Francisco de Goya - Spanish genius painter Modern times, master of the genres of portraiture and critical realism, at the final stage of his creative journey, he 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 do special success in mastering 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 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 wrote famous portrait his wife Josefa.
Portraits early period The master's works are photographically accurate, and his attention to detail is amazing. 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 life episodes 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 ever-increasing fame young artist, but also career growth 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 heel 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 became 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 even prohibited 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 lost their human appearance due to large quantity crimes 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 strongmen 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 they say art critics, 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 later 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 works is very dark and gloomy, the predominant colors are black, gray and various shades 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.
And “Two Old Men Eating Soup” is very similar in atmosphere and expression to “The Potato Eaters” by Van Gogh.
Very good quotes You picked some amazing murals. I really like them.
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.
:
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 Goya is pure expressionism. He was very ahead of his time.
:
November 24, 2011 at 18:07
:
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 work“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 yourself that everything has a place in art. And nothing can be denied.
I haven’t understood any better, but I still sometimes wonder what’s going on in conceptual (intellectual) art. Read the statements of Oleg Kulik, they deserve 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. All these qualities are also present in the average person, but in modern world it is indecent to display them. The worst thing in the world of the average person is not 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?
:
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?
:
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.
:
November 25, 2011 at 18:13
Now it’s clear. Sometimes it seems to me that you’re against selling at all.
:
November 26, 2011 at 12:57 pm
Of course not! I'm all for it. And I’m very glad when artists manage to live from their art. This is very rare.
In this matter, it is important to understand what is the goal and what is the means.))
:
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 accurate. What will your neighbors, colleagues, or just passers-by say about you? I’m disgusted by all this (however, alas, I have it too).
:
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.))
Are you used to receiving aesthetic pleasure and pleasure from works of art? But the world of painting can not only surprise you, but also scare you. Over the centuries, great artists have created outstanding paintings that will make viewers' hair stand on end.
Do you feel uneasy when you see Scream? Or is there another drawn “horror story” that is imprinted in your memory? Artifex I have selected 10 paintings for you that you definitely shouldn’t look at before going to bed.
10. Caravaggio, “Judith and Holofernes”, 1599
Opens top realistic canvas Italian master based on the Old Testament "Book of Judith". The legend of a girl who, for the sake of her people, went into the enemy’s camp, won the trust of the commander Holofernes and cut off his head at night, has long worried artists throughout Europe. Usually she was depicted with a severed head in her hand in the middle of an enemy camp, but Caravaggio decided to reflect the very moment of the murder. Thanks to this decision, the artist conveyed not only the atmosphere of bloodshed, but also the emotions of the killer and the victim.
9. Bouguereau, Dante and Virgil in Hell, 1850
French artist XIX century Adolphe William Bouguereau was very fond of Dante's poem " Divine Comedy" The artist depicted a scene from the XXX song of the part of the poem called “Hell”. On the eighth circle of the underworld, the main characters watch as two damned souls torment a deceiver. Bouguereau worked for a long time on color palette paintings and studied the aesthetic boundaries of man. The painting, according to the artist’s plan, was supposed to convey the fear and horror of what was happening in underground world. At the Salon of 1850, this work caused disgust among the public.
The famous triptych still holds many mysteries for researchers. None of the interpretations of the work that exist today are considered exhaustive. The triptych showed the fullness of the artist’s imagination and skill. It is dedicated to the sin of sensuality, and all three parts reflect main idea Bosch in the smallest detail. The outer doors of the triptych depict a serene picture of the universe, but when you open them, you plunge into an atmosphere of insane chaos.
7. Munch, “The Death of Marat”, 1907
Do not confuse this painting with the majestic work of the same name, which has become a kind of symbol French Revolution. Edvard Munch wrote his canvas 114 years after David, and focused not on the figure of the revolutionary publicist, but on the moment of his murder. In his inimitable style, the author of The Scream depicts a naked Charlotte Corday moments after she brutally stabbed Marat to death. Forceful strokes and plenty of blood complement the frightening effect of the picture.
