Goya biography briefly. Biography of Francisco Goya

GOYA FRANCISCO

(born in 1746 - died in 1828) (born in 1746 - died in 1828)

The work of the great Spanish artist Francisco Goya has attracted attention for more than a century and a half. close attention. The first attempts to decipher the world of this master were made back in the middle XIX century- in 1842, then Théophile Gautier dedicated an article to Francisco Goya. In 1857, Charles Baudelaire wrote about him, and in 1858, a monograph by L. Matheron was published. Since then, the flow of research has continuously increased.

This interest in Goya’s work is explained not only by the outstanding artistic qualities of his works, but also by the fact that he lived in an era of profound socio-historical changes. His art was a vivid manifestation of the crisis situation of the destruction of the old time and the birth of the new.

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was born on March 30, 1746 in the town of Fuendetodos, near Zaragoza (province of Aragon, Spain). His father is a famous master gilder, his mother is the daughter of an impoverished hidalgo. However, despite the talents of his father and noble birth mother, the Goya family only had enough money for the essentials.

They soon moved to Zaragoza, where at Escuelas Peace College young Francisco learned to read and write (later one of the artist’s biographers, trying to decipher his handwriting, noted: “Goya’s letters were put together by a carpenter”). In addition, from the age of 14, the young man took drawing lessons from the artist Jose Lusan.

At the age of seventeen, Goya moved to Madrid to become an artist, and in 1763 and 1766 he participated in the entrance competition to the Academy fine arts San Fernando. However, the examiners failed him both times, and in 1769 he left Spain to study painting in neighboring Italy.

However, according to one of the legends surrounding Goya’s life, the reason why he went to Italy was much more romantic. Francisco fled there with the traveling bullfighters, allegedly after getting into a fight and nearly killing his opponent while defending the honor of a lady. In general, insatiable ambition and stubbornness, combined with a violent temperament, constantly drew young Goya into various stories; he has many love affairs with aristocrats, prostitutes, peasant women and machs - his main muses.

“Makha is the feminine form of “maho” (now this word in our language has been transformed into “macho”). In Spain at that time, mahos were representatives of the urban lower classes, robbers, revelers and drunkards. Maha - lung woman behavior, but not a prostitute in the generally accepted sense. Goya addressed the theme of beauties free from conventions - maha - more than once: “Maha and the Fans”, “Dancing Makha”, “Maha on the Balcony”. In these paintings, he glorified the passion of feelings and frankness of intentions and thoughts, contrasting them with stiffness and cold calculation.

So, heading to Italy, Francisco continues to paint and even receives second prize at the competition of the Academy of Fine Arts in Parma for a painting on an ancient theme, “Hannibal looking from the heights of the Alps on the Italian lands.” As often happens, the name of the winner of the first prize has not remained in history.

After two years of study, Goya returned to Zaragoza in 1771 and began his career as a professional painter, working on church frescoes: he painted the chapel of the Count de Sobradiel, the churches of Remolinos and Aula Bay, and then one of the domes of the city cathedral of Santa Maria del Pil ar.

In 1773, Francisco moved to Madrid and after some time, having received patronage, began working on paintings that served as models for tapestries at the royal tapestry workshop. He received protection through his marriage to Josefina Bayeu, the sister of the owner of the workshop where he works. Gradually, Goya becomes popular and acquires influential patrons.

In 1777 Francisco became seriously ill for the first time. Taking into account hints from his friend Zapater, some biographers suggest that the artist contracted a venereal disease. Modern scientist, Dr. Sergio Rodriguez believes that Goya became a victim of syphilis, which manifested itself years later, undermined the artist’s health and influenced the themes of his work. There is, however, a version that the cause of the disease is poisoning from lead vapor, which is part of the paints that the artist mixed. But one way or another, the illness temporarily recedes, and Goya again plunges into work.

During his years in Madrid, the artist achieved significant success: on May 7, 1780, he was unanimously elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts of San Fernando, and in 1785 he became its vice-director. In 1789, the son of a simple gilder from the village of Fuendetodos received the position of court painter to King Charles IV. The title of court artist brought Goya an annual allowance of 15 thousand reais; he became rich and famous. Now he could allow himself to say: “I no longer wait in waiting rooms; the one who wants to see me comes to me and asks me, as a great favor, to paint a portrait. Now I don’t grab any job.”

Nevertheless, Goya continued his work at the royal tapestry workshop. Members of the aristocracy and royal family, politicians, legislators and high church dignitaries, as well as poets, artists, actors and bullfighters pose for him. As soon as Goya had the opportunity to meet the ladies of the court, he seemed to forget Josefina, who, unlike most wives and girlfriends of artists, was not his muse and model (he painted only one portrait of her).

