Condesa de Altamira and Her Daughter, Maria Agustina, oil on canvas, Francisco Goya, 1787–88
This portrait is one of four that Goya painted of members of Count Altamira's family. Shortly after this portrait was completed Francisco Goya became the court painter for King Charles IV of Spain. Becoming a court painter was highly important to advance an artist's career and to keep them monetarily stable. Goya's treatment of fabric in this oil painting is brilliantly detailed and carefully rendered. He truly shows his skill as a painter. Many critics also believe that the faces of the family show his inner thoughts about the human psyche.
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters: Plate 43 of The Caprices (Los Caprichos), Etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin, Francisco Goya y Lucientes, 1799
This is one of my favorite Goya etchings, and probably the most well known; his work is very profound and thought provoking which makes it an interesting study. This piece was made for the series Los Caprichos, it is print number 43 out of 80. 43 shows the personification of reason. Goya envisioned himself in a dream state surrounded by his drawing tools, but he intended to focus this work on the darkness and deceptions of sleep. This nightmare depiction showed how he viewed the Spanish (his own) society at this time, and the modern day demons he felt his community was facing, when reason was no longer present in his world. In this dream state these beasts are let loose. He felt as if he was surrounded by very corrupt society of people in Madrid. These prints in Los Caprichos began to really display the artist's sense of isolation from an illness he suffered that had made him completely deaf. In this piece you can see his angst and torment with his heavy head buried in his arms. He hoped that the Spaniards would reawaken reason.
With the confines of being a court painter and knowing that Goya struggled with many things that create a living nightmare: suffering, war, a fracturing society, hunger, the human mind. Do you think it effected his slow isolation?
I'm interested in your views. Please post!!
Some of Goya's amazing prints are right here in Dallas at The Meadows Museum at SMU.
I'm interested in your views. Please post!!
Some of Goya's amazing prints are right here in Dallas at The Meadows Museum at SMU.
1 comments:
Hi, this is Joy from Ms Miller's Art I Class (The one whose water-color is too opaque (: )
I read your post, and, having no background in art and not having taken any art history courses, I really don't know how to answer the question that you posed. Though, from what I have inferred, I think that anyone who has strong emotions/thoughts/ideas and cannot express them to a certain extent will eventually either go mad or find another medium. So, definitely.
I also have some questions, which may just be pilpul, but from the way you worded some of the description, it sent me a-wondering.
"Many critics also believe that the faces of the family show his inner thoughts about the human psyche."
This sentence strikes me as odd. Perhaps because this is /your/ blog. You established this (apparently popular) opinion with nothing about your feelings on the matter. What do you think? Have you found anything to support or reject this theory? It seems to me as if the woman is looking at something far away (something hopeful?) but is trapped behind her well-practiced austere persona. The child, who has not had such experience, appears truly sad, and yet there is a glimmer of hope there, too. (The Korean word 'han' comes to mind, for which there is no literal English translation. Sigh. Trust us to have no succint word for sadness so deep that no tears will come, and yet still hope.)
However, this could all just be circumstantial. It's food for thought.
This speculation then drew me to the previous sentence:
"Goya's treatment fabric in this oil painting is brilliantly detailed and carefully rendered. He truly shows his skill as a painter."
Is this what you think? Please understand, I am not trying to be rude or provocative, I'm simply trying to understand your views they seem valuble, especially to such a thing as art, where everyone's view counts to some degree.
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