De Goya paintings. Francisco Goya – biography and paintings of the artist in the Romanticism genre – Art Challenge

The theme that runs like a red thread through all of Goya’s work is the similarity between the unbridled joy of the crowd and the true madness of mentally ill people.

Fearing persecution from the new Spanish government, in 1824 Goya and his new family traveled to France, where he spent the last four years of his life. In the last year of his life, Goya achieved a technique that can be defined as creative freedom. He applied colors with his fingers or pieces of cloth, and used liquid paints that he rubbed into the canvas.

A few days before his death, Goya developed right-sided paralysis and lost the ability to speak.
On the night of April 15-16, 1828 at 2 o'clock he died in France in Bordeaux at the age of 82. His ashes were transported to his homeland and buried in the church, the walls and ceiling of which he had once painted.

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“I am Goya! The eye sockets of the craters were pecked out by a raven, flying naked onto the field. I am Sorrow." This is what Andrei Voznesensky wrote in his famous poem, confirming the existing opinion that modern man perceives the great Spaniard, first of all, as the creator of dark, frightening and difficult to comprehend creations.

Meanwhile, Francisco Goya is not only about hunger and hanged women. First of all, he is the first modernist artist to change the classical idea of ​​composition in painting. Goya is rightly considered the link between old and new art, the heir of Velazquez and the predecessor of Manet. His paintings contain both the sensuality and clarity of past centuries, and the flat anti-illusionism of the modern era.

Goya did not have a favorite genre. He painted landscapes and still lifes. He was equally good at the faces of pompous nobles and the alluring features of women's bodies. His brushes include vivid historical canvases and paintings that brilliantly convey the content of biblical stories. But there is one feature in Goya’s work that you will not find in other artists. No one has ever portrayed cruelty, superstition and madness so convincingly and authentically. Goya was able to show the most extreme and repulsive properties of human nature with maximum realism and honesty. This feature of his artistic nature was most clearly manifested in the so-called “Black Paintings,” a complex of frescoes with which Goya covered the walls of his house located on the outskirts of Madrid.

In 1819, Goya moved from Madrid to a country house and estate known as Quinta del Sordo (House of the Deaf).

Quinta del Sordo (House of the Deaf). Drawing by Saint-Elma Gautier in 1877. Goya's house is a small building on the left. The right wing was erected after the artist's death.

By this time, the artist had experienced a series of personal tragedies: the death of his wife and several children, separation from close friends, and a serious illness that caused his deafness. Having settled outside the city, in a quiet place across the Manzanares River, Goya hopes to find peace of mind and avoid gossip surrounding his relationship with Leocadia Weiss, a young beautiful woman who at that time was married to a wealthy merchant Isidoro Weiss.

But the difficult situation in the country, which the artist is acutely worried about, and a severe heart attack, have a devastating effect on his health and psyche. Goya begins to feel depressed. He does not see anything joyful and bright in the world around him. Trying to cope with internal chaos and melancholy, Goya painted fifteen oil paintings on the walls of the rooms of his house, which were later called “black” for their anxious mood and the predominance of dark tones in the palette. Some of them are dedicated to biblical or mythological subjects, but mostly “Black Paintings” are dark creations of the artist’s imagination.

There are many explanations for the philosophical and symbolic meaning of the paintings from “The House of the Deaf.” Some researchers of Goya’s work believe that the “Black Paintings” are generally incomprehensible. What are these frescoes? Projections of nightmares, captured hallucinations of a sick mind, or encrypted prophecies of future troubles awaiting both Goya himself and all of humanity? There is no clear answer.

However, we can say with confidence that in the “Black Paintings” Goya, perhaps spontaneously and unintentionally, expressed in the form of frightening, mysterious images what tormented and worried him: the civil war, the collapse of the Spanish revolution, his relationship with Leocadia Weiss, his own inevitable aging and the approaching death. The artist subordinated the location of the “black paintings” on the walls of the “House of the Deaf” to a certain plan, combining his creation into a single complex, which can be divided into two parts: lower and upper. Therefore, in order to “read” the Quinta del Sordo paintings, to understand their hidden meaning, one must proceed not only from what is depicted on the frescoes, but also take into account their spatial relationships with each other.