In the fall of 1792, going on business to the city of Cadiz on the ocean coast, Goya again became seriously ill. For more than two months he was in in serious condition: severe migraines led to loss of orientation in space and falls, he was bothered by constant tinnitus, and at times he stopped seeing. But, most importantly, the artist was paralyzed right hand; periodically feverish twitching and trembling in the muscles began. Sometimes he lost consciousness.

The ability to see the world around him was soon restored, but his hand remained motionless for a long time, and his hearing disappeared forever. From now on, he understood the speech of other people only by the movements of his lips.

Dr. S. Rodriguez believes that all of the listed symptoms (right-sided paralysis, ragged handwriting, weight loss, dizziness, weakness, muscle twitching) indicate the consequences of syphilis, which was undertreated in 1777. The artist’s severe deafness, which developed as a result of damage to the nervous system, also fits into the clinical picture of this dangerous disease. However, there are other versions.

In the spring of 1793, one of Goya’s friends wrote to Madrid: “The noise in the head and deafness have not yet passed, but he looks much better and, moreover, no longer suffers from impaired coordination of movements. He can already go up and down the stairs.” However, another witness to the artist’s illness at the same time reported in a letter: “As I already told you, Goya has lost his mind, which he has not had for a long time.”

A close encounter with the deafness and loneliness in which he was immersed changed Goya's art forever. From now on, his palette was dominated by brown, gray and black tones, interspersed with bright spots of color like flashes of lightning. The technique of painting also changed: the lines became shorter, more nervous - a style that artists who would be called impressionists mastered only at the end of the nineteenth century. The subjects of paintings are increasingly becoming dark, phantasmagoric subjects.

The artist himself wrote in 1794: “In order to convey by the power of imagination the pain of my paralysis and at least partially testify to my illness, I painted a whole series images, where he put together observations that are usually not found in commissioned works, since there it is hardly possible to develop a joke and fantasy.”

Goya began painting for himself, measuring the depth of his imagination, exhibiting a freedom and originality not found in his previous works. His works from this time on were distinguished by new depth and critical vision. According to the famous European researcher Anton Neumar, the reason for such filling with “fantastic images of horrors was undoubtedly the inconsolable loneliness of a deaf man, in whose ears there was a noise raging, and his heart was full of bitterness, thirst and reproaches to God and the whole world.”

If Goya's deafness had, rather, positive influence on his work, liberating the artist, the same cannot be said about his administrative career. In 1795, shortly after losing his hearing, he was elected director of the School of Painting of the Academy of San Fernando, but two years later Goya was dismissed, citing the state of his health. Later, another decade later, he sought a place General Director Academy, but was defeated in the vote; 28 out of 29 were against him due to deafness.

In 1799, Goya published his Caprichos, a series of 80 satirical etchings that criticized prejudice, ignorance, superstition and vices. The critic V. Stasov, however, complained that in “Caprichos” there are a lot of “allegories and allegories, why are there so many donkeys sitting in front of genealogical books and riding on unfortunate men, so many monkeys playing jokes on the whole crowd boobies or trimming each other's claws, so many bears, goats, rams and sheep. so many bats - all this instead of living people. finally, so many fantastic, supernatural figures, witches, winged monsters and monsters and all sorts of incredible things.”

By the time Caprichos was completed, Goya was fifty-two years old. Behind him was a great life and creative path. The year 1799 turned out to be a triumphant year for Goya, an officially recognized painter. This year he was appointed the king's first painter, the highest honor for a Spanish artist. Goya began one of the most brilliant periods of his career - his physical condition improved, he again began to paint portraits of high-ranking persons.

In many ways, Goya's success was explained by the fact that back in 1791, Goya met the Duchess of Alba, who later became his lover and patron. At thirteen she got married, and by twenty all of Spain was watching her. love adventures. “Every hair on the head of the Duchess of Alba evokes desire,” wrote a French traveler. “When she walks down the street, everyone leans out of the windows and even children stop their games to look at her.”

After she visited his studio in the summer of 1795, the artist shockedly confessed to one of his friends: “Now I finally know what it means to live!” The duchess's husband passed away in 1796, and, observing official mourning, the duchess went to her castle in Sanlúcar for a year, and Goya went to accompany the inconsolable widow.

It is difficult to say what explained the duchess’s love for the deaf, middle-aged court artist prone to depression. Maybe it was just an eccentric desire to try out his charms once again, or was the reason for the passion was admiration for Goya’s talent? There is no answer to this question, but, be that as it may, the duchess immortalized herself by becoming a character in the paintings of the great artist. Thanks to Goya, her name became legendary. And it is unlikely that any arguments will convince today that the model for the famous paintings “Dressed Macha” and “Naked Macha” was not the Duchess of Alba, but the favorite of the then Prime Minister.

