Goya: The Romantic Pioneer Whose Paintings Took A Dark Turn | The Great Artists

foreign [Music] in 1808 the Affairs of Europe were dominated by one military leader that year the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte asserted his power by installing his own brother on the throne of Spain this was the trigger for one of the bloodiest of all wars of resistance [Music] the citizens of Madrid rose up against Napoleon's troops and the French response was a mass execution the date was May the 3rd 1808. A Dark Day in Spanish history but it was this Grim event that inspired the creation of an important historic painting by a genius of the Romantic age Goya this canvas was the greatest achievement of a long and diverse career Goya Rose from humble beginnings to become the most famous Spanish artist of his day he had an extraordinary life during which he was tried for treason and brought before the Spanish Inquisition for a charge of obscenity his success as an artist was also blighted by tragedy in 1792 at the age of 46 he contracted a mysterious illness that almost killed him it also left him permanently deaf as war and division blighted his country goya's work became darker more introspective this was exacerbated by his deafness which threatened to cut him off from the world around him the results were often horrifying in the artist's own time his work brought him before the Spanish Inquisition and the end of his life was spent in Exile but by then his achievements as an artist were little short of phenomenal guy has a key figure in the history of Art his Works have a spontaneity and a directness that still appeals to us today his Works still shock and amaze us and I think when we're looking at Goya we get the sense that this was someone that knew what human nature was all about human nature with all its appetites and Imperfections Gaia is an artist of profound human emotion he wasn't a saint he wasn't a hero but he lived through the most incredibly troubled times and he bore witnessed to them and I think one of the things that always strikes me about guy is his tremendous honesty the way that he is sort of showing the dark side as well as the bright side of human nature he's a very earthy Artist as well as being one who can give you most wonderful lyrical colors Gloria painted everything still lives Landscapes portraits he painted religious Works history pictures satirical prints and by the end of his life his attitude towards his art hadn't really changed at all he was interested in the pursuit of truth even if it meant painting things that were grotesque he was a very talented painter draftsman lithographer printmaker he was a very talented Observer and a brilliant inventor more than anything though he tasted the fruits of success if you like he was a successful court painter but also at the same time was able to produce very deep very troubling sometimes very imaginative art which still has the power to shock and perplex even today Francisco Jose Goya elucientes was born in the dusty Plateau region of Aragon in the north of Spain on March the 30th 1746. he was the third of five children born to poor parents [Music] the small village where he spent his childhood fuende todos was not an affluent place and goya's father struggled to earn a living as a guilder in Aragon where he was born there was a very strong tradition of church painting and he would have learned about the Old Masters probably through prints and drawings in the studio of the artist he studied with and Saragosa he trained with an artist called Jose lufan lufan was a local painter one of whose jobs was actually to go around and revise in decent paintings there were lots of paintings from the Renaissance and a little bit later that had nudes in them the Inquisition didn't like these so lufthan went around and painted draperyel so although he was taught by ruthanne Goya really learned on the job he wasn't an academic artist whenever he entered competitions for the Academy in Madrid he usually failed because he didn't have those skills of draftsmanship and composition that the artists in the capital had learned this was the center of the Spanish art scene it was where the patronage of the Court could make a painter rich Madrid was also home to the Spanish Royal Academy in 1764 this influential body was run by the neoclassical artist Anton Rafael mengs the previous year he had invited another painter from Aragon Francisco Bayer to study at the Academy Bayer was 12 years older than Goya and they knew each other well but goya's Academy applications were both rejected disheartened he returned to Saragosa where he found work painting frescoes for local churches it was a slow start to his career but in 1770 he was able to make the traditional Young Artists tour of Italy Goya spent time in Rome where the fluency of his painting made an impression he obviously felt the need to get away from Spain because he went to Rome at his own expense he says that he'd had no master except for his own invention and for the great artists whom he'd seen in Spain and in Italy Gaia was particularly influenced in the earlier part of his life by the great Spanish 17th century artist Velasquez and the equally great Dutch 17th Century painter Rembrandt and I think on the one hand Velasco has this wonderful painterliness and he is a court painter as Gaia hopes to be and he manages to combine Elegance with a very striking degree of realism