Francisco de Goya - part 8

Francisco de Goya was a Spanish artist widely considered one of the most important painters of the Romantic period. The artist took on a wide array of subject matter, including self-portraiture, fantasy scenes, landscapes, and still lifes. “Painting, like poetry, selects in the universe whatever she deems most appropriate to her ends,” he once explained. Born Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes in the town of Fuendetodos, Spain on March 30, 1746, he began studying art under the painter Jose Luzán at the age of 14. During the 1770s, Goya produced works such as The Parasol (1777), which meld the unlikely pairing of cheery Rococo aesthetics with the moody works of Diego Velázquez. 

The artist became the court painter of Charles III of Spain in 1786, and continued painting for the Spanish court until Napoleons invasion of Spain in 1808. During the Napoleonic wars, Goya’s palette significantly darkened as he produced some of his most famous works. Among these paintings are the The Second of May 1808 (1814) and The Third of May 1808 (1814), which show the terrors of war. Three years before he left his native country, Goya produced 14 paintings directly onto the plaster walls of his farmhouse. These works, collectively known as The Black Paintings (1821), depicted terrifying supernatural themes and heinous violence. 

Living in exile in Bordeaux, France, the artist died on April 16, 1828. His works went on to have a profound influence on both Édouard Manet and Pablo Picasso. Today, Goya’s works are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Prado Museum in Madrid, and the Louvre Museum in Paris, among others.

This is part 8 of a 10-part series on the works of Francisco de Goya.

1810-12 The Disasters of War continued from part 7:

Plate 56. To the Cemetery
etching, lavis and drypoint on ivory wove paper 15.4 x 20.6 cm (plate)

Plate 57. The Healthy and the Sick
etching, burnished aquatint and burin on ivory wove paper
15.5 x 20.5 cm (plate)

Plate 58. It’s no use crying out
etching, burnished aquatint and burin on ivory wove paper
15.8 x 21 cm (plate)

Plate 59. What is the Use of a Cup?
 etching, burnished aquatint and lavis on ivory wove paper
15 x 20.5 cm (plate)

Plate 60. There is No One to Help
Them etching, burnished aquatint and burin on ivory wove paper 15.2 x 20.5 cm (plate)

Plate 61. Perhaps they are of another breed
etching, lavis, drypoint, burin and burnishing on ivory wove paper 15.4 x 20.5 cm (plate)

Plate 62. The Beds of Death
etching, lavis, drypoint, burin and burnishing on ivory wove paper 17.5 x 22 cm (plate)

Plate 63. Harvest of the dead
etching and burnished aquatint on ivory wove paper
 15.2 x 20.5 cm (plate)

Plate 64. Cartloads to the cemetery
etching, aquatint and drypoint in warm black on off-white wove paper 15.3 x 20.5 cm (plate)

Plate 65. What is this Hubbub?
etching, burnished aquatint and/or lavis, burin and burnishing on ivory wove paper 17.5 x 22 cm (plate)

Plate 66. Strange Devotion!etching and burnished aquatint or lavis on ivory wove paper 17.5 x 22 cm (plate)

Plate 67. This is Not Less so
etching with aquatint and drypoint in warm black on off-white wove paper 17 x 21.5 cm (plate)

Plate 68. What madness!
etching, lavis and burin on ivory wove paper 16 x 22 cm (plate)

Plate 69. Nothing. The Event Will Tell
etching, burnished aquatint, lavis, drypoint, and burin on ivory wove paper 15.3 x 20 cm (plate)

Plate 70. They Do Not Know the Way
etching, drypoint, burin and burnishing on ivory wove paper
17.5 x 22 cm (plate)

Plate 71. Against the Common Good
etching and burnishing on ivory wove paper 17.3 x 22 cm (plate)

Plate 72. The Consequences
etching on ivory wove pape 17.5 x 21.5 cm (plate)

Plate 73. Feline pantomime
etching, burin, and burnishing on ivory wove paper
 17.5 x 21.6 cm (plate)

Plate 74. That is the worst of it!
etching and burnishing on ivory wove pape 17.5 x 21.5 cm (plate)

Plate 75. Charlatan’s show
etching, aquatint or lavis, burin and burnishing on ivory wove paper 17 x 22 cm (plate)

Plate 76. The Carnivorous Vulture
etching, drypoint, burin and burnishing on ivory wove paper
17.5 x 21.5 cm (plate)

Plate 77. May the cord break
etching, burnished aquatint or lavis, and drypoint on ivory wove paper 17.3 x 21.8 cm (plate)

Plate 78. He defends himself well
etching, drypoint, burin and burnishing on ivory wove paper
17.5 x 22 cm (plate)

Plate 79. Truth has died
etching and burnishing on ivory wove paper 17 x 21,5 cm (plate)