Goya's affair with the Duchess of Alba lasted seven years until her death, and many of the female characters in Caprichos feature her character. “False dream and inconstancy” - the words written by the artist under one of the unpublished etchings sound like a sad epitaph of their love and his beloved.

The Duchess died suddenly in 1802, but Alba remained depicted completely naked in hundreds of drawings made by the artist. She allowed Goya to keep them, but on one she wrote: “Keeping something like this is simply madness. However, to each his own."

This painting caused extreme irritation and anger of the Sant'Officio (Holy Inquisition). Some of the most zealous churchmen declared Goya almost a devil, who dares not only to depict such things, but also to breathe passionate life into his canvases, to make naked women mysteriously attractive. Accusations from the Inquisition and the need to refute them had a very difficult effect on the artist.

In 1808, Spain was occupied by Napoleon. Goya witnessed the uprising against Napoleonic troops in Madrid and the repression that followed. After Spain was liberated, he captured these events in two famous paintings: "Uprising on

Puerto del Sol May 2, 1808" and "Execution of the Madrid rebels on the night of May 3, 1808." At the same time, Goya began a series of 87 etchings, “The Disasters of War.” When Ferdinand VII returned to the Spanish throne, Goya was still a court artist.

His defiantly naturalistic portraits of Ferdinand reveal contempt for the new king. Retiring to the villa, Goya worked on paintings, continued making etchings for the Disasters of War series, and began the Tauromachy series of etchings, depicting the history of bullfighting in Spain. At the same time, Goya painted the walls of his house with images of nightmares, painted portraits of his grandson Mariano, and began the last, most bitter series of etchings, “Disparates.”

Over the years, Goya's paintings become increasingly darker - sometimes ominous figures on the canvases barely emerge from the darkness. The artist addresses the infernal theme: “They are calling the witches,” “The Sabbath of Witches. Big goat" (as you know, the devil at the Sabbath often appears to his minions in the form of a huge black goat), etc.

Goya's most famous etching is “The sleep of reason gives birth to monsters.” Entire episodes are dedicated to auto-da-fé and the horrors of war. Latest works inspired by Napoleon's invasion of Spain. He perceived the war from a moral position, believing that no political ideals could justify blood and innocent victims.

In 1812 his wife died. Son Javier marries and begins to live separately. Goya remains “all alone” - in complete silence. In the same year, the artist created the engraving “Hands”, which shows 20 hands, each of which depicts one or another figure, depending on the position of the fingers - on one they are clenched into a fist, on the other four fingers are extended, and one is pressed to palms, on the third - fingers spread, and so on.

Until recently, it was assumed that when creating an engraving, the artist pursued a purely didactic goal - to demonstrate the anatomy of the hand and present its various options. However, a more thorough study of the work, comparing it with other facts, gives grounds to assert that we're talking about about the alphabet for the deaf and dumb.

In a letter to his friend Zapater, Goya reports that he is “beginning to learn to communicate with others using his hands.” It is not surprising, therefore, that the artist tried to help himself and his fellow sufferers using the means available to him.

In 1814, Goya was again awarded the title of court painter. However, the disappointed and sick artist moves away from social life and society and settles in own home, built in 1800 outside of Madrid. Neighbors nicknamed this building “Quinta del Sordo” - “House of the Deaf.”

Goya withdraws more and more into himself, not leaving his house for weeks. He paints the inside of the walls of his home with gloomy frescoes, the so-called “Black Canvases” (they were later moved to the Prado Museum) - for example, “Saturn Devouring Children.” All of them are the fruit of the artist’s visions and hallucinations. And yet fate smiled at him once again.

Goya met Leocadia Weiss, who was cheating on her husband with him, a 68-year-old artist. Soon, her husband divorces her, accusing her of “dishonorable behavior and adultery.” In 1814, Leocadia gave birth to a girl who was named Rosarita. The elderly father dotes on his daughter.

In 1824, the 78-year-old master, not wanting to put up with Ferdinand’s policies, went into voluntary exile in France and, together with Leocadia and Rosarita, left Spain forever. He joined other Spanish intellectuals who fled to Bordeaux, mastered the technique of lithography, and produced a series on bullfighting, The Bulls of Bordeaux.

In the spring of 1825, Goya again found himself bedridden. Doctors diagnosed him with bladder paralysis and a colon tumor, which, given the patient’s age, they did not even try to treat. However, Goya cheated death this time too and lived for several more years.