from Rembrandt perhaps we have the more mysterious the darker side the spirituality but as well as those two of course there was also the influence of the current neoclassical movement which does affect Gaia in the early part of his career his early work is relatively tight and severe like a lot of neoclassical painting though this is something that he gets rid of more and more after he comes back from Italy back in Saragosa he received his first major Church commissions he also painted this self-portrait though our details of goya's early life are sketchy this confident image reveals a young painter whose technique was already impressive by 1774 a number of commissions from local churches had made Goya the most successful artist of the region he was now married to a local girl named josefa as far as we know it was a happy marriage though just one of their five children survived into adulthood josefa was the sister of Francisco Bayer the aragonese artists now well established in Madrid [Music] in 1774 Goya was invited to work under Bayer in Madrid his task was to paint large cartoon designs for the famous Royal tapestry Factory it was an important moment in his career the 28 year old artist was now on the fringes of high society where valuable portrait commissions could be gained his tapestry designs were also tailored to aristocratic tastes [Music] these bright Carefree images revealed the influence of the popular Rococo Manor images like this proved popular but soon Goya was revealing greater ambition in his tapestry designs in 1777 he painted the parasol a work whose layout and color revealed a new sense of boldness in execution one of the most striking features about it technically is the lightness and brightness of it the way it's lit from underneath the figures almost and that very lightness is in itself of interesting contrast to the more formal traditions of tapestry decoration and I think the other thing is the contrast between the lights and the darks in the fabric of his cartoon in the sense that mostly tapestry cartoons were obviously designed to be made into tapestries which themselves couldn't or weren't usually associated with very heavy contrast between dark colors and white they tended to be quite light in overall they tended not to be very extreme in their contrast of lights and shade the parasol is part of a series of popular amusements that was meant to go into the chambers of The Prince and the princess of the Asturias so in the parasol you've got a clear design you've also got the appearance of two key figures these are if you like working class stand is very haughty very proud often getting into scrapes they saw themselves as pure representatives of Castilian Spirit people that hadn't been contaminated by Foreign into marriage so this is really Goya for the first time showing himself as a powerful recorder of Spanish pastimes and Amusements tapestry design had a lowly artistic status large paintings such as this were not even seen as works of art in their own right Goya was still not a member of the Royal Academy but that was soon to change in 1780 he painted a religious image that finally secured his entry to the heart of the Spanish art establishment a depiction of Christ on the cross we might consider the reasons why Goya chose this most sacred of subject matter for his Royal Academy submission the crucifixion had been depicted in one of the best known works of Anton Raphael menges the head of the Royal Academy who had died only months before Christ on the cross had also been portrayed by a great Spanish artist of the past the 17th century Master Diego Velasquez Velasquez was regarded in Spain at the time as their great hero and I think to some extent there had always been a bit of a puzzle as to why it was that had been these great painters in the 17th century of Velasquez and so on and why there were none since so there was always that idea of wanting to go back to the greats wanting to go back to a great Spanish tradition and I think a lot of the excitement about go was the idea that here was a painter who could once more pick up the gauntlet who could follow in the footsteps of Alaska from the time he started working in the court he would have had access to the king's collection of paintings and it was there that he made his studies after Velasquez and he made a series of prints that were published in 1778 and it's quite clear from looking at these copies that what he admired particularly was partly the way of Alaska painted light partly The Marvelous transparency of the way he could paint costume and gesture and also the way that Velasquez was much more interested in character and this mix of character from The Elegant beautiful women of the Habsburg Court down to these grotesque deformed dwarves is the kind of mix that Goya himself is obviously interested in establishing according to Goya Velasquez was one of three major influences upon his art another was nature itself we can see this in the increasing Mastery of landscape in his tapestry cartoons his third formal influence was Rembrandt the 17th century Dutchman whose greatest paintings were of people in the 1780s Goya began to reveal a similar enthusiasm for the art of portraiture by the end of the decade Goya was the most fashionable portraitist in Madrid full-length canvases were exactly what aristocratic patrons wanted this is Don Manuel Osorio de Zuniga a canvas depicting the four-year-old