First floor frescoes

In the long elongated room on the lower floor, in the walls, there were seven frescoes, which were made in the same style and represented a complete composition.

On both sides of the front door there were two portraits: presumably, the master himself and his housekeeper Leocadia Weiss, who later became the mistress of the house.

The portrait of Leocadia, located on the left side, depicts a young elegant woman who stands leaning against the grave fence.

What does grave mean? Perhaps Goya wanted to show that Leocadia is waiting for the death of her husband, who is preventing her from becoming the artist’s legal wife. Or is this the grave of Goya himself and the portrait speaks of the gloomy forebodings that possessed him?

To the right of the door are “Two Old Men”.

An old man with a long beard, reminiscent of the figure from Goya’s painting “I’m Still Learning,” most likely represents the painter himself. The second figure is the demon of his inspiration or the infernal tempter, who is forced to shout in the deaf artist’s ear so that he can hear him.

In the recess above the door - “Two old women eating from common dishes.” Little attention is paid to this fresco, but it is of great importance for the entire composition. The figures depicted on it not only eat, but also point to some place outside the space of the picture. Where are their fingers pointing?

Perhaps the artist was parodying himself, hinting at the portraits he once painted of the Duchess of Alba?

But most likely, the old women point to Goya, as if reminding him of old age’s infirmity and imminent death.

On the wall opposite the front door, Goya painted two paintings, separated by a window, which later became the most famous among his modern admirers: “Saturn Devouring His Children” and “Judith Cutting off the Head of Holofernes,” which, like the frescoes at the front door, are images of Goya and Leocadia, but symbolic.

Identifying himself with Saturn, Goya expressed his fear for his son Javier, whom he was afraid of destroying through improper upbringing, jealousy or unjust anger. The ugly pagan deity eating his own child is an emotional metaphor for the inevitable clash between fathers and sons.

The image of Judith, personifying the power of a woman over a man, reflects Goya’s experiences associated with his aging and loss of strength. Obviously, the relationship with Leocadia intensified this bitter feeling.

To the left of “Leocadia”, on the large longitudinal wall between the windows, there was a huge frieze “The Sabbath of Witches” or “The Great Goat”. Opposite him on the right wall is the frieze “Pilgrimage to St. Isidora”, depicting the annual folk festival held in Madrid.

Goya had previously addressed the topic of witchcraft and Satanism. Witches were present as the main characters in his famous Caprichos engravings. In 1798, he painted a painting that bore the same name as the fresco in The House of the Deaf. But, apparently, the artist was not interested in magic as such, but in the superstitions that existed at that time in Spanish society. “The Sabbath of Witches,” despite its depressing and disturbing mood, is most likely a satirical work in which Goya ridicules human stupidity, ignorance and lack of rational thinking. It must be said that this fresco has another, political overtone. Its content is directed against the royalists and the clergy, who gained significant power after the defeat of the Spanish revolution.

“Pilgrimage to St. Isidore” is Goya’s gloomy caricature of the life and customs of Spain in the early 19th century. The drunken, singing crowd of common people is clearly not overcome by religious feelings. For pilgrimage participants, the holiday of one of the most revered saints in Spain is just an excuse to drink and show off. However, the darkness that envelops the walking crowd and the frightened faces of the pilgrims give the painting a gloomy mood. To enhance the drama of what is happening, in the lower right corner of the fresco, Goya placed the figure of a monk who watches the procession with bitterness and sorrow. “Pilgrimage to St. Isidore” one cannot help but want to compare with another work of Goya, filled with light and joy, “Feast of St. Isidore,” which he wrote forty-five years before the creation of the “black paintings.”

Frescoes on the second floor

The second floor room had eight walls suitable for painting, but Goya only used seven of them. To the right of the front door was the mysterious “Dog”, on the long left wall were “Atropos” or “Moira” and “Duel with Clubs”, on the opposite right - “Asmodea” and “Walk of the Inquisition”, on the wall opposite the entrance and to the left of the window were “Readers”, on the right – “Laughing women”.

“Dog,” the strangest fresco that has given rise to many interpretations, is visually divided into two parts, upper and lower.

