Francisco Goya's house. "black paintings" by Francisco Goya

A number of iconic works by the famous Spaniard.

Goya

Francisco de Goya is a famous Spanish artist and engraver. He gained his initial fame as a creator of beautiful tapestries, but true fame came to him as a court artist of the Spanish crown. What makes Goya's works unique is his creative approach and bold use of colors. The master's style inspired many imitators and had a serious influence on the world of art.

Umbrella (1777)

This piece is part of a series of 63 works that the artist created early in his career. It is believed that working on this cycle helped the master study the ways of human interaction, which later turned out to be important when creating later masterpieces. “Umbrella” combines motifs of French and Spanish fashion.

Dog (1823)

The group of famous “Black Paintings” created by Francisco in the later stages of his creative work also includes an image of a dog, which is easy to lose in the artistic space of the painting. Usually the work is interpreted as a symbol of a person’s struggle with troubles and evil forces.

Mahi (1797–1805)

Both works (“Maja Nude” and “Maja Dressed”) are located side by side in the same hall of the Prado Museum (Madrid). Among the artists who created paintings inspired by these works of Goya, we should note Ignacio Zuloaga and Edouard Manet. To this day it is unknown who served as the model for the main character of the picture, but traditionally the 13th Duchess of Alba is called the artist’s source of inspiration.

On the pedestal of the monument to the artist, installed in front of the Prado Museum, there is a sculptural image based on the painting “Nude Macha”.

Great Goat (1821–1823)

The Black Painting is often seen by art critics as a satire on the theme of superstition and depicts Satan speaking to a group of witches.

Charles IV and his family (1801)

The portrait shows the ostentatiously dressed King of Spain and his family. It should be noted that the artist’s reluctance to flatter and fib led to the fact that Goya, according to modern researchers, showed in the portrait of the monarch and his family the corrupt nature of their power. Probably the person barely visible on the left is the author of the work.

Disasters of War (1810–1820)

This series of 82 prints is among Goya's most significant works. Art historians divide the series into three parts:

The first 47 engravings show the horrors of war.
The second 18 works depict the consequences of the famine.
The last 17 reflect the disappointment associated with the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy.

This series is a phenomenal visualization of the author's position, which contains indignation and bold political statements.

Disasters of war. 39 work from the series.

The Sleep of Reason Gives Birth to Monsters (1799)

This composition is part of the “Caprichos” series, consisting of 80 works. The artist sleeping among the tools is surrounded by monsters that symbolize ignorance and other vices of society.

Saturn Devouring His Son (1819–1823)

This masterpiece is based on the Roman myth, according to which the Titan Saturn ate his children, as he was predicted to die at the hands of one of his sons. However, the prophecy was destined to come true.
“Saturn Devouring His Son” is a disturbing portrait, part of a series of “black paintings”.

Third of May 1808 (1814)

On May 2, 1808, the people of Madrid rebelled against the French occupiers. Goya depicts this scene in the painting "The Third of May 1808". In the center of the canvas is a retaliatory strike by French troops, as a result of which hundreds of Spaniards were shot. The painting, revolutionary in style and level of symbolism, inspired Pablo Picasso to create the famous “Guernica.”

Funeral of a Sardine (circa 1808–1814)

Academy of San Fernando, Madrid Goya presents the popular carnival as a demonic festival. Under pressure from the Inquisition, the artist was forced to change the original version of the painting and replace the inscription on the banner mortus (died) with a grimace of the mask. The bubbling joy and distorted joy of the unbridled crowd are a grotesque allegory on the existing social order. In his work, Goya rebels against the orders established by the Inquisition and demonstrates the powerlessness of his contemporaries in their face.

Portrait of Francisco Bayeux (1795)

After 1794, Goya created a number of portraits from life. Thanks to the artist’s keen observation and precise technique, his works are distinguished by deep psychologism and penetration into the inner world of a person. Here is a portrait of the court painter and Goya's brother-in-law Francisco Bayeux (1734–1795) shortly before his death. A tired, slightly irritated facial expression and a carelessly buttoned frock coat characterize the model's personality. At the same time, the frozen pose, the characteristic bend of the hand, and an attentive gaze emphasize the inner virtues of the person being portrayed.

