare trees to defend themselves against gusts of wind, the leaden sky highlights the glimmer of the snow that is reflected on the covers of the hunters’ heads.

In 1786 the Duchess of Osuna commissioned Goya to paint two canvases with scenes from the life of Saint Francis Borgia for the recently renovated family chapel in the cathedral of Valencia. In the first he portrays the saint taking leave of his relatives in 1550 as he went off to dedicated himself to the church and in the other, the miracle of the liberation of the obsessed man. The scene is symmetrically divided between good and evil; the evil is personified by the pale figure of the dying man watched by demons and even the surroundings are dark and threatening. On the right side, where the saint acts there is a large window, symbol of the divine light. His contemporaries praised the painting for the accessibility and immediacy of its religious message. Even the miracle becomes a real event like the stream of blood flowing to the possessed man from the small crucifix.

This large painting portrays the family of Pedro de Alcàntara, ninth duke of Osuna, one of Goya’s main patrons. An educated man, interested in scientific and cultural innovations, the duke is the incarnation of the late eighteenth century illuminated aristocrat, who tried to modernize backward Spanish society. The Duke of Osuna married Maria Josefa Alonso Pimentel, Countess of Benavente in 1771 and they had many children. The duchess, a woman of keen intelligence also played an important role in Spanish society and did great charitable works. Goya succeeded in perceiving the soul of his subjects with great skill and wisdom. In this serene group we can readily see the bonhomie of the duke, the duchess’s intelligence and the subtly differentiated innocence of the four children.

In 1795 Goya painted a portrait of Don José Alvarez de Toledo y Gonzaga, Duke of Alba and husband of Maria Teresa Cayetana Alvarez de Toledo with whom he had a love affair. The duke had just returned from a trip to England and this may have prompted the painter to do an English-style portrait in which the gentleman strikes a very natural pose, legs crossed and leaning against something – in this case a piano embellish by wooden supports. Great attention is dedicated to the objects decorating the room to define the character and tastes of the subject, an educated reserved man, and passionate collector who is shown here as a music lover as we can see from the score by Haydn and the violin above the piano.

In 1795 Goya began this portrait of Pedro Romero (1734-1839) one of Spain’s greatest matadors who, before retiring from the corrida in 1799 at the peak of his career had killed around five thousand bulls. Even if the painter had great esteem for this extraordinary figure in the painting he preferred to concentrate on the human qualities highlighting his generous and determined character. The handsome face, with its dark complexion and black eyes with a vaguely dreamy expression stand out against the dark background. And if the natural pose recalls English portraits, the special communication between the subject and viewer are exclusive to Goya’s paintings.

This painting, along with the clothed Maja was done for the minister Godoy so that one overlaps and covers the other. Placed in the minister’s private study were part of a collection of female nudes that included a copy from Titian, Venus by Velàzquez, gift of the duchess of Alba. For a long time it was believed that the woman in Goya’s painting was the duchess herself, but most likely it is Pepita Tudo, Godoy’s young mistress. If Titian’s painting had a strong influence on Goya, the Spanish artist avoided idealization: the maja offers her body to the viewer with proud naturalness revealing all the seductive details of her anatomy with great simplicity. Because of its bursting sensuality the painting was judged obscene and was confiscated. It was saved because it was hidden in the storage rooms of the Accademia di San Fernando until it was moved to the Prado in 1901.

In the summer of 1800 Goya received the prestigious commission to immortalize Charles IV and his family on canvas. After having done about a dozen sketches of all the members of the royal household. the artist began this superb portrait where going beyond the obvious physical resemblances he bared the intimate personality of each subject: from the self-assured arrogance of the heir to the throne Ferdinand, to the empty-headed gaze of the sovereign’s sister, from the ambitious aims of the queen to the good-naturedness of the king. In the background, in the penumbra is the painter himself who observes the viewer from behind the canvas. There are direct references to Las Meninas by Velàzquez, but here as opposed to his illustrious predecessor there is no spatial depth, the figures are horizontally aligned while the artist stays discreetly in the shadows. Goya preferred to place the subjects in their own era favoring the psychological aspects to complex perspectives.

This painting, done for the “prince of peace” Manuel Godoy followed the same route as the Naked Maja, but while the latter was relegated to the storerooms of the Accademia di San Fernando upon the minister’s fall, the clothed version was first displayed in the academy and then in the Prado. This painting that was almost certainly done after the Naked Maya still has critics divided as to its mysterious and ambiguous meaning. In fact, this one is the more erotic of the two. The clothes seem to be there simply to enhance a provocative and sensual body. Furthermore, the girl is dressed in a way that does not correspond to her social class, but she is “disguised” leaving the viewer the task of unveiling her.