The top light yellow part occupies the main space of the image, so viewers usually perceive it as a golden sky stretching over the brown quicksand that the dog is trying to get out of. Her gaze, directed upward towards a mysterious dark area, seems to be an appeal to a higher power for help. It is possible that this is exactly how the artist felt during that difficult period for him: alone, perishing in the abyss of troubles and misfortunes that washed over him, but not losing hope for a miraculous salvation.

The painting located on the left wall, called “Atropos”, is connected with ancient Greek mythology.

Atropos (Moiras)

Goya depicted the goddesses of fate, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos as ugly, repulsive creatures floating in the air. In the center of the picture, surrounded by goddesses, there are figures of a man with his hands tied behind his back, which apparently means the powerlessness of man before the blows of fate.

Next to Atropos, Club Duel shows two men fighting to the death while they are deep in the mud and unable to leave the battlefield.

Judging by the fact that the men are very similar to each other, their fight symbolizes the civil war that was raging in Spain at that time.

Occupying the first right wall, “Asmodeus” is probably the most difficult to explain work of all, written by the artist on the walls of the “House of the Deaf.”

Two figures, male and female, froze in the air. Their faces are distorted with fear, their gestures express anxiety. Apparently, the characters in the fresco feel unprotected from the dangers fraught with the world spread out beneath them. The man extended his hand to the huge rock on which the city with fortress walls is located. The woman is looking in the opposite direction. Below, under the flying figures, French soldiers are visible, ready to conduct aimed fire, and a group of people with horses and carts. Despite the frightening and extremely disturbing mood, the picture is incredibly beautiful, thanks to the golden background that fills it, with blue and silver splashes, on which there are two unrelated bright red objects.

The follow-up to Asmodea, Inquisition Walk, has an unclear plot and may not have been completed.

The composition of the picture is disrupted: the viewer's attention is drawn to the lower right corner, in which there are a group of unsightly characters with a man in the inquisitor's robe in the foreground. The remaining part is occupied by a gloomy mountain landscape with unclear human figures. This painting has a second title - “Pilgrimage to the Source of San Isidro” and is often confused with the painting located on the ground floor, which has a similar name.

Separated by a window, “Reading” and “Laughing Women” are made in the same stylistic manner and compositionally complement each other.

"The Readers" depicts a group of men listening with great attention to a man reading aloud a newspaper lying on his lap. Some researchers of Goya's work believe that these are politicians who are studying the article dedicated to them.

"The Laughing Women" is a sort of paraphrase of "The Readers," where the attention of two laughing women is focused on a man who is apparently masturbating. What is the true meaning of this peculiar diptych? Probably the artist wanted to show that political meetings, like masturbation, are a fruitless activity, but enjoyable.

The mysteries associated with the “black paintings” are not limited to their mysterious content. There is an assumption, however, repeatedly refuted, that the author of the Quinta del Sordo frescoes is not Goya, but his son Javier. The authors of this theory proceed from the fact that Goya’s contemporaries did not know about the existence of “dark paintings” and never saw them, and the first mention of the frescoes appeared in print 40 years after the artist’s death. In addition, the “House of the Deaf,” at the time when Goya lived in it, had only one floor, and the second was built after his departure to France. Consequently, Goya’s authorship cannot be considered indisputable.

Currently, the “black paintings”, transferred from the walls to canvas, are exhibited at the Prado Museum in Madrid. Despite the fact that the order of the paintings does not correspond to “The House of the Deaf” and the integrity of the composition is violated, their impact on the viewer has not diminished. The gloomy and frightening images created by the Spanish genius evoke strong and contradictory feelings, forcing one to admire the ugly, admire the ugly and enjoy the disgusting.

Goya y Lucientes (Fransisko Goya y Lucientes) Francisco José de, Spanish painter, engraver, draftsman. From 1760 he studied in Zaragoza with J. Luzana y Martinez. Around 1769, Goya went to Italy, in 1771 he returned to Zaragoza, where he painted frescoes in the spirit of Italian Baroque (paintings of the side nave of the church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar, 1771–1772). From 1773, the artist worked in Madrid, in 1776–1791 he completed over 60 tapestries for the royal manufactory with richly colored and simple in composition scenes of everyday life and folk entertainment (“Umbrella”, 1777, “Game of Pelota”, 1779, “Game of Pelota”, 1779, “Game of Pelota”, 1779). blind man's buff”, 1791, all in the Prado, Madrid).