son of a Spanish count child portraiture was increasingly popular in the late 18th century in England Joshua Reynolds was just one artist who made a good living painting the younger members of wealthy families [Music] with goya's work we see that he too was able to capture the spirit of childhood I think what strikes the viewer of this picture very powerfully are the Bold contrast of the Scarlet skeleton suit essentially and they peculiarly lit and therefore rather pallid face of the little boy and also the contrast between the same scarlet and the greens of the background technically as well and it's a rather dazzling display of the portrayal of different kinds of fabric From the Rough to the the very kind of rich and Sumptuous silk of the sash and of course there's something of the the strange and grotesque almost about the portrayal of the animals in the picture which people are always captivated by something which reminds one again of balathketh Dom Manuel de Zuniga is not only a sparkling portrait it's also an emblematic illustration of what childhood is all about this is down to the ancillary animals that you see in the painting so you've got these three Sinister looking cats staring at the magpie with goya's calling card in its beak and on the other side you've got the caged birds it's been suggested that this is all about the loss of innocence innocence at first is protected if you like caged and then gradually through experience you come into the world and are preyed upon if you like by the sort of cat figures by the early 1790s portrait commissions like this had made Goya a wealthy man he was now one of the king's official court painters he was also deputy director of the Royal Academy his cartoons now took up less of his time and in 1792 he gave up tapestry design altogether he was now a major figure in Madrid Society a fire achievement for a man of humble provincial origin but a cruel twist of fate lay ahead goya's life and work would never be the same again late in 1792 whilst traveling to Andalusia Goya was struck with a debilitating illness the cause or exact nature of the ailment remains unknown although many have speculated on lead poisoning a common ingredient in the paints of that day he continued to Cadiz a major medical center of the time and convalesced with the wealthy Merchant and friend Sebastian Martinez [Music] whatever the illness the consequences were devastating Goya nearly died and was forced to rest for a year Goya was now permanently deaf unsurprisingly goya's mood plunged into the depths of despair but as he recovered what was left of his health his imagination began to run wild he decided to incorporate his personal Visions into a series of paintings that Mark the turning point of his career images such as this depiction of a shipwreck are known as the cabinet pictures equally Bleak is this painting of the mad house at Zaragoza scenes like this could be witnessed in asylums across Europe the English painter Hogarth memorably depicted London's notorious Bedlam Institution but goya's mad house is a far darker place trapped in his silent World paintings like this began to flow from the stricken artist's brash before he was deaf he talks a lot about listening to folk songs going to concerts watching people dance and music was obviously something that interested him a great deal and word planned argument and this kind of thing he writes a letter about his convalescence and he says that during a period of convalescence one of the advantages was that because he was no longer under pressure to produce work for patrons or at the court he could paint more or less what he liked goyard seems to dwell much more on subjects from the imagination and subjects that deal with a satirical and absurd view of human nature Goya was also very keen on money and he wanted to find some way of replacing the income he lost from official commissions by painting small interesting private Works in one of the very famous letters he writes after his illness he says that one of the reasons he chooses subjects of fantasy was because they were much more easily salable goya's deafness led to an increasing Reliance on the power of His imagination it is this more than anything that secures his status as an artist of the Romantic age but his loss of hearing did not change his life completely he continued to carry out conventional commissions to great acclaim in 1798 he painted the miracle of Saint Anthony at Madrid's Church of San Antonio de la Florida he was still in demand for portrait commissions and the resulting images reveal a painter now at the Pinnacle of his career they may also reveal an artist still able to enjoy the physical pleasures of life this is the Duchess of Alba one of the leading Society beauties of the day in the early 1790s Goya was introduced to her through her husband the Duke of Alba [Music] the following year the Duke died and Goya went to stay on the duchess's estate one painting in particular would give rise to the speculation that the two were lovers this was goya's portrait of the Duchess of Alba on the ground beneath her feet we see the words solo Goya only Goya a lot has been made of their relationship but there is no hard evidence to suggest that there was anything more than friendship involved we know that Goya spent the summer of 1796 at the duchess's country estate at San lucar near Cadiz but he was probably there as an invited guest painting and