On March 30, 1826, the artist celebrated his 80th birthday. He continued to work and even mastered new technology writing: applied paint to the canvas with fingers or pieces of cloth tied to the handle of a brush.

Shortly before his birthday in 1828, Goya eagerly awaited his grandson Mariano from Spain. But on the eve of his arrival, the artist was stricken with paralysis and lost his speech. ABOUT last days Goya’s life is known from a letter from Dona Leocadia Weiss, the mother of his two illegitimate children: “The grandson and daughter-in-law came to us on the 28th of last month. On April 1st we had lunch together. Until five o'clock the next day, his saint's day, he did not speak. It didn't take long for his speech to return because he was half paralyzed. This state of his health lasted another 13 days. Three hours before his death, he called everyone. He looked at his hand in simple-minded surprise. He wanted to make a will and express his favor, but his daughter-in-law said that he had already done so. For him, this moment remained unclear. His weakness made it impossible to understand anything; he spoke indistinctly. On the night of April 15-16 at 2 o'clock he died. When he fell asleep peaceful and cheerful, even the doctor himself was surprised at his patience and strength. He thinks he didn't suffer, but I'm not sure about that."

Goya escaped loneliness - he died surrounded by his family on the seventeenth day after his 82nd birthday. He was buried in Bordeaux. In 1901, his ashes were transported to Madrid, and in 1919, the great Spaniard found his final rest in the Church of San Antonio de la Florida, where he once created his beautiful frescoes.

Already during his lifetime, Goya was recognized as an outstanding Spanish artist, and his contribution to the development of art in the 19th and 20th centuries was enormous. In fact, he was the first master who turned in his work to current events of his time, abandoning biblical and ancient subjects. Goya's etchings, denouncing existing customs, influenced French artist Honore Daumier. The brilliant bright colors of painting and the dramatic effects of chiaroscuro in graphics influenced the development of Impressionism in France, particularly Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir. The nightmares of Goya's paintings in The House of the Deaf and the horror-filled etchings of Disparates influenced the German Expressionists.

As for Goya’s medical history, as often happens, it gave rise to a lot of controversy among scientists, art historians and doctors who tried, through the veil of time, to understand how physical and mental illnesses influenced his work. A. Krylov in his article “Macho from Fuendetodos” provides a number of medical reports regarding the condition of the great artist.

Unlike Dr. S. Rodriguez, who believes that syphilis was the cause of deafness and other serious disorders, American researcher, Professor T. Cowthorn compares the artist’s illness with the medical history of Jonathan Swift. The author of Gulliver's Travels had seizures, accompanied by temporary deafness and severe dizziness, during which he lost orientation. This disease is caused by a virus that causes inflammation of the retina and blood vessels of the eye. The clinical picture of the disease resembles encephalitis and is often accompanied by hearing loss.

Psychiatrist V. Netherlands hypothesized that the symptoms of the illness suffered by Goya in 1792 were due to metal poisoning. Goya most often worked with paints containing lead - an extremely toxic and dangerous metal that can cause serious damage to the nervous system, kidneys, and liver. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the artist often prepared the necessary paints himself, and while working on the canvases, he applied the paints with his hands. He often used liquid paints, which produced small splashes that facilitated the aerosol and contact mechanisms of poisoning.

Dr. Netherlands, who studied many patients with lead poisoning, argued that during intoxication with this metal, temporary loss of vision occurs due to inflammation of the optic nerve, seizures similar to epileptic seizures often occur, paranoid ideas and hallucinations, paralysis of the arms or legs appear.

Having studied Goya’s biography, V. Netherlands suggested that the artist had signs of lead poisoning at least twice and this most likely affected the nervous system and influenced Goya’s psyche and artistic inclinations.

Many Goya biographers tried to determine the degree and severity of psychopathological symptoms that had a huge impact on the artist’s entire work. The English psychiatrist F. Reitman came to the conclusion that while working on the series of etchings “Caprichos” the artist was in a state of severe depression and hostility towards the world around him. Being in such a spiritual mood, he began to see infernal connections and mysterious relationships between events that had nothing in common in the most ordinary things. His images of people, witches, and animals, according to Reitman, indicate a pronounced disorder of perception and a tendency to hallucinate. Engravings on which human soul unites with a crowd of devils and demons, according to the psychiatrist, symbolizing his complete dissolution in the disease. Even Goya's long loneliness was described by Reitman as a manifestation mental illness, when for the artist only experiences in the fictional world were decisive other world, born of the hallucinations that appeared in him.

Summing up the numerous assessments of Goya’s health, Professor A. Neumar writes: “To correctly evaluate Goya’s works, it is necessary to look from a medical point of view as one whole at his personality, art and illness. Only then will we be able to understand how illness affected his creations and how, in turn, the master’s art gradually turned into illness. His illness outlined new values that elevated his art to the art of modern times.”