From the beginning of the 1780s, Goya gained fame as the author of portraits executed in a subtle color scheme, figures and objects in which seem to dissolve in a thin haze (“Family of the Duke of Osuna”, 1787, Prado, Madrid; portrait of the Marquise A. Pontejos, ca. 1787, National Gallery of Art, Washington). In 1780, Goya was elected to the Madrid Academy of Arts (from 1785 vice-director, from 1795 - director of its painting department), in 1799 - “the first painter of the king.” At the same time, traits of tragedy and hostility towards feudal-clerical Spain of the “old order” are growing in Goya’s work. Goya reveals the ugliness of its moral, spiritual and political foundations in a grotesque-tragic form, feeding on folklore origins, in a large series of etchings “Caprichos” (80 sheets with the artist’s comments, 1797–1798); the bold novelty of artistic language, the sharp expressiveness of lines and strokes, contrasts of light and shadow, the combination of grotesque and reality, allegory and fantasy, social satire and sober analysis of reality opened up new ways for the development of European engraving. In the 1790s - early 1800s, Goya's portraiture reached an exceptional flowering, in which an alarming feeling of loneliness is heard (portrait of Senora Bermudez, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest), courageous confrontation and challenge to the environment (portrait of F. Guillemarde, 1798, Louvre, Paris), the scent of mystery and hidden sensuality (“Maja dressed” and “Maja naked”, both Prado, Madrid).

With amazing power of exposure, the artist captured the arrogance, physical and spiritual squalor of the royal family in the group portrait “The Family of Charles IV” (1800, Prado, Madrid). Goya’s large paintings dedicated to the struggle against the French intervention (“Uprising of May 2, 1808 in Madrid,” “Execution of the rebels on the night of May 3, 1808,” both around 1814, Prado, Madrid) are imbued with deep historicism and passionate protest. the fate of the people, a series of etchings “Disasters of War” (82 sheets, 1810–1820).

In the early 1790s, a serious illness led the artist to deafness. He spent extremely difficult years for him, coinciding with the period of brutal reaction, in his country house “Quinto del Sordo” (“House of the Deaf”), the walls of which he painted in oils. In the scenes created here (now in the Prado, Madrid), including unprecedentedly bold for its time, sharply dynamic images of multifaceted masses and frightening symbolic and mythological images, he embodied the ideas of confrontation between the past and the future, the endlessly insatiable decrepit time (“Saturn”) and the liberation energy of youth (“Judith”). The system of dark grotesque images in the series of etchings “Disparates” (22 sheets, 1820–1823) is even more complex. But even in Goya’s darkest visions, cruel darkness cannot suppress the artist’s inherent sense of eternal movement, eternal renewal of life, which became the leitmotif in the painting “The Funeral of a Sardine” (circa 1814, Prado, Madrid), in the series of etchings “Tauromachia” (1815).

From 1824, Goya lived in France, where he painted portraits of friends and mastered the technique of lithography. Goya's art influenced the formation of many artistic phenomena of the 19th century. Its influence is felt in the works of Gericault, Delacroix, Daumier, Edouard Manet. The influence of his work on painting and graphics had a pan-European character and is reflected right up to the present day.

More than a dozen biographers, historians, art historians and physicians tried to unravel the secret of the work of the great Spanish artist Francisco Goya (1746-1828), the author of magnificent portraits, paintings, cardboard for tapestries, wall paintings, and the graphic series “Caprichos” and “Disasters of War”.

Maha dressed, 1798 - 1805

Dilermando Reis - Romance de Amor

Some believed that the artist’s talent and genius were so great that they could not exist within the realm of possibility and helped the artist reach such heights. Others argued that a serious illness and complete mental disorder contributed to him creating his greatest masterpieces.

But there were also those - by the way, there were many of them - who were deeply convinced that it was a woman who made Goya a great artist - the mysterious and enigmatic Duchess of Alba (1762-1802).

