Francisco de Goya | In Darker World
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828) left a lasting mark on the Spanish Art with his contributions to both political and artistic movements. Notably, during his time as a court artist, he crafted exceptional tapestries in the Spanish Rococo style. As the French took over Spain, he turned to painting portraits, showcasing his versatility and range. In his later years, after expulsion of the French, he produced haunting and moving paintings that captured the emotional essence of Romanticism.
- Earlier life of Goya
- La Quinta del Sordo (House of the Deaf Man)
- Black Paintings
- The Dog
- Artworks of Goya
Original Title: Autorretrato en el estudio
Date: c.1790 — c.1795
Style: Romanticism
Genre: self-portrait
Media: oil, canvas
Location: Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, Spain
Dimensions: 42 x 28 cm
Earlier life of Goya
Born in Fuendetodos, he later moved with his parents to Zaragoza. At the age of fourteen, he began studying under the painter José Luzán Martínez (1710–1785). Goya was born in 1746, during the rule of Ferdinand VI in Spain. Later, Charles III (r. 1759–88) became the Bourbon king and ruled the country as an enlightened monarch who was sympathetic to change. He employed ministers who supported radical economic, industrial, and agricultural reform.
Goya reached the height of his artistic skills during the Age of Enlightenment. In Madrid, the Bayeu brothers, Francisco (1734–1795) and Ramón Bayeu y Subías (1744–1793), established their studio in 1763. Goya later joined them and eventually married their sister, Josefa.
In 1770, he attempted to participate in drawing competitions at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes in San Fernando but failed twice. Later that year, he decided to travel to Italy where he spent more than a year from 1770 to 1771. After returning to Spain, he settled in Madrid in 1775 and collaborated with the prominent Neoclassical painter Anton Raphael Mengs. His rejection of Neoclassicism was not an impulsive decision, but rather a result of considerable thought about the Enlightenment and the Neoclassical focus on rationality and order.
He was appointed as the court painter to King Charles III in 1786, and later in 1799, he was named as the First Painter to Charles IV. During the reign of Charles IV, the political and social corruption in Spain escalated, and the country was invaded by Napoleon. Despite the chaos, Goya still managed to thrive as an artist and became highly sought-after in Spain, eventually being appointed as the director of the Academy in 1795. However, due to his declining health, he resigned from the position two years later. In 1799, he was then appointed as the first court painter by the new King.
La Quinta del Sordo (House of the Deaf Man)
Commissions, the Royal Academy exhibition, and illness had distracted Goya from a house he had purchased in 1819. The house, located across the Manzanares River from the royal palace, had been built two decades earlier. In September 1823, Goya transferred the property to his grandson, Mariano.
The house, known as “la Quinta del Sordo”, was demolished in 1909, leaving artifacts of the paintings that Goya created on the interior plaster walls, which were later transferred to canvas in the 1870s.
Black Paintings
After losing his hearing, he began to express himself freely, giving voice to the observations of his keen eye, critical mind, and his newly developed imagination. Furthermore, one of his most known paintings, “Third of May” was painted after he had already lost his hearing completely.
The Black Paintings (Pinturas Negras), named so for their dark tones and overwhelming use of black, were originally intended to adorn the walls of Quinta del Sordo. Goya’s constant fear of a relapse made him impatient, which is also evident in his technique. This state of mind is particularly forceful in his later works, such as the frescoes he created on the walls of Quinta del Sordo. Since Goya created the Black Paintings exclusively for his own use and on his terms, they offer a unique insight into the artist’s worldview, which is both terrifying and unsettling.
Goya left no titles for his frescos and paintings as with his etchings. These were assigned after his death in an inventory by the painter Antonio Brugada, which probably dates to the 1830s.
In the house, scenes of a pilgrimage and a witches’ Sabbath dominated the ground floor, with the figures of old men, a young woman, a giant (commonly identified as Saturn) devouring a human, and Judith on either side of its two doorways. Windows dividing the long walls on the upper floor made four large scenes necessary, hence: two fantastic images of figures in flight, and men dueling with cudgels.
The smaller scenes around the doorways included two women and a man, men reading, and a small dog, his body mired in paint that threatens to drown him as he looks upwards, seeking help from a master no longer visible.
Even though Goya is one of the most known and influential artists in the world, and has created many mentionable works of art that shouldn’t be overlooked. Nevertheless, today we will be talking about, personally, his most haunting and moving artwork: The Dog.
The Dog
The Dog by Francisco Goya is one of the Black Paintings, painted directly onto his house walls between 1819 and 1823. This artwork is considered one of the world’s first Symbolist paintings, decorated one of the walls alongside the door of the upper floor.
The dog´s head appears behind a large area of color, which Goya didn´t define. He is in front of an empty, and naked space and looks forward toward something or someone outside the composition. This piece is related to the idea of the inevitability of death, which is a subject very common in Goya’s art. Beyond no doubt, this Goya’s work is considered the most enigmatic of the Black Paintings. Despite the multiple explanations offered by art historians, these works continue to be mysterious and enigmatic.
Kloss, W. (2010) “The World’s Greatest Paintings” The Great Courses. pp 51–52
Tomlinson, J. (2020) “Goya: A Portrait of the Artist” In. Princeton University Press. pp 741–743
Voorhies, J. (2000) “Francisco de Goya and the Spanish Enlightenment” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/goya/hd_goya.htm
“Black Paintings” in the Quinta del Sordo (1820–1823)” — Web Gallery of Art. (n.d.). https://www.wga.hu/html_m/g/goya/9/index.html
“The Dog (1820–1823) by Francisco Goya” — Artchive. (2024). www.artchive.com/artwork/the-dog-francisco-goya-1820-1823/
Artworks of Goya