6. Blake "The Great Red Dragon and the Sea Monster", 1806-1809
Deservedly considered one of the most mysterious English artists and engravers. This painter was tormented by ghosts and visions since childhood, and later he depicted them in his works. Series Blake paintings dedicated to the Red Dragon from the Revelation of John the Theologian. In this picture, the dragon personifies Satan, towering over another demon - a sea monster. The epic nature and detailed elaboration of the monsters not only frightens, but also causes admiration.
5. Bacon, “Study of the Portrait of Innocent X Velazquez”, 1953
The work is a reimagining of "Portrait of Pope Innocent X". The classic of English expressionism painted about 40 similar paintings, included in the “Screaming Dads” series. The artist changed the color of dad's clothes from red to purple and painted the entire canvas in dark colors. Thanks to the master’s technique, the work does not evoke associations with the original portrait of Velazquez, but it produces a frightening and depressing impression.
4. Dali, “The Face of War”, 1940
This painting by the famous Spanish artist can cause a panic attack in the viewer. Salvador Dali plays not only with symbols, but also with conveying mood. The design of a head shrouded in snakes, ever-shrinking skulls in the eye sockets of what was once a man, symbolizes the endless cycle of death. In the lower right corner the artist “left” his handprint. And the desert and yellow tones typical of Dali’s work give this picture a touch of paranoid madness.
3. Goya, “Saturn Devouring His Son,” 1819-1823
Some engravings can scare even an adult. Among them is an interpretation of the plot from ancient Greek mythology, where the titan Kronos devours his children in fear of being overthrown by one of them, seems to be the creepiest. Goya depicted madness on the face of the already ugly monster, which further thickens the atmosphere of horror of what is happening. This work “decorated” the wall in his “House of the Deaf,” but it is unlikely that anyone else would want to pass by such a painting in their home at night.
2. Curry, Gallowgate Lard, 1995
Artist Ken Curry was born in England in 1960. His dark canvases reflect the processes taking place in the modern world. Curry's paintings affect the viewer's psyche, creating a feeling of hopelessness and fear, but at the same time pushing him to think. The artist's eerie self-portrait is the fruit of his reflection on metaphysical questions related to decomposition modern society and human consciousness.
1. Rapp, “The Loss of Mind to Matter,” 1973
Even taking a quick glance at a painting by the Austrian artist Otto Rapp, you want to immediately look away. A decomposing human head on a birdcage, an untouched tongue inside it - such a “still life” strains not only the psyche of the audience, but also causes purely physiological discomfort. One can guess what meaning the artist put into the work, but it is quite obvious - this is a truly frightening picture! And if someone dreams of a similar plot at night, then they need to “thank” Rapp’s masterful technique for the nightmare.
Among the noble works of art that delight the eye and only evoke positive emotions, there are paintings that are, to put it mildly, strange and shocking. We present to your attention 20 paintings by world-famous artists that will make you feel horrified...
"Failure of Mind to Matter"
Painting painted in 1973 Austrian artist Otto Rapp. He depicted a decomposing human head, placed on a birdcage containing a piece of flesh.
"The Hanging Live Negro"
This grisly creation by William Blake depicts a black slave who was hanged from the gallows with a hook threaded through his ribs. The work is based on the story of the Dutch soldier Steadman, an eyewitness to such a brutal massacre.
"Dante and Virgil in Hell"
The painting by Adolphe William Bouguereau was inspired by a short scene of a battle between two damned souls from Dante's Inferno.
"Hell"
Painting "Hell" German artist Hans Memling, written in 1485, is one of the most terrible artistic creations of its time. She was supposed to push people towards virtue. Memling enhanced the horrific effect of the scene by adding the caption: "There is no redemption in hell."
"The Great Red Dragon and the Sea Monster"
Famous English poet and artist of the 13th century William Blake in a moment of inspiration he created a series watercolor paintings depicting the great red dragon from the Book of Revelation. The Red Dragon was the embodiment of the devil.
"Spirit of Water"
The artist Alfred Kubin is considered largest representative symbolism and expressionism and is known for his dark symbolic fantasies. “The Spirit of Water” is one such work that depicts man’s powerlessness in the face of the sea.