Duchess of Alba in black, 1797

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was born on March 30, 1746 in a small village near Zaragoza. His father was a master gilder, his mother came from a famous but long-impoverished noble family. While studying at school, the boy had difficulty mastering arithmetic and literacy, but from childhood he showed brilliant abilities in drawing. When Francisco was seventeen years old, his father, who wanted to help his son in his quest to become a painter, sent the young man to Madrid.

Portrait of Maria Teresa de Vallabrig on horseback, 1783

Simultaneously with his training as a painter in the capital, Goya managed to pay considerable attention to women, for whom he had passionate and unbridled feelings from his youth. Rich aristocrats, simple peasant women, and well-known beauties from brothels in the city became his mistresses. They even said that once in the village, noticing a beautiful nun, the temperamental artist climbed into her cell and kidnapped her, after which he provoked a brutal fight with the village peasants, in which he was almost killed. Whether this fact took place or not is not known for certain, however, under very strange circumstances, Goya fled to Italy, joining the street vagabonds

Portrait of Doña Narcisa Baranian de Goicoechea, 1810

Three years later, in 1773, the artist returned to Madrid, where he met his longtime friend Francisco Bayeu. He introduced Goya to his sister, the beautiful Josephine. Ardent and passionate love soon led to the girl becoming pregnant, and Goya, who did not think about marriage, was forced to seal his relationship with his beloved with seminal ties. In total, the wife gave the painter five children, but only Javier grew up - the other children died in infancy.

Portrait of the Countess of Chinchon, 1800

In 1792, Goya became seriously ill. The illness that broke the artist still causes endless debate among biographers and doctors studying his illness. Some believe that it was a venereal disease, presumably syphilis. Others believe that the cause of paralysis and hearing loss could be manic-depressive syndrome and schizophrenia. Contemporaries noted that the artist had a panicky fear of persecution, extreme intemperance and even hysteria, a craving for loneliness and some other oddities in behavior.

For about two months, Goya lay motionless, then his vision was restored, and for the first time in many weeks of suffering he was able to get to his feet and walk. However, his hearing was lost forever.

Young lady in mantilla and basquin, 1805-08

Nevertheless, the artist returned to his old life again. Marital fidelity was not a virtue of the great master. Countless novels continued: there were so many of them that sometimes the artist did not even remember the name of the mistress with whom he spent the night. He won the hearts of noble ladies and poor simpletons, beauties and ordinary, inconspicuous women. It seemed to give him complete, incomparable pleasure.

Thrush from Bordeaux. 1827

This continued until the twenty-year-old Duchess of Alba appeared in the life of the unsurpassed lover, who became the most desirable woman in the artist’s life and the most fatal muse in his fate. He was introduced to Caetanya Alba by court aristocrats who were close friends of the master. Wanting to see the “extraordinary Goya” with her own eyes, Alba came to his workshop. She was arrogant, beautiful, feminine and sensual. After her visit, in the summer of 1795, the artist, without holding back his feelings, told a friend about his meeting with a new acquaintance and exclaimed: “Oh, finally now I know what it means to live!”

Blind Man's Bluff. 1788

Their passionate romance lasted seven years. For all these years, Francisco Goya forgot about other women, and only one - the most beautiful woman in Spain at that time - Caetanya Maria del Pilar, Duchess of Alba - remained his muse, inspiring the artist to create great masterpieces.

The Duchess could not be called a decent and modest lady - society knew about her numerous vicious relationships, however, Alba did not even think of hiding them. Among her lovers were the most noble and influential men in the country.

Portrait of the Duchess of Alba

Her marriage at the age of thirteen to an already middle-aged duke, a representative of one of the most powerful aristocratic families in Europe, did not bring Caetanya peace of mind. The young heart desired ardent feelings, and the body sought to experience all the pleasures and caresses. Possessed by passion, giving herself over to every feeling, the young duchess at the age of twenty became an experienced, knowledgeable, and insidious seductress. Contemporaries recalled that all men in Spain desired her. “When she walked down the street,” wrote one French traveler, “everyone looked out of the windows, even children abandoned their games to look at her. Every hair on her body evoked desire.”