From the book 100 great football players author Malov Vladimir Igorevich

From the book 100 great military leaders author Shishov Alexey Vasilievich

PISARRO FRANCISCO ca. 1475-1541 Spanish conqueror of the Inca Empire. Captain General. The illegitimate son of a Spanish military man, Francisco Pizarro entered the royal army in his youth military service. Information about any education he has received, as well as the presence

From the book Love stories author Ostanina Ekaterina Alexandrovna

Francisco Goya and Cayetana Alba. Passion in the rhythm of fandango Francisco Goya and Cayetana Alba are probably the most famous Spanish love couple. Their relationship developed with true southern hot temperament. They had to experience stormy passion, quarrels, and

From the book 10 geniuses of painting author Balazanova Oksana Evgenievna

Furious Sordo by Francisco Goya The one who was in the place of the bull yesterday is today the bullfighter. Fortune rules the fiesta and assigns roles according to her whim. Goya “Caprichos” No. 77 March 30, 1746 in the small village of Fuentetados, located on the scorched hills of Aragon, in

From the book 100 famous tyrants author Vagman Ilya Yakovlevich

FRANCO BAAMONDE FRANCISCO (b. 1892 - d. 1975) General, head of the Spanish state, who led the military-fascist rebellion against the Spanish Republic. Upon ascending the throne of Spain after the death of Franco, King Juan Carlos I said: “I have inherited a country that

From the book Betancourt author Kuznetsov Dmitry Ivanovich

ARTIST FRANCISCO GOYA In the world of wealth and power, everything is built according to a rigid pattern: one wrong move and you are nobody. Realizing this, two years after meeting Betancourt in Aranjuez, Goya would become the king’s personal painter. But you have to pay for betraying yourself - namely

From the book The Most Spicy Stories and Fantasies of Celebrities. Part 1 by Amills Roser

Francisco Umbral Sexy LingerieFrancisco Umbral (Francisco Perez Martinez) (1932–2007) – spanish writer, journalist, essayist. A subtle and keen observer of his own fetishes, he left their description in his autobiographical books. Francisco Umbral wrote:

From the book Memory of a Dream [Poems and translations] author Puchkova Elena Olegovna

Goya Etchings by Goya?! What etchings! Good is born in struggle, And everything that he has seen in himself is spread out into the unknown. Then we saw with our own eyes how the spinning wheel created thread: Cars came at night to repeat the etchings. Now offset offset Suffering through the fog

From the book I wanted to play since childhood author Banionis Donatas Juozovich

“Goya, or the Hard Path of Knowledge” I met director Konrad Wolf in 1967, when a year after the festival in Karlovy Vary I was in Germany. Then I had to visit the DEFA film studio, where they showed our film “Nobody Wanted to Die.” Wolf too

From the book Artists in the Mirror of Medicine author Neumayr Anton

FRANCISCO GOYA INTRODUCTION Goya's work has captivated us for the last century. His amazing creations combined naturalism, baroque and impressionism, and he, like Herder and to young Goethe, became a convincing example that the impressionism of the eighteenth

From the book of 100 stories great love author Kostina-Cassanelli Natalia Nikolaevna

GOYA A VICTIM OF LEAD POISONING? For the first time in 1972, at New York University, psychiatrist V. Netherlands hypothesized that the symptoms of Goya’s dangerous illness of 1793 could be explained by heavy metal poisoning. On the one hand, the psychiatrist relied on clinical experience

From the book Mona Lisa's Smile: A Book about Artists author Bezelyansky Yuri

Francisco Goya and Cayetana Alba The great painter Francisco Goya and the mysterious Duchess of Alba... Truly, these two extraordinary personalities, two stars of Spain, could not help but meet! Their destinies are intertwined as closely as their embraces were once intertwined. And their history

From the book Line of Great Travelers by Miller Ian

The Artist of Monstrous Dreams (Francisco Goya) Why are more and more books written about great and famous people? It seems that everything about them has long been known, their whole life has been sorted into shelves, everything has been commented on and sucked to the bone, but no!.. New authors appear and

From the book Andrei Voznesensky author Virabov Igor Nikolaevich

Francisco Pizarro (1475–1541) Pizarro was born in the city of Turjillo in the eastern Spanish province of Extremadura. Although he was supposedly illegitimate son nobleman, in childhood and youth he worked as a swineherd. I never learned to read and write. When he got tired of everyday activities,