"Necronom IV"
This is a terrible creation famous artist Hans Rudolf Giger was inspired by the film Alien. Giger suffered from nightmares and all of his paintings were inspired by these visions.
"The Flaying of Marcia"
Created by an artist of the times Italian Renaissance Titian's painting "The Flaying of Marsyas" is currently in National Museum in Kromeriz in the Czech Republic. artwork depicts a scene from Greek mythology where the satyr Marsyas is flayed for daring to challenge the god Apollo.
"The Temptation of Saint Anthony"
Matthias Grunewald depicted religious subjects of the Middle Ages, although he himself lived during the Renaissance. St. Anthony was said to have faced tests of his faith while praying in the desert. According to legend, he was killed by demons in a cave, then he resurrected and destroyed them. This painting depicts Saint Anthony being attacked by demons.
"Severed Heads"
The most famous work Theodore Gericault is The Raft of Medusa, a huge painting painted in a romantic style. Géricault tried to break the boundaries of classicism by moving to romanticism. These pictures were initial stage his creativity. For his works, he used real limbs and heads, which he found in morgues and laboratories.
"Scream"
This famous painting Norwegian expressionist Edvard Munch was inspired by a serene evening walk during which the artist witnessed the blood-red setting sun.
"The Death of Marat"
Jean-Paul Marat was one of the leaders of the French Revolution. Suffering from a skin disease, he spent most of his time in the bathroom, where he worked on his notes. There he was killed by Charlotte Corday. Marat's death has been depicted several times, but it is Edvard Munch's work that is particularly brutal.
"Still life of masks"
Emil Nolde was one of the early Expressionist artists, although his fame was eclipsed by others such as Munch. Nolde painted this painting after studying masks in the Berlin Museum. Throughout his life he has been fascinated by other cultures, and this work is no exception.
"Gallowgate Lard"
This painting is nothing more than a self-portrait of Scottish author Ken Curry, who specializes in dark, social-realistic paintings. Curry's favorite theme is dim city life Scottish working class.
"Saturn Devouring His Son"
One of the most famous and sinister works of the Spanish artist Francisco Goya was painted on the wall of his house in 1820 - 1823. The plot is based on Greek myth about the Titan Chronos (in Rome - Saturn), who feared that he would be overthrown by one of his children and ate them immediately after birth.
"Judith Killing Holofernes"
The execution of Holofernes was depicted by such great artists as Donatello, Sandro Botticelli, Giorgione, Gentileschi, Lucas Cranach the Elder and many others. On painting by Caravaggio, written in 1599, depicts the most dramatic moment of this story - the beheading.
"Nightmare"
The painting by Swiss painter Heinrich Fuseli was first shown at the annual exhibition of the Royal Academy in London in 1782, where it shocked both visitors and critics.
"Massacre of the innocents"
This outstanding work of art by Peter Paul Rubens, consisting of two paintings, was created in 1612 and is believed to have been influenced by the works of the famous Italian artist Caravaggio.
"Study of the Portrait of Innocent X Velazquez"
This terrifying image of one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Francis Bacon, is based on a paraphrase famous portrait Pope Innocent X, painted by Diego Velazquez. Spattered with blood, his face painfully contorted, the Pope is depicted seated in a metal tubular structure that, upon closer inspection, appears to be a throne.
"Garden earthly pleasures»
This is Hieronymus Bosch's most famous and frightening triptych. To date, there are many interpretations of the painting, but none of them have been conclusively confirmed. Perhaps Bosch's work personifies the Garden of Eden, the Garden of earthly pleasures and the Punishments that will have to be suffered for mortal sins committed during life.
St. Petersburg State University Culture and Arts
Faculty of World Culture
Department of Museology and cultural heritage
Group 24/3-402
Abstract on the topic: “Dark Pictures” by Francisco Goya
Completed by: Lobyzaeva A.S.
Checked by: Candidate of Philosophical Sciences,
Associate Professor Mukhin A.S.