Court of the Inquisition (around 1800)

Goya repeatedly addressed the theme of the Inquisition trial, emphasizing the cruelty of the ceremony and the tragic fate of its victims, who were put on the caps of heretics. Lighting effects and the manner of applying colors help to depict the trial, which is led by obscurantists. The faces of the judges - monks and priests - are distorted with grimaces of death, and their figures merge into a single amorphous mass.

Game of Blind Man's Bluff (1791)

Scenes of everyday life and folk entertainment, characterized by rich colors and ease of composition, showed new trends in the artist’s work. Goya reveals the real world in all its endless diversity. The appeal of this sketch for a tapestry intended to decorate a study in the El Escorial Palace is manifested in the bright colors and ease of the characters’ movements. For Goya, the depiction of figures in a gentle, watercolor color is typical; the figures of the characters seem to dissolve in a thin haze.

Famous paintings by Francisco Goya updated: January 21, 2018 by: Gleb

And “Two Old Men Eating Soup” is very similar in atmosphere and expression to “The Potato Eaters” by Van Gogh.

You have chosen very good quotes to accompany the stunning murals. I like them very much.

Writing directly on the wall is fantastic. I had such an experience, an incredible feeling.

Julia Ria:
November 22, 2011 at 12:20

Compared to Van Gogh. Yes, the same gloomy colors, the same atmosphere of suffocation and powerlessness or something... I like “The Dog” most of all of these paintings, such a strange atmosphere was created by Goya.

I don’t remember, have you read this book about Goya by Feuchtwanger? It ends right at the place where the artist decided to paint the walls of his house. There should have been a second part, but... the writer’s life was cut short - so unfair.

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November 22, 2011 at 01:47 pm

The dog has such a pitiful look, there is so much loneliness and resentment in her, and in front of her there is a barely visible shadow (but maybe these are the projections of the wall), which she looks at with the question: “Why did you leave me?”...

I don't remember if I've read Feuchtwanger's Goya, but that won't stop me from reading this book when the mood strikes.

These late works of Goya are pure expressionism. He was very ahead of his time.

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November 24, 2011 at 18:07

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November 25, 2011 at 11:30

For a long time I did not accept and rejected conceptual art, various wild, repulsive performances, actions, happenings and the like. In Russia the term “contemporary art” has been adopted, but in the rest of the world they don’t know about it.))

As an example, the scandalous antics of the most famous Russian artist, the dog man Oleg Kulik. I really like one of his old works “Russian Eclipse”, where he is naked with a red banner in his hand.))

It took me a lot of time, reading relevant literature and articles about contemporary art, to begin to convince myself that everything has a place in art. And nothing can be denied.

I haven’t understood any better, but I’m still sometimes interested in what’s going on in conceptual (intellectual) art. Read the statements of Oleg Kulik, they are worthy of it. Here, for example, is one of his thoughts:

“Everyone is good, but they lie, but the artist does not lie, but he is a greedy and arrogant egoist. The average person also has all these qualities, but in the modern world it is indecent to demonstrate them. The most terrible thing in the world of the average person is not the atomic bomb, not poverty, but what your neighbors will say about you. The artist is not afraid of this.”

Here's another thing I really liked:

“Art that exists for the sake of sale is no longer art.”

So I get aversion and rejection from commercial art, paintings for sale. But I have been fighting this “righteous anger” for a long time quite successfully.))

Yul, what is it that disgusts you?

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November 25, 2011 at 16:16

And yet I don’t quite understand what you mean by commercial art? What is sold in principle or what is deliberately portrayed to suit the taste of the public?

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November 25, 2011 at 17:37

How can I be against everything that is for sale? I myself have sold more than a dozen paintings. Plus, everything eventually ends up on the art market.

Of course, I mean what is drawn specifically for sale. That is, knowing in advance what the public will buy. To her taste. But I have been understanding this for a long time now. After all, people need to live from something. Why not from paintings?

Olya, the intention of the artist is important to me. Primordial. This is what makes the difference between the works. That’s why we call one painting art, but we don’t call the other.

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November 25, 2011 at 18:13

Now it’s clear. Sometimes it seems to me that you’re against selling at all.