From the author's book

Francisco Orellana (d. 1549) Orellana was born in the city of Trujillo in the Spanish province of Extremadura. The time of birth and origin are unknown. The first news of Orellana's activities as a traveler dates back to 1540, when he took part in Pizarro's expedition from

From the author's book

Chapter Two GOYA, MURKA, ORANGE The name is like a code of fate The son was named Andrey. Why did his parents choose his father's name? There are even prejudices about such double names and patronymics, but Andryusha’s parents were far from it. We can simply say: they probably loved each other very much

The creative heritage of Francisco Goya - works, paintings - is diverse and multifaceted. He left behind about 700 works performed in different genres. Approaching the end of life and loneliness forced Francisco Goya to create “black paintings”. Let's take a look at one of latest masterpieces masters

"Saturn Devouring His Son"

Saturn learned that one of his sons would overthrow him. To prevent this from happening, God devoured them. In complete madness, with confused gray hair, with completely crazy eyes, Saturn had already eaten the baby’s head and hand.
His hands dug into the tender body and pierced it until it bled. Some art historians view this work as an allegory. Perhaps it symbolizes Spain devouring its children. According to other opinions, Saturn is a French bloody revolution or even Napoleon. We will return to the “black paintings” later. For now, let's look at the biography of Francisco Goya. Pictures with descriptions will be presented below.

Childhood

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was born on March 30, 1746 in the village of Fuendetodos, near Zaragoza. The family was neither rich nor completely poor. Francho was the youngest of the three sons of José Goya and Gracia Lucientes. His father was engaged in gilding altars. In Zaragoza, children received only the basics of education. Francho was soon sent to study drawing by the artist Lusano y Martinez.

Youth in Aragon

In the workshop, young Goya was busy copying Velazquez and Rembrandt. He simultaneously managed to practice serenades and temperamental dancing- fandago and Aragonese jota, as well as show your violent temperament in street fights using navaja. As a result of one of the clashes, he had to flee to Madrid in 1766. In the self-portrait we see a handsome young man, from which you cannot say that he is a brawler, a bully and a seducer.

In the capital, Goya sends his works to competitions organized by the Academy of Arts. At this time, he met Francisco Bayeu, who would later have a significant influence on the artist’s life. Francisco Goya's paintings do not receive the expected prize.

Rome, Naples and Parma

Then the painter decides to go to Italy. There he studies the works of masters and paints. Francisco Goya won the 2nd prize in Parma for the painting “Hannibal from the heights of the Alps looks at the conquered lands.”

Legends say that Francisco fell in love with a young nun and decided to kidnap her. This escapade was revealed, and the young adventurer returned to his homeland in 1771.

Difficult Becoming

At first, Goya works very successfully in his native Zaragoza. He painted the chapel with frescoes, then he was asked to paint the prayer house at the palace. Francisco Bayeu, mentioned above, offers him an order to paint a monastery near Zaragoza and introduces the artist to his beautiful sister, golden-haired Josefa.

Marriage

The ardent Goya seduces the girl and is forced to walk down the aisle. The birth took place 4 months after the marriage, but the child did not survive. The artist, having been married for 39 years, will paint only one portrait of his wife.

Josefa Bayeu

We see a clearly calm, self-possessed and slightly sad woman who could endure all the antics of her unpredictable husband. She would subsequently give birth to five more children, of whom only one would survive. He, like his father, will become an artist, but he will not have such a gift and talent.

Fame

The brother-in-law begins to help the career of a gifted artist. With his help, Goya receives an order for a portrait from Count Floridablanca. Goya is then introduced to the king's disgraced brother Don Luis.

Court painter

Don Luis invites Goya to paint a portrait of his family. After this, Goya gained fame as a portrait painter among the king's associates. Francisco Goya is increasingly receiving orders for paintings after he worked for the Duke of Osuna. Charles III himself also became interested in him, who made him a court artist. The next king, Charles IV, leaves Goya his position and even increases his salary. At this time, Goya added the noble prefix “de” to his surname. However, when painting a portrait of the weak-willed Charles IV surrounded by his family with no desire to flatter the high family, Francisco Goya puts Queen Marie Louise in the center of the picture, since it is she who rules Spain with the help of her favorite.

On the left, at the easel, the artist paints his self-portrait. This painting is an absolute masterpiece of the master, where the entire space of the canvas is filled with soft light. The artist invited men to dress in bright suits, and women - in light, thin translucent dresses. Their faces are depicted realistically and with great virtuosity. The jewelry is made using the impasto technique and sparkles in the candlelight.