drawing acting a bit like a kind of librarian might do he had that same kind of social position in the family we know that the Duchess of Alba was very kind to all of her servants and so maybe guy misinterpreted these signals he probably did feel some close attachment to her but it wasn't reciprocated if Goya did enjoy an affair with the Duchess of Alba then it would be in keeping with certain contemporary descriptions of his character [Music] some said that Goya was a passionate Ladies Man it appears that he had a taste for a masculine lifestyle he enjoyed shooting and his wealth enabled him to drive a fashionable English carriage but details of goya's private life are generally missing in this canvas from the 1790s we can see a free spirit at work his hat is circled with candles a procedure that enabled him to work in Twilight guys brush work is very distinctive when he first started painting he was very much influenced by neoclassicism and he tended to paint in a rather thin way but the blush gets Bolder and Bolder and towards the end I think one can see he's not just painting with a brush he's also drawing with the brat he's shaping his forms with the branch in a very bold uninhibited way so I think it's that boldness that perhaps singles him out from other painters of his period he wasn't just an innovator with paint he was an innovator with all kinds of technique of visual representation from printmaking he tried his hand at dry pointed Aqua tint lithography even at the end of his life which was very new and of course his fresco painting is extraordinary in its bravery and Novelty I mean it's still recognized as it being an extraordinary kind of technique which rather broke the rules of how Fresco was normally painted and so I think we have to see the round of achievement of Goya he's not someone who can just deal with one medium particularly well he's one person seems to be able to spread that talent for Innovation and creation right across a range of artistic media by the beginning of the 19th century goya's technical skills were unrivaled amongst Spanish artists of the day [Music] his portraiture was now fully mature increasingly he was commissioned to paint female subjects dressed as mahas the seductive female counterpart to the Mahone the Maha wore a trademark costume a bodice surmounted with a black lace mantilla we can see this in the many Goya portraits of wealthy Society ladies The Duchess of Alba donned the Maha uniform when she sat for the artist who may have been her lover assumptions that The Duchess also modeled for his erotic paintings the Maha naked and the Maha clothed are unfounded although they were originally in her collection the sheer sexuality of these paintings proved too much for some and because of them Goya faced the full force of Spanish conservatism [Music] but with this image from 1805 there were no such difficulties [Music] this is Donna Isabel de porcel a society woman who had also chosen to be depicted as a spirited Maha one feature when often sees him with these very strong pitches is a tremendous use of the profile she's of a vibrant woman and you can see once again that he's managed to combine elegance and sensuality in the work itself recently there has been some discussion about it particularly about its authenticity we know that Donya Isabel de parcel sat to Goya in the 1800s in his Madrid Studio and if that is the picture that he produced it was painted over a portrait of someone in a dark blue outfit we don't know if it's male or female now what's happened in the intervening years is that the blue of the outfit has come through on Donya Isabella's face and it has given a very porcelain Hue to the skin tones which makes it look rather like a sort of rather pretty late Victorian girl so there has been quite a lot of discussion about it several front rank Goya Scholars feel that it's unacceptable as a work by Goya others defend it very fiercely this is a group portrait of King Charles IV surrounded by the Royal Family typically a commission like this would be a study in majesty and dignity but Goya chose to depict the family as individuals with personalities in the case of King Charles the result is hardly flattering it is the queen who is the dominant figure here this is a portrait which is often regarded as in some way a cheeky portrait a portrait which if you like deconstructs the Spanish royal family I think that is to misunderstand the tradition of informality in Spanish Royal portrait stretches back to for example men's portrait of Charles III and I think the real bravery of this is to show the family as family that you know the strength of this portrait is that this is a family gathering and the center of that family is the queen right in the center you've got the king and the queen Maria Luisa Maria Luisa is much more highlighted she was the real power in the land so maybe that's a kind of concession to the realities of power what's also odd is that goya's seen painting them behind a painter would never set up his ease or behind his group and paint their back so why is Goya in there I think there are two reasons for that Velasquez in his great paintings last many Nas places himself the artist at work as a kind of elaborate signature but I think we can also think about the painting if we try to visualize there's a mirror in front of them so Goya and Laurel family are both staring into the same mirror so if what Goya paints and