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November 26, 2011 at 12:57 pm

Of course not! I am for it. And I’m very glad when artists manage to live from their art. That's great rarity.

In this matter, it is important to understand what is the goal and what is the means.))

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December 1, 2011 at 01:57 pm

Yes, yes, if you think first of all only about money, spirituality and meaningfulness are lost. But the presence of income does not deny the presence of meaning. These things are not always clear to everyone. Especially in our country, in Russia. The master must be poor - it sits in the minds of many, and if the master is rich, then this is no longer art. The same Goya received a lot of money for his portraits and was a court painter, of which he was proud. But he did not overstep himself.

The phrase: “The worst thing in the world of the average person is not the atomic bomb, not poverty, but what your neighbors will say about you” - amazing! Simple but precise. What will your neighbors, colleagues, and just passers-by say about you? I’m disgusted by all this (however, alas, I have it too).

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December 1, 2011 at 15:20

Of course he doesn’t deny it! People are confused about concepts, that's absolutely true. And to what extent, I can’t wrap my head around it. For example, most people believe that any painting is art. Automatically. If all the attributes are there: a canvas covered with paints, a frame, then it is art. What else? This never ceases to shock me. Julia, why is the word art applied to any painting? Do you have a version?

This “what will they say about you” is painfully familiar to me. Since I always didn’t care, my parents experienced the consequences of my indifference to the fullest.))

Francisco de Goya - Spanish genius painter Modern times, a master of the genres of portraiture and critical realism, who, at the final stage of his creative path, created a whole collection of mystical, frightening paintings called “Black Paintings”.

After finishing his studies at a school near Zaragoza, 17-year-old Francisco goes to Madrid to enter the Academy of Fine Arts. It should be noted that, as a child, Francisco did not make much progress in mastering the school curriculum and his studies were difficult for him, but the village art teacher immediately noticed the extraordinary abilities of young Francisco. Inspired by the recognition, the young artist dreamed of the capital’s Academy, however, he failed to enter there twice.

But Goya became one of the students of the famous master Francisco Bayeu. Goya's namesake painted in the popular genre of “neoclassicism” in those years, which was characterized by an interest in classical ancient works of painting and architecture. By the way, Bayeu’s sister, Josepha, later became the wife of Francisco Goya. In 1779, the master painted the famous portrait of his wife Josepha.

The portraits of the early period of the master’s work are photographically accurate, and his attention to detail is striking. The colors in Goya's paintings from this period are very soft and natural - notice how realistic the delicate blush on Josefa's face looks.

In 1774, Goya created a whole series of works with sketches of episodes from the lives of ordinary people. The main characters of these paintings were “makhi” - beautiful and frivolous people, and “makho” - young gentlemen. It is worth noting that Francisco received the order for this series of works from King Charles III himself. This can be explained not only by the growing fame of the young artist, but also by the career growth of his teacher, Francisco Bayeu. By the way, swings often appeared in Goya’s paintings, for example, the painting “Swings on the Balcony” was painted in 1805-1812.

When Goya himself became the court painter of King Charles IV, the aristocratic prefix “de” was added to his name. In 1800, Francisco created a group portrait of the royal family, called "The Family of King Charles IV."

Despite the highest technique of painting, the portrait of the royal family looked very unflattering - one of Goya’s contemporaries, an art critic, called the people depicted on the canvas “the family of a baker who won the lottery.” Pay attention to the composition - in the center of the picture is the monarch's wife, Maria Luis, and Charles himself is on the side. This is not an accident at all, because Karl was an infantile, weak-willed man and was under the thumb of his cunning and calculating wife, who soon became the de facto head of the country.

"Caprichos"

Lovers of realism can savor the magnificent portraits, created by Francisco, however, this artist was very multifaceted, and his creative genius became cramped within the framework of this genre. Even before painting the group portrait of the royal family, in 1797 - 1799, Goya created a series of etchings called “Caprichos” (“Whims”), which is dedicated to ridiculing and exposing human vices and injustices of feudal-clerical society.

In the central etching of the series, which is called “The sleep of reason gives rise to monsters,” we can see a fallen man, behind whose back various animals and monsters wake up and become active, some of them indicated only by ominous shadows.