Illness and hard work

An unknown illness caused deafness and partial loss of vision in Francisco Goya. He painted famous paintings even before his illness, being full of energy and joy. These are cardboards for tapestries (there are about 60 of them) for the Prince of Asturias: “Dance on the banks of Masanares”, “Mach and masks”, “Fight in a tavern”, “Umbrella”, “Flying a kite”. The artist will create his most wonderful creations in adulthood.

Young couple

The painting "Umbrella" was painted among a series of cheerful tapestries. A young man shields his lovely lady from the bright sun with a Chinese umbrella. The scene is fairly static.

The composition gives it dynamics: the movement of a thin tree is directed in one direction, and the movement of an umbrella in the other. It is reinforced by the hands of young people: the direction of the hand of a young lady with a fan and the elbow of a young man, as well as the folds of the yellow skirt of a flirtatious person. This canvas captivates with its rich, cheerful color. It sets off the youthful, unclouded joy that permeates this cloudless happiness. How much “The Umbrella” differs from the later Francisco de Goya, whose paintings were created under the influence of the Duchess of Alba! After the unrest in the country, the satirical series “Caprichos” will appear.

Who are the mahi

This was the name given to the men and women who came out of common people, impoverished residents of the provinces, people from the Madrid slums. But we are more interested in mahi women, since Francisco José de Goya will paint pictures with representatives of the aristocracy dressed in mahi costumes. For example, Queen Marie Louise of Parma or the Duchess of Alba. Maha from the common people is a woman with a sense of self-respect who can stand up for herself. There is a knife hidden under her clothes. Mah dances and songs, as a kind of national exotica, attracted representatives of the upper classes.

The Spanish aristocracy was not averse to playing dress-up games. Francisco José de Goya could not miss this. He painted the paintings “Mahi on the Balcony” (Metropolitan Museum, 1816) and the portrait of Donna Isabel Porcel under this impression and in memory of the Duchess of Alba. This is very famous paintings painter.

Two swings

The artist Francisco Goya loved to depict free and proud city women. The paintings “Makha Nude” and “Makha Dressed” constitute companion portrait. The works were in the boudoir of the Duchess of Alba for a long time.

After her death in 1802, they passed to the all-powerful minister Manuel Godoy, and are now exhibited in the Prado. The Duchess's relatives categorically denied that the 13th Duchess of Alba was the model. Art historians are increasingly beginning to think that the portraits depict Manuel Godoy’s mistress, Pepito Tuda. The image of two mysterious swings by Francisco Goya is the most famous painting, not counting, of course, the “black ones”. The legend about the love between the artist and the aristocrat remained neither refuted nor confirmed. Rumors about them still continue to circulate whirlwind romance, which lasted seven years.

"Caprichos", which translates to "quirks"

After the bloody French Revolution, the nature of the artist’s work changed.

His graphics in the form of 80 satirical etchings were created in 1799. There is not one in it bright picture, only darkness and tragedy. The strokes of his needle are sharp and scratchy. Politics, social issues and religion - the artist touched on everything in his works: the ease of marriage, intimidation of children during upbringing, their spoiling by their parents, debauchery and debauchery of men and women, charlatans from science. A great variety of topics were covered. The most famous work of this cycle is “The Sleep of Reason Creates Monsters.” The fantasy of sleepy dreams brings unbearable horrors to a person.

Difficult years

When in 1808 Charles IV, who was hated by the people of the country, abdicated power and transferred the throne to his son Ferdinand VII, he did not rule the country for long, just a few weeks. He was lured to France by cunning. Napoleon, having captured the king, invaded Spain and suppressed popular resistance with extreme cruelty. For five years his brother Joseph occupied the royal throne, and Goya retained the position of court artist. This did not stop him from painting a portrait of Wellington in 1812. Thus he aroused Joseph's hatred. After the French were defeated in 1813 by the Portuguese, Spanish and British under the command of the Duke of Wellington, Ferdinand VII returned to his homeland in 1814. He believed that the painter collaborated with the occupiers and began to treat Goya worse and worse. In 1819, the artist bought himself a house in the suburbs of Madrid.

Strange building

The old 74-year-old artist called this house “The House of the Deaf.” Goya loved to write at night, with the anxious, fluctuating flames of candles. His illness progressed and made him think about death. The painter painted the walls of two large rooms with scenes in oil on plaster, as if taken from nightmares. These are 14 paintings. He took on both mythological and religious themes. In them, faded and gloomy, everything speaks harshly and directly about the futility of human hopes and death. Goya painted paintings for himself. This is evidenced by the fact that he painted them not on canvases, but on walls, without expecting that they would ever be exhibited. The artist worked quickly, using broad strokes, a palette knife, and sponges. One piece shows an unfortunate dog almost completely buried under quicksand. She'll never get out. All you can see is a raised head with longing in the eyes. She doesn't have long to live. This house was a complete kingdom of horror and darkness. In 1878, when the house was bought by the German banker Emil Erlanger, the paintings were transferred to canvas. They were first shown in Paris and then donated to the Prado Museum.