Saint Petersburg
Introduction
Part 1. Biography
Part 2. “Dark Pictures”
Conclusion
Introduction
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes is the name of a person who has long attracted and still attracts the attention of writers, directors, art critics, and artists. Goya - painter difficult fate and original talent - is studied and comprehended by many to this day, fiction books and films are dedicated to him, scientific research, however, Goya’s extraordinary, “magical” worldview, reflected in his work, still remains an unsolved mystery. And it will remain so forever, because neither thousands of words in books, nor thousands of frames in films will give the opportunity to absolutely know creative world artist, multifaceted and unique.
One of the most mysterious aspects of this world is the “Dark Paintings” (sometimes the name of the series is literally translated as “Black Paintings”), which were painted by Goya in 1820-1823. This unusual paintings- they were frescoes on the walls of Goya’s house, in which he lived for several years. At that time, Goya suffered a serious illness and suffered from deafness, which prevented the artist from living fully - and therefore his house was called “Quinto del Sordo”, which is translated from Spanish as “House of the Deaf”. This series of paintings, transferred to canvas after Goya’s death, was unknown to his contemporaries, with the exception of a few people, and became world famous many years later as one of the most unusual and mysterious series of paintings in Spanish art.
“Gloomy pictures” and dedicated this work, which also partially covers the biography of the artist - after all creative path always closely connected with the path of life.
Part 1. Biography
On March 1746, in the Aragonese province, in the small village of Fuendetodos, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was born. Francisco became youngest son in the family of a master gilder, quite famous and revered, and the daughter of an impoverished hidalgo. The family, therefore, had an average income, but the sons did not receive very high quality school education. One way or another, all three sons then found a worthy occupation for themselves - the eldest became a priest, the middle one followed in his father’s footsteps, and the youngest became an artist who would become famous throughout the world. Francisco, at the age of thirteen, was sent to study in the workshop of the artist José Luis San y Martinez when the family moved to Zaragoza. During his three-year study, young Goya mainly copied engravings and casts, but, as he later himself admitted, he did not receive full pleasure and results from such a process - he wanted to create for real, to create something of his own.
So in 1763, Goya moved to Madrid to enter the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. He fails, but still remains in Madrid, getting acquainted with the works of court artists and developing his skills. Then Goya travels through Italy, upon his return from which he receives his first serious large order - the chapter of the Church of Nuestra Señora Del Pilar in 1771 entrusts him with painting the dome of one of the basilica chapels. This work evokes many rave reviews; Goya receives other orders, such as painting the oratory of the Sobradiel Palace.
In 1773, Goya married Joseta Bayeu, the sister of the influential court painter Francisco Bayeu; this marriage also played a role in establishing Goya in the artistic environment of that time. They lived together with Joseta until her death in 182, they had several children, but only one son, Javier, lived to adulthood. Goya finally settled in Madrid and began working in the workshop of his newly-made relative Francisco Bayeu, a professor at the Royal Academy Fine Arts San Fernando.
Goya's first court order was cardboard for tapestries for the dining room of the future King Charles IV in the Escorial Palace. Later, Goya received other orders for sketches of tapestries for the royal family. He gets closer and closer to the royal court, and soon asks for a position as a court painter - but is refused. This was also facilitated by his brother-in-law Bayeu, who did not want to share the place of the first court artist. And yet Goya gains popularity, many courtiers begin to order their portraits from him, and soon Goya gains a reputation as a wonderful portrait painter. Some of his most famous works of this period are the portrait of Count Floridoblanca (1783) and the portrait of the Marquise de Pontes (1786).
In 1789, Charles becomes the new king of Spain. IV<#"justify">- “Two old men eating soup”
The location of the paintings in the house is known from photographs taken by photographer Jean Laurent in 1874. Thanks to these photographs, it is known that the paintings were also framed with stucco, like the windows and doors in the house. In addition, you can notice the difference in the condition of the paintings before transferring them to canvas, and see the missing fragments.
There is no factual information about the process of wall painting itself. In this regard, there were even rumors that the paintings were not painted by Goya - there was a theory that they were painted by Javier, his son, after Goya left for Bordeaux. However, art historians reject this theory - the technique in which the frescoes were made and their style confirms the authorship of the artist.