what they see are the same thing there can't be any argument the acceptance of this unusually honest portrait of the Spanish royal family May reveal the esteem in which the artist was held Goya was now first painter to the king the highest status that a Spanish artist could achieve but he had no interest in winding down his career the most radical stage of his working life was just beginning this partly stemmed from the desperate political situation that characterized the age goya's greatest ever painting was inspired by the French occupation of his country but many of his later masterpieces were also inspired by intense personal visions in 1799 he completed his first great achievement in printmaking a typical example is now they are sitting pretty a print that mocks the Eternal phenomenon of feminine vanity Los capricos was a series of 80 aquatin etchings that satirized the Follies of his fellow humans others depict scenes whose Horrors are almost unimaginable the best known of all the capricious prints is also a dark and Melancholy work it can also be seen as a defining image of the Romantic age this is the sleep of Reason produces monsters gaia's sleep of reason is one of those images that has struck people over the centuries and it remains I think a very powerful work for people perhaps first of all because of the way in which it shows the Artist as an involuntary witness that I think is a very original idea at the time Goya is associated with the Romantic Movement and that idea that the artist is a kind of visionary is a kind of prophet is somebody who can see the darkness as well as the light can see whatever people can't see this idea I think is expressed in that picture but what is unique for guy is not only expressing that idea but that the idea that he cannot help himself that it's involuntary that he has to Bear the witness whether he likes it or not originally he wasn't going to call his series of Prince capricos which means simply Caprices he was going to call them suenos which means dreams the translation is nearly always given as the sleep of Reason produces monsters and this seems like a very straightforward idea when you're asleep or you're unconscious or you're not fully in control of yourself like a sick person or drunk person then your imagination can Riot out of control however sueno can also mean dream and if you translate it slightly differently meaning the dream of Reason produces monsters that suggests that reason itself is somehow irrelevant or diseased or doesn't really have a lot to do with human behavior much of the 18th century of course had been concerned with reason the enlightenment was concerned with reason the European thinking of the Enlightenment had all but passed Spain by many Spanish people still lived lives dominated by absurd superstitions such irrational belief can be seen in this unsettling Goya canvas depicting the so-called burial of the Sardine a contemporary ritual that marked the beginning of the forty days of Lent the common people that we see here could easily have been painted by Hieronymus Bosch in the 16th century but this painting was created in the 1810s compared with many of its European neighbors Spain was intellectually backward and the cause was not difficult to identify the Spanish Inquisition was still a powerful force in the land though its worst excesses had died out Heretics and Jews were not now put to a terrible death by the hundred in goya's time the Inquisition was more concerned with censorship a task that its officers pursued with relish Enlightenment was not to their taste and provocative satirical art was unlikely to make a favorable impression clearly the Inquisition did not approve of goya's capricious series and they were severely condemned the Inquisition was officially known as the holy office so it was investigating heresy and is also investigating immorality I think in Protestant countries we've got this image of the Inquisition as being brutal and torturing people at the drop of a hat this actually wasn't quite true the Inquisition was forced to go through its own legal process but it's clear that the Inquisition was a very conservative institution and of course with the changes that were being introduced into Europe the French Revolution pleased for democracy this kind of upset the balance in Spain so the Inquisition was extremely powerful in trying to retain a status quo it would not be the last time that Goya faced the reactionary force of the Spanish Inquisition in 1815 he was brought before them to answer a charge of obscenity the inquisitors were displeased with the artist's two erotic paintings of the reclining Maha Goya was not convicted but it is difficult not to be astonished by the whole affair another feature of Spanish life in the early 19th century was its weak and corrupt government under Charles IV many Spaniards cheered when he was overthrown by his son Ferdinand in March 1808 but their Joy was short-lived shortly afterwards Napoleon sent French troops to occupy Madrid by May the 13th his brother Joseph sat on the throne of Spain and a Grim War of resistance had begun it was a conflict of unusual Bloodshed and cruelty and the greatest Spanish artist of the time sought to capture its horror in 1810 he began to create another major series of prints the disasters of War like the capricious series these were etchings accompanied by an enigmatic title in this case there is no remedy this 