Late troubled years

After the death of his wife in 1812, fate gave the artist a farewell smile: he struck up an acquaintance with Leocadia de Weiss. She is 35 years younger than him. Leocadia divorces her husband. They had a daughter, Rosarita. King Ferdinand VII directly tells the artist that he is worthy only of hanging.

Goya did not wait for such a prospect and went to Bordeaux with his family, ostensibly for treatment.

He will paint a portrait of Leocadia, full of admiration. In the history of painting, Goya will forever remain a dark romantic. In 1828, the great Spaniard died at the age of 82. Just 17 days ago we celebrated his birthday. The painter's ashes will return to Spain only in 1919 and will be buried in the Church of San Antonio de la Florida in Madrid, which he himself painted.

Goya Francisco José de, Spanish painter

Goya Francisco José de, Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828), Spanish painter, engraver, draftsman. From 1760 he studied in Zaragoza with X. Lusan y Martinez. Around 1769 he went to Italy. In 1771 he returned to Zaragoza, where he painted frescoes in the Italian Baroque tradition (side nave of the church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar, 1771-72). From 1773 he worked in Madrid. In 1776-80 and 1786-91 he completed over 60 panels (cardboards for carpets) with scenes rich in color and relaxed in composition for the royal manufactory everyday life, labor and festive folk entertainment
(“The Umbrella”, 1777, “The Game of Pelota”, 1779. “The Wounded Mason”, 1786, “The Game of Blind Man’s Buff”, 1791, all in the Prado).
In contrast to the spirit of ceremonial solemnity and rationality that reigned in Spanish painting, Goya’s cardboards were imbued with a love of life and natural beauty. Since the beginning of the 80s. Goya also gained fame as a portrait painter ("The Family of the Duke of Osuna", 1787, Prado; "Portrait of the Marquise A. Pontejos", circa 1787, National Gallery of Art, Washington). His portraits are made in a sonorous, subtly developed color scheme; the figures and objects in them, conveyed with a subtle sense of their materiality, seem to dissolve in a light haze.
In 1780, Goya was elected to the Madrid Academy of Arts (from 1785 vice-director, and from 1795 director of its painting department), in 1786 he was appointed court painter, and from 1799 “the first painter of the king.” During this period of political reaction coming in Spain, the life-affirming principle in Goya’s work is replaced by a deep dissatisfaction, acquiring the characteristics of tragedy. Goya is attracted by the art of graphics: the swiftness of a pen drawing, the scratching stroke of a needle in an etching, the light and shadow effects of aquatint. Under the influence of Spanish enlighteners (G. M. Jovellanos y Ramirez, M. X. Quintana), Goya’s hostility towards feudal-clerical Spain intensified.
In the 1790s - early 1800s. reached exceptional prosperity portrait art Goya, in which the feeling of the anxious loneliness of man sounded (portraits - Señora Bermudez, Museum fine arts, Budapest, F. Bayeu, 1796, Prado, F. Savas Garcia, around 1805, National Gallery art, Washington), courageous confrontation and challenge to the surrounding world ("La Tirana", 1799, AH, Madrid; portraits of Dr. Peral, 1796, National Gallery, London, F. Guillemard, 1798, Louvre). With the amazing accusatory power of unvarnished truth, the artist captures the arrogant solemnity and ugliness of the royal family in the group portrait “The Family of Charles IV” (1800, Prado). The aroma of mystery and hidden sensuality shrouds the image of a woman in the paintings “Maja Dressed” and “Maja Nude” (both circa 1802, Prado).

In the large series of etchings "Caprichos" (80 sheets with the artist's comments, 1797-98, published at the beginning of 1799), the ugliness of the moral, political and spiritual foundations of the Spanish "old order" is revealed in a grotesque-tragic form, feeding on folkloric origins. The Caprichos series is distinguished by its bold novelty artistic language, sharp expressiveness of lines, restless spots and strokes, contrasts of light and shadow, appeal to the grotesque, allegories, artistic exaggeration and allegory. Goya’s large paintings are permeated with deep historicism, truly popular energy and passionate protest. dedicated to the fight against the French intervention: "Uprising of May 2, 1808 in Madrid" and "Execution of the rebels on the night of May 3, 1808" (both circa 1814, Prado). A unique philosophical and historical understanding of the fate of the people in this tragic era The history of Spain included the etchings “Disasters of War” (82 sheets; 1810-20, published in 1863 in Madrid).
In the early 1790