The title of this work has become a catchphrase - indeed, if a person does not heed the voice of reason, his thoughts and fantasies will turn into disgusting monsters generated by vicious and base instincts. This etching can also be interpreted symbolically - a person who has fallen asleep represents a mind that has ceased to control anything and has fallen asleep, giving freedom to these terrible beasts.

The etchings depict the sins and vices inherent in people in a grotesque-surrealistic manner. For example, here we can see a woman who cannot look at a hanged man, but can take a coin from his mouth, which was put into the mouths of the dead according to an ancient custom.

It should be noted that the arrangement of figures in each etching is not accidental: many of the ugly creatures are caricatures of public figures and nobles of the Madrid royal court, and in the participants in the Sabbaths and feasts of evil spirits, features of the king, queen and the main leaders of the Inquisition are visible.

In this etching we see monsters trimming the nails of their clawed feet. He himself commented on his work as follows: “Having long nails is so reprehensible that it is forbidden even to evil spirits.” Probably, the master had in mind the need to “cut his nails” (apparently a symbol of hypocrisy), which arose among even the most bloodthirsty executioners from the Inquisition, who had lost their human appearance due to the large number of atrocities committed.

Immortal works that are classics of satire could never have been published, because not a single censorship body could miss such a sharp mockery of the powerful of the world. “Caprichos” was saved by the personal intervention of King Charles IV (it was rumored that the narrow-minded monarch was delighted to recognize himself in some of the etchings).

As art critics say, the main character of each master’s work in the “Caprichos” series is conscience, dispassionately assessing the prevailing views and mood in society, and it is from its side that all human iniquities seem so ugly.

"House of the Deaf"

When the master was 46, he suddenly fell ill. The disease was severe, the main symptoms were paralysis, deafness and temporary visual impairment. By the way, even now scientists cannot come to a final conclusion as to what kind of illness the artist suffered from. Francisco recovered from the disease, but in 1820, when he was already over 70, there was a relapse. An elderly artist suffering from illness, he retired from the royal court (and at that time he was the court artist of Ferdinand VII) and settled in a small country house in the vicinity of Madrid. It is this house that will subsequently become known throughout the world as the “House of the Deaf.” Francisco de Goya began working again and creating masterpieces that would later be called “Black Paintings.”

We are talking about the dark, surreal frescoes with which Francisco covered the walls of the house. They are like nightmares and disturbing fleeting visions created by a sick imagination.

The color scheme of most of the works is very dark and gloomy, the predominant colors are black, gray and various shades of brown. Occasionally there are splashes of red and white, but they only enhance the gloomy atmosphere and create a heavy, depressing atmosphere. As, for example, in the most famous work of the series - “Saturn Devouring His Son”.

Saturn, the supreme god of the ancient Roman pantheon, is depicted here as an insane, disproportionate monster, similar to a bird of prey. In the work you can see the embodiment of irrationalism and senseless hatred, which were so disgusting to the artist.

In the main living room of the lower floor - a rectangular hall extending from the entrance into the depths - there were seven stylistically homogeneous compositions, grouped into an integral ensemble of compositions. One (Iriarte called it “Two old women eating from common dishes”) was placed above the one made in the end wall of the hall with an entrance door in the form of a desus de porte (from the French dessus de porte, literally “above the door”) - a decorative composition located above the door. Six others filled all the walls: on the wall opposite the entrance there were vertical compositions separated by a window, Saturn devouring his children "(to the left of the window) and Judith cutting off the head of Holofernes" (to the right); on the left longitudinal wall, framed by two windows or two fireplaces, there is a frieze, “The Sabbath of Witches,” and on the contrary, on the right wall, framed by two fireplaces or cabinets, there is a frieze, “Pilgrimage to St. Isidore,” a depiction of a folk festival held annually in Madrid on May 15; finally, on the wall at the entrance to the right of the door (next to "Sabbath" and opposite, "Saturn") - again a vertical painting, "Leocadia", in other words, a portrait image of Leocadia Weiss, who became the mistress of the House of the Deaf, and to the left (adjacent to, Pilgrimage" and against, Judith") - also vertical painting, Two old men." In a similar hall on the upper floor there were eight partitions suitable for painting; here the longitudinal walls were divided in half by window and fireplace openings. However, Goya painted only seven of them. In the depths of the hall, on the end wall to the left and right of the window, there were vertical panels, stylistically related to the paintings on the lower floor, “Politicians” and “Two Laughing Women”; on the left longitudinal wall are “Bull Shepherds” and “Atropos”, and on the right - “Promenade of the Inquisition” and “Asmodeus”. These four horizontal compositions are already very different stylistically from the first two. The seventh painting (again vertical) is also different from them - the mysterious “Dog” to the right of the entrance door. Unlike the lower cycle, the upper one remained unfinished and did not form a single ensemble.