1811 print could equally well be a comment on many horrors of the 20th century the war against the French also inspired goya's work in paint [Music] here we see a depiction of the very first Act of Spanish resistance on May the 2nd 1808. a contingent of French troops is attacked by the citizens of Madrid and the result is a swirling mass of violence brutality is shown in equal measure from both the French and Spanish factions the French Commander's response to the events of May the second was Bruton he ordered the execution of dozens of Spanish citizens some of them had been involved in the insurrection others were innocent members of the public who just happened to be there this was the subject matter for one of the greatest works of art ever created the 3rd of May 1808. goya's Masterpiece the 3rd of May is a wonderfully dramatic painting it was painted not at the time of the uprising in 1808 it was painted in 1814 several years later at a time when guy was trying to ingratiate himself with the Spaniards and show that he was a true patriot after all and yet its appearance is so compelling that people often believe it must have been painted on the spot it has that kind of eyewitness look to it even though probably guile was nowhere near the event at the time they're not dying like Heroes sort of singing the national song or anything like that they're throwing their hands up in despair they feel hopeless they feel completely bereft and that sort of deep Humanity I think is the thing that comes out of the picture goya's creation of a kind of depiction of Street conflict of a kind of warfare which takes place in an urban setting I think did have some influence over the large-scale rhetorical Creations for example of De La Croix Liberty the people obviously the the formal influence is very clear when one looks at manet's execution of Maximilian for example that technique of bringing the Executioner and the executed so close together to almost sort of cut out that distance which allows one to feel that all of this is nice and controlled that I think Manet took very much directly from goit this amazing work was gaia's greatest response to the conflict that engulfed his country but it was not the only one in 1812 he completed the Colossus a forbidding image whose terrifying giant can be seen as representing the horror of war itself but the tiny people below are equally dramatic [Music] the freedom of goya's brushwork captures the sense of panic movement and fear their tiny proportion suggests that there is nowhere that anyone can run to when War consumes the land only in 1814 after six years of fighting did King Ferdinand VII return to the Spanish throne but his realm remained divided under French occupation the Inquisition had been abolished Ferdinand restored it and it was now that Goya had to defend himself against its officers the artist also found himself in trouble with the regular law in 1811 at the height of the conflict Goya had sworn allegiance to Joseph Bonaparte with the French defeated he now faced a trial for treason I don't think there's any doubt that Goya did work for Joseph he was also awarded the Royal order of Spain that was colloquially called the aubergine as an order of decoration in some ways guy's position is pretty indefensible but like so many other liberals he in a perverse way welcomed the French because they bought a kind of sense of democracy they also bought an end to many of the Spanish institutions like the Inquisition one of the ways of countering this charge was to show that he was himself a patriot and this is why he petitioned the king for permission to paint the two famous paintings the second and third of May which were commemorating the bloody events that had caught the French had perpetrated when they first took over so this was to demonstrate the degree of his commitment and the pain that he had felt about the invasion perhaps another point to bear in mind is that the series The disasters of War which he made attached during the occupation from about 1810 onwards were never published in his lifetime so these were private Works nobody actually knew they were there clearly he didn't want the French to see them when he was there probably for that reason nobody would have thought up to 1814 that he had expressed any sentiments on behalf of the Spanish insurgents from 1815 onwards Goya began to play less of a role in public life it was an understandable decision he was now a widower approaching his 70s in a deeply divided country increasingly he passed his days in his country house outside Madrid working on his third major series of prints depicting the Follies of man Goya was now entering the last stage of his life and death seemed imminent in 1819 when he was again struck down with illness but thanks to his doctor Eugene Arrieta the 73 year old artist pulled through typically Goya turned the experience into art this 1820 portrait shows arietta attending to his stricken patient as death-like masks are revealed through a background of Darkness what you see there is this very solid figure of the doctor tending with great firmness Goya who at the same time seems to be almost slipping away there's a kind of slight tilt to his head and the left side of his head and the right as we look at it almost seems to be Fading Into the distance as if the doctor is actually holding him back from that strange darkness in the background where those figures are kind of