Portrait of the Marquise von Villafranco, 1804

The Duke of Alba chose not to pay attention to the love affairs of his temperamental wife, and in 1796 he died from a long and serious illness. His unfaithful wife, dressed in mourning attire, went to mourn her husband in a castle in Andalusia and spent a little more than a year there. Noteworthy was the fact that all this time Francisco Goya lived with the saddened widow.

Josepha Bayeux or Leocadia Weiss, 1814

When a year later the couple returned to Madrid, the duchess threw herself into the arms of her new lover - a very noble and brave warrior. And Goya, offended and embittered, continued to paint her portraits. But now he portrayed the traitor either as a stupid lady, or as a corrupt girl, or as a terrible witch.<

Allegory of the City of Madrid, 1809

About two years after these events, Goya became a European celebrity. He was appointed royal painter with a handsome salary and became rich. And the Duchess of Alba returned again to her abandoned lover.

The most famous paintings of the great master can be called, without a shadow of a doubt, the double painting “Naked Macha” and “Clothed Macha”. They date back to around 1800. The canvas folded back on hinges, like a read page, and another one was revealed under it - the same swing, but naked, despite the strictest prohibition of the Inquisition to depict a naked female body.

Mahi on the balcony, 1814

To this day there are disputes about who is depicted in the picture. In those days, in all of Spain there was the only person for whom the prohibitions of the Inquisition were not a decree - Manuel Godoy, the first minister of King Charles IV with the title of Prince of Peace. Art critics claim that Goya received the order for the double painting from Godoy and it depicts an unknown woman.

Woman with fan

However, it is known that many other paintings by the great artist were dedicated to the Duchess of Alba, and some of them were indeed too explicit: the Duchess is depicted completely naked. Once, on one such painting, she wrote in her own hand: “Keeping something like this is simply madness. However, to each his own." Her phrase was not without coquetry.

Portrait of the Marchioness of Santa Cruz

In the summer of 1802, Caetanya Alba invited guests to her Buena Vista palace in Madrid. She was throwing a magnificent celebration in honor of the betrothal of her young niece. The most eminent representatives of aristocratic Madrid were invited to the celebrations, including Crown Prince Ferdinand and Prime Minister Godoy. The Duchess also invited Francisco Goya. After dinner, the Duchess showed the guests the artist’s personal workshop, which was set up right there in the palace. She led the guests around the halls and talked incessantly. The Duchess's behavior was so strange that the guests were at a loss. Talking about the paints used in painting, Alba focused on the most poisonous of them, a small drop of which was a deadly poison. Interrupting the story, she joked about death.

Portrait of Countess Carpio, Marquise de la Solana. 1793

When the evening ended and everyone had left, Goya returned home, but could not sleep until the morning: he had repeatedly heard from his mistress about her desire to die young, before reaching old age. Suspicions were confirmed in the morning - the duchess was found dead.

The cause of Caetanya's death still remains a mystery. Some believe that Alba herself took poison dissolved in a glass of water. Others are sure of a violent death: many were interested in this, including Queen Marie-Louise, who considered the duchess her rival, hated her and wished her death. But the wives of her lovers, and the lovers themselves, who had once been abandoned by an unfaithful lover, and envious friends, as well as servants, to whom, after the death of the mistress, a very impressive sum of money was left in the will, wanted to take revenge on Alba...

Portrait of Doña Teresa Sureda. 1904

Ten years have passed since the death of his beloved Caetanya, and Goya was still unable to calm his suffering heart.

Portrait of Senora Kean Bermudez, wife of Juan Agostino Bermudez, 1795

In 1812, Goya's faithful wife Josephine, who had suffered so much mental suffering and endured numerous affairs with her temperamental husband, died. The son, having got married, moved to another house, leaving his sixty-six-year-old father completely alone.

It was then that passion suddenly awoke in Goya with renewed vigor. He met the young wife of a poor merchant, Leocadia Weiss, persuaded her to cheat on her husband and took her away from the family. Nine months later, she gave her lover a daughter, and ten years later, the artist, along with his daughter and Leocadia, left Spain forever to settle in France.

Portrait of Doña Isabel Cobos de Porcel, 1806

Francisco Goya died on April 16, 1828. He was buried in Bordeaux, much later the ashes of the great artist were transported to Madrid and buried in the church of San Antonio de la Florida.