Saturn devouring his children. 1820-1823

Mixed media, canvas. Moved from wall cladding.

Dimensions: 143.5 - 81.4 cm.

In Saturn, the background of the painting is a coal-black cosmic hole, in the depths of which the figure of an ancient deity, the personification of the all-consuming element of Time, shoots up like a thickening cloud of volcanic ash. Her outlines, deliberately scattered in space, are reduced to a spasm of frantically writhing movement. She seems to be pushing away the surrounding darkness, breaking open the boundaries of her spatial cell in order to break out into the present space of the hall. In her, inorganic and organic, pre-human and primitive-human are visibly mixed and transformed into each other beginning. Its knotty forms resemble a strange interweaving of thick tree branches; its angular, splayed and seemingly jointed members evoke in our minds the image of a giant tarantula instantly grabbing its victim, and Saturn’s bulging eyes are like the eyes of a fish.

Judith cutting off the head of Holofernes.1820-1823.

Mixed media, canvas. Moved from wall cladding.

Dimensions: 146-84 cm.

Gifted by Baron Émile d'Erlanger, 1881

"Judith" emerges from a different kind of darkness - not cosmic, but rather earthly or, more precisely, underground, basement, illuminated by an almost irritating combination of frozen and cold, from nowhere, moonlight penetrating here and the slightly warming flicker of a candle that is hidden in in the arms of an old maid accompanying the biblical warrior. Here reigns the energy of an earthly act, captured in its instantaneity. Having just jumped from the bed of Holofernes (slightly visible on the right), without yet tidying up her disheveled clothes, crumpled by love caresses, the heroine raised her sword over the head of the sleeping Assyrian military leader and now he will cut her off (here the first visual-semantic correspondence between her and Saturn arises - he began to devour his victim from the head). The falling forward movement of Judith, her sharply highlighted face, shoulder, hand with a sword - all this also sticks out from the spatial field of the painting, like knees, hands and head of Saturn.

Witches' Sabbath.1820-1823.

Dimensions: 140.5-435.7 cm.

Gifted by Baron Émile d'Erlanger, 1881

The original painting, “The Sabbath,” depicting a gathering of witches who en masse worship the Devil-Goat, listen to his sermons and present him with a young neophyte, had not yet been cut off at the edges and stretched almost six meters instead of the current four and a little. The crowd of witches was then embraced by a deep and an extended dark space where the stormy night sky mixed with the earth's firmament.On the edge of them hung a gigantic ellipsoid of stuck together and swarming bodies, whose movements unbalanced it and forced it to spin like a galaxy, tangentially also capturing the real space of the hall.

Pilgrimage to St. Isidore.1820-1823.

Dimensions: 127-266 cm.

Donated in 1881

This mural depicts a festival officially celebrated in Madrid on May 15, the day of St. Isidore the Plowman, the patron saint of the city. This is no longer an extreme celebration of the elements and forces of the earth, as in the previous mural, but the real life of the people of Madrid - “a scene of morals”, like a feat located nearby, Judith" is not a cosmogonic myth, but a real, albeit sacralized story. These are people who, at sunset or before a storm, left their seats and set off on the road. Only they are led by a blind man with a powerful, almost square torso. Only ahead (on the opposite wall of the hall, before the paintings are removed) awaits him the insanity of a witches' festival.

Leocadia.1820-1823.

Mixed media, canvas. Transferred from wall cladding.

Dimensions: 145.7-129.4 cm.

Donated in 1881