half emerging so it's like the doctor holding him on the threshold of life and death that's portraiture is drama of conveying almost a narrative it must be very very few life-size paintings of the Artist as sick the painting himself of course has some very strange features because apart from the fact that the artist appears to be in the arms of his doctor there are heads that seem to swim out of the Merc of the background and we don't know really what these heads signify who they are are they real people are they not real people are they monster figures are they portraits of friends who've come to see the artist on his sick bed Goya had just moved into his Country House known as The House of the deaf man it is in probably one of the upstairs rooms of the house which Goya later painted that this strange scene takes place over the following three years he painted the interior walls of the deaf man's house he allowed his imagination to run wild the result was the final great achievement of a remarkable career the black paintings these 14 Works were like nothing ever seen before they were turned the black paintings not for their dark coloring but for the dark nature of the subject matter here we see two old people eating a painting whose Furious impasto brushwork informs the image with dynamism and immediacy this is an entirely imaginative work a dark image whose approach can also be seen in what is for many the blackest of all the black paintings this is the insane God Saturn eating his child in case it grows up to usurp him Goya by this stage is elderly and he starts to focus I think on death and the passage of time as subject matter but of course one of the problems when we're dealing with the paintings of the kintadel sorda is the fact that they've been removed from the walls they've been restored some of them have been cut down there's the added problem too that the titles that we've got for them aren't goyers he never gave them titles so these titles have been imposed on them by later commentators so they are mysterious paintings we're not sure if we've even sorted them out today but what is clear is that these are examinations if you like of the absurdity of human nature of the brutality of human nature he's going over the themes of his life he's going over his interest in witchcraft the bizarre the extraordinary The Unexplained technically they have this extraordinary freedom and almost to the point of distortion they're almost expressionist in the way that the the faces seem to turn into all kinds of strange shapes in these pictures he is exploring that Dark World the world of the unconscious the worlds of the Hidden desires it is unfortunate that the Aging Goya was denied the chance to retire in the house of the deaf man in 1823 after a brief period of liberal reform the persecution of Spanish liberals and intellectuals resumed with vigor by the end of 1824 Goya had moved to Bordeaux it is little short of astonishing that an exiled 79 year old artist now turned his hand to a completely new printing technique lithography in 1827 while still in Bordeaux Goya painted this engaging canvas the milk made of Bordeaux the final achievement of his long career what's remarkable about this very late portrait is that it does bear the Hallmarks of that kind of empathy that naturalism in technical terms I mean you can still see how well he's using short brush stroke in pesto how he designs the two-way curve of the shawl to create a kind of Rhythm this is an extraordinary achievement for such a late work it's very difficult to equate the artist who painted the black paintings with the freshness and vibrancy of the milkmaid of Bordeaux it doesn't seem the work of an elderly artist at all it seems you know very optimistic and highly colored Goya died in Bordeaux on April the 15th 1828. [Music] he was 82 years old and had been deaf for the last 35 years of his life one of the unifying factors between goya's time and our own is how many people don't like goya's art there are beautiful colors there there is beauty there but it's a very different kind of beauty and it's also somebody who is absolutely determined to show things as they are perhaps that's what attracts modern artists to him this feeling that we do live in a very threatening world and Gloria was perhaps one of the few 18th 19th century artists to recognize this and to portray it in a particular way he's an artist of Brilliance and versatility across media across genres across types and moods of painting but he's also an artist of immense imaginative scope of immense technical Mastery and someone whose ability to create Enigma to create mystery and to use imaginative powers and Technical Powers together I think is an inspiration to many many artists after him he's been a profound influence upon the entire modern tradition of painting from Manet through to Picasso and Beyond foreign [Music]

Channel: Perspective

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Keywords: 18th century art, Art analysis, Art interpretation, Art styles, Art transformation, Dark aesthetic, Dark paintings, European artist, Goya documentary, Goya exhibition, Impression of art, Pictorial representation, Pioneering artist, Psychological depth in art., Romantic period, Satirical art, Spanish creativity, Spanish history, Spanish legacy, Spanish master

Id: RIJZI1IvDRE

Length: 48min 42sec (2922 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 20 2023