Plate 80. Will She Rise Again?
etching and burnishing on ivory wove paper 17 x 22 cm (plate)
----------------------------------------------------

c1812-20 Pygmalion and Galatea
sepia wash 20.5 x 14.1 cm
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

c1812-20 The Eagle Hunter
brush and brown ink with brown wash, on laid paper 20 x 14 cm
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

c1812-23 The Porter
scraper, brush and sepia ink wash, traced with black chalk, on white laid paper 20.3 x 14.3 cm
Louvre, Paris

c1812 The Duke of Wellington
(Workshop of Goya)
oil on canvas 105.5 x 83.7 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1814 General José de Palafox on Horseback
oil on canvas 248 x 224 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

1814 The 2nd of May 1808 in Madrid or
“The Fight against the Mamelukes”
oil on canvas 268.5 x 347.5 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

1814 The 3rd of May 1808 in Madrid or
“The Executions”
oil on canvas 268 x 347 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

c1814-15 Portrait of Ferdinand VII
oil on canvas 84 x 63.5 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

1814-16 Leocadia Zorrilla (?)
oil on canvas 82.5 x 58.2 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

1814-16 The Art of Bullfighting published 1816

From 1785 to 1814, the laws regulating bullfighting in Spain were changed four times by succeeding governments. These regulations varied wildly depending on the government’s political bent, ranging from outright prohibition to free admission for all. Due to its politicisation, bullfighting became a useful metaphor for societal conflict, which Francisco de Goya employed to obliquely comment on the Spanish body politic. For instance, Goya often pictured the spectators as compositionally divided—either huddled at the right of the print or crowded to the left as in this work—recalling stark divisions in Spanish society.

Plate 1. The Way in Which the Ancient Spaniards Hunted Bulls on Horseback in the Open Country
 etching, burnished aquatint, and drypoint on ivory laid paper
25 x 35.2 cm (plate)

Plate 2. Another way of hunting on foot
etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint and burin on ivory laid paper 24.3 x 35.2 cm (plate)

Plate 3. The Moors had settled in Spain, giving up the superstitions of the Koran, adopted this art of hunting, and spear a bull in the open
etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint and burin on ivory laid paper 24.5 x 35.2 cm (plate)

Plate 4. They Play Another with the Cape in an Enclosure
etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint and burin on ivory laid paper 24.7 x 35.5 cm (plate)

Plate 5. The Spirited Moor Gazul is the First to Spear Bulls According to Rules
etching, burnished aquatint and drypoint on ivory laid paper
24.9 x 35.5 cm (plate)

Plate 6. The Moors make a different play in the ring calling the bull with their burnous
etching, burnished aquatint and drypoint on ivory laid paper
24.5 x 35.2 cm (plate)

Plate 7. Origin of the harpoons or banderillas
etching, burnished aquatint and burin on ivory laid paper
24.5 x 35.2 cm (plate)

Plate 8. A Moor Caught by the Bull in the Ring
etching, burnished aquatint and drypoint on ivory laid paper
24.4 x 35.3 cm (plate)

Plate 9. A Spanish knight kills the bull after having lost his horse
 etching, burnished aquatint and burin on ivory laid paper
24.7 x 35.3 cm (plate)

Plate 10. Charles V spearing a bull in the ring at Valladolid
etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint and burin on ivory laid paper 25 x 35.2 cm (plate)

Plate 11. The Cid Campeador spearing another bull
etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint and burin on ivory laid paper 25 x 35.2 cm (plate)

Plate 12. The rabble hamstring the bull with lances, sickles, banderillas and other arms
etching, burnished aquatint and drypoint on ivory laid paper
25 x 53.3 cm (plate)

Plate 13. A Spanish mounted knight in the ring breaking short spears without the help of assistants
etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint and burin on ivory laid paper 24.7 x 35.7 cm (plate)

Plate 14. The Very Skilful Student of Falces, Wrapped in his Cape, Tricks the Bull with the Play of his Body
etching, aquatint, drypoint and burin on ivory laid paper
24.8 x 35.5 cm (plate)

Plate 15. The Famous Martincho Places the Banderillas, Playing the Bull with the Movement of his Body
 etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint and burin on ivory laid paper 24.8 x 35.4 cm (plate)

Plate 16. The Same Man Throws a Bull in the Ring at Madrid
etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint and burin on ivory laid paper 24.5 x 35.3 cm (plate)

Plate 17. The Moors use donkeys as a barrier to defend themselves against the bull whose horns have been tipped with balls
etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint and burin on ivory laid paper 24.5 x 35.2 cm (plate)

Plate 18. The daring of Martincho in the ring at Saragossa
etching, burnished aquatint and drypoint on ivory laid paper
24.9 x 35.5 cm (plate)

Note: The Art of Bullfighting continues in Part 9.