It is unknown what exactly prompted Goya to paint the walls of his house with these particular scenes. But what is known is that the paintings were created in not the most best period artist's life. His physical condition was unstable, and the state of life in Spain in general was unstable. It was going on in the country civil war, which ended in recovery absolute monarchy. Three years of this war coincided with the period of writing “Dark Canvases”. In the paintings it is easy to trace the analogy with the situations in the social, political and religious spheres of the country at that time. Let's analyze some of the works.
“Saturn Devouring His Children” is a truly creepy work, when looking at it, a person awakens not fear, but in any case hostility and anxiety. The ancient deity - Saturn - is depicted against a background of coal-black darkness, his figure is broken and seems to be convulsing, his hands, similar to the tangles of tree branches, hold the body of a child, whose head is bitten off by Saturn. Blood stands out on the canvas in an alarming red color. We can say that Goya wrote this in a depressed state, and perhaps with the thought of the war in Spain - you can compare Saturn with a country that destroys its own children.
In the painting “Judith and Holofernes” the energy of earthly action, captured in its instantaneity, reigns. 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 commander and will now cut her off (here the first visual-semantic correspondence arises between her and Saturn - 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 the knees, hands and head of Saturn.
"Pilgrimage to San Isidro" echoes more early work Goya, written in 1788 - “Folk festivities on the day of St. Isidore.” Both works depict one of the favorite holidays of the people of Madrid. Every year on May 15, they went to the banks of the Manzanares River to have picnics, dance and drink healing water from the spring, which, according to legend, was found by Saint Isidore. And, if in 1788 the painter presented this scene as a colorful and cheerful national holiday, full of carefree fun, then in the later version from “The House of the Deaf” the tones of black dominate and an alarming feeling of impending inevitable disaster reigns. A crowd of people huddled closely together is wandering across the dry, uneven ground. Their faces are distorted with terrible grimaces, expressing fear, pain, horror, malice and bestial anger.
The same motifs appear in The Witches' Sabbath. The compositional center of the picture is also a faceless, ugly crowd, concentrated around the figure of a goat in a monastic robe, listening to every word of the messenger of Satan. People's faces are ugly grimaces that don't even look like people's faces - Goya seemed to want to emphasize how a person can easily lose his human appearance.
In “Duel with Clubs” one can also find a response to the military events taking place near the artist - two people who are so similar to each other are trying to cripple each other with heavy clubs in a brutal blind duel. It is not visible how their feet stand on the ground - they seem to float in space, just like the characters in the paintings “Atropos, or Fates” and “Asmodeus”.
These paintings are full of mysticism, they seem to depict something completely different, Not real world, it is impossible to even say who the characters in the paintings are - people or some kind of fantastic creatures. The plot of the painting “Atropos” is an interpretation of the images of the ancient Greek goddesses of fate - Moir<#"justify">Conclusion
painting mystical goya artist
The canvases in the “House of the Deaf” are an extraordinary phenomenon in spanish painting, attracting the interest of many to this day. On the one hand, painted in the vein of the movement of romanticism that dominated the period of the artist’s life, they, on the other hand, differ from other paintings in their content, drama, emotionality, and technique.
Francisco Goya - truly great spanish artist, and, having studied all of his work, we can speak with confidence about how complete and multifaceted his creative genius was. The contrast of these “Dark Canvases” with his court painting is striking - the same person created realistic portraits, made in light colors, colorful, ceremonial, painted wonderful landscapes and paintings on historical topics, and at the same time created works that immerse the viewer in an amazing, phantasmagoric world, the world of night and dark magic, a world unlike the real one, a world that was created by the artist’s imagination. Sorcerers, witches, animals in human clothes, demonic creatures, decrepit, ugly old men - no one dared to write what Goya wrote. These paintings help to comprehend the mysterious inner world an artist whose path to understanding has been trying to be found for many years.
Tutoring
Need help studying a topic?
Our specialists will advise or provide tutoring services on topics that interest you.
Submit your application indicating the topic right now to find out about the possibility of obtaining a consultation.