Water Carrier, 1810-12

Portrait of the Marquise of Santiago

Maha nude

Portrait of the actress Antonia Zarate, 1811

Holy Family. OK. 1787

Young girl with a letter

Portrait of Doña Antonia Zarate, 1806

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes; March 30, 1746 (17460330), Fuendetodos, near Zaragoza - April 16, 1828, Bordeaux) - Spanish artist and engraver, one of the first and most prominent masters of fine art art of the Romantic era.

Francisco Goya Lucientes was born in 1746 in Zaragoza, the capital of Aragon, into a middle-class family. His father is Jose Goya. Mother - Gracia Lucientes - the daughter of a poor Aragonese hidalgo. A few months after Francisco’s birth, the family moved to the village of Fuendetodos, located 40 km south of Zaragoza, where they lived until 1749 (according to other sources - until 1760), while their town house was being repaired. Francisco was the youngest of three brothers: Camillo, the eldest, later became a priest, the middle one, Thomas, followed in his father’s footsteps. José Goya was a famous gilder, to whom even the canons of the Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar cathedral entrusted him with checking the quality of the gilding of all the sculptures that the Aragonese craftsmen who were reconstructing the cathedral were then working on. All the brothers received a rather superficial education; Francisco Goya will always write with errors. In Zaragoza, young Francisco was sent to the workshop of the artist Luzana y Martinez. At the end of 1763, Francisco took part in a competition for the best pictorial copy of Silenus in plaster, but on January 15, 1764, not a single vote was cast for him. Goya hates casts, he admits this much later. In 1766, Goya went to Madrid and here he faced another failure at the competition at the Academy of San Fernando. The subjects for the competition works are related to the generosity of King Alfonso X the Wise and the exploits of national warrior heroes of the 16th century. These subjects do not inspire Goya. Moreover, Francisco Bayeu, another young painter from Zaragoza and a member of the competition jury, is a supporter of balanced forms and academic painting, who does not recognize the imagination of the young Goya. The first prize is received by Bayeu's younger brother, 20-year-old Ramon... In Madrid, Goya gets acquainted with the works of court artists and improves his skills.

Between July 1766 and April 1771, Francisco's life in Rome remains a mystery. According to an article by Russian art critic A.I. Somov, in Italy the artist “was engaged not so much in painting and copying Italian masters, but in visually studying their means and manners.” In the spring of 1771, he participated in a competition at the Parma Academy for a painting on an ancient theme, calling himself a Roman and a student of Bayeu. The reigning prince of Parma at that time was Philip of Bourbon-Parma, brother of the Spanish king Charles III. On June 27, the only prize was awarded to Paolo Boroni (French) Russian. for the “subtle, elegant coloring,” while Goya is reproached for the “harsh tones,” but the “grandiose character of the figure of Hannibal he painted” is recognized. He is awarded the second prize of the Parma Academy of Fine Arts, receiving 6 votes.

The Chapter of the Church del Pilar takes notice of the young artist, perhaps because of his stay in Rome, and Goya returns to Zaragoza. He was asked to make sketches for the ceiling of the chapel by the architect Ventura Rodriguez (Spanish) Russian. on the topic “Worshiping the Name of God.” At the beginning of November 1771, the chapter approved the trial fresco proposed by Goya and entrusted him with the commission. Moreover, the newcomer Goya agrees to the amount of 15,000 reais, while the more experienced Antonio Gonzalez Velazquez (Spanish) Russian. asks for R$25,000 for the same work. On July 1, 1772, Goya completed the painting; his work aroused admiration from the chapter even at the stage of presenting the sketch. As a result, Goya was invited to paint the oratorio of the Sobradiel Palace; he also began to be patronized by the noble Aragonese Ramon Pignatelli (Spanish) Russian, whose portrait he would paint in 1791. Thanks to Manuel Bayeu, Francisco was invited to the Carthusian monastery of Aula Dei, near Zaragoza, where over the course of two years (1772-1774) he created 11 large compositions on themes from the life of the Holy Virgin Mary. Of which only seven have survived, and they have been damaged by restoration work.

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