In 1804 Goya painted Maria Tomasa Palafox, wife of Francisco de Borja Alavarez de Toledo, brother of the duke of Alba upon whose death he inherited the title of Marquis of Villafranca. The young aristocrat is painting – a passion that she pursued with such success that she was honored by the academy. Elegantly dressed, she is sitting in a red armchair, the only sign of a setting, while the portrait of her husband seems to acquire physical consistency and to dialogue with his wife. The image of the Marquesa is lacking any attempt at seduction. With an adoring look directed at her spouse she personifies the exemplary wife as opposed to her sister-in-law, the duchess of Alba who was the incarnation of the bewitching wife.

Isabel Lobos de Porcel married Antonio Porcel a member of the council of Castille in 1802; Goya also painted a portrait of him that was destroyed in a 1956 fire. The woman wears an elegant Andalusian dress with a mantilla on her chestnut hair. The black of the dress and transparency of the veil accentuate the contrast of the luminous décolleté and sensual face. The fleshy mouth, large eyes, even and bold features give the figure an elegance that is both simple and sensual. In this painting the artist manages to convey the passionate vitality of the woman with extraordinary descriptive precision without however sacrificing her personality and social standing.

During the years of the Napoleonic invasion that the painter experienced as a profound rift between progressive ideas and the brutality of war, he dedicated himself to subjects other than those usually in demand. In this painting the theme of the maja is presented in its real context of the bewitching lower-class woman and not as a bizarre disguise of an aristocrat. The two charming girls with the beckoning eyes lure their clients from the balcony and behind them two men, wrapped in traditional capes watch. The majas’ clothes are richly trimmed and Goya renders this with a short, quick brushstroke, and defines the lightness of the veils with very fine lines. The artist plays on the evident resemblance between the two girls creating a symmetrical image with inverted colors, the white of one corresponds to the black of the other.

This painting features the harsh repression ordered by Lieutenant Marat following the tumults of the 2nd of May. The emotional tension that we can feel in this painting induced the romantic critics to believe that Goya actually witnessed the execution. It takes place in the dark of night with only a large, cubic lantern illuminating the scene with a yellow glow, with the city silently silhouetted in the background. The faceless firing squad with its blind violence offsets the dramatic expressions of the victims. There is no heroism here, only terror as each man expresses a different attitude to death. Yet they are all summarized in the widespread arms of the man in the white shirt who transforms his act into a cry of useless resistance against the cruelty of men and makes a passionate statement against all violence, past, present and future.

In 1814 prior to the return of Ferdinand VII Goya went before the Regency Council and offered to immortalize the “most outstanding and heroic deeds and scenes of our glorious insurrection against the tyrant of Europe” on canvas. Thus came about two grand compositions, the original destination of which, however, remains unknown. The first, which is particularly bloody, portrays the insurrection of the 2nd of May 1808. The citizens revolted against the French invaders and launched the Spanish war of independence. In the foreground a rider is unsaddled and stabbed; on the right horses trapped by the crowd stare at the brutality of the scene with bewildered eyes. Favoring the expressive over the documentary, Goya avoided emphasis and allowed the tragic irrationality of a world governed by violence to emerge by itself: faces transformed by hatred, furious gestures, bewildered expressions, and desperate looks.

In this portrait, the artist who was sixty-nine years old and almost totally deaf presents an image of himself lacking any idealization whatsoever. He painted himself as he was with all the marks that time had left on his face. What is most striking about the portrait is the liveliness of the features, it seems as if he is about to speak. Goya used a rather limited palette, but thanks to a vibrant brushstroke achieved surprising visual and psychological immediacy. Through the several self-portraits he painted during his career we can see the changes in his gaze, as it becomes more and more disenchanted and melancholy up to the dramatic scene with Doctor Arrieta (1820).

Painted for the Quinta del Sordo, Saturn devouring his son is one of the most disquieting of the Black Paintings. According to critics the theme of Saturn god of melancholy governed all the scenes of the ground floor. In the choice of subject we can perhaps perceive some biographical notes for the worsening of his illness as well as political references – linked to Ferdinand VI’s anti-liberal repression. The terrified figure of the god with his protruding eyes is devouring one of his sons who, contrary to the traditional iconography, is not a child but a terribly mutilated man. The direct source of this painting is the Saturn by Rubens, but as opposed to the Flemish model, in Goya’s painting there is an overriding pessimism without deliverance.

This is one of a group of fourteen compositions known as The Black Paintings from the Quinta del Sordo that Goya did starting in 1820 for his home near Madrid. This is probably the only picture of Leocadia Zorrilla de Weiss, the young woman who was the artist’s companion during the final years of his life. Antonio Brugada, painter and friend of Goya, who was called to inventory the artworks in his country home (1828), identified her. The woman, with a veil is leaning against a grave. X-rays have revealed, however, that originally the girl – without a veil and in a slightly different pose – was leaning against a fireplace. But this radical transformation may perhaps be attributed to an arbitrary change made by a restorer after the painting was damaged when it was detached from the wall after 1873. Leocadia, therefore, was not intended to be an image of death, but rather a serene, domestic scene in ground floor room of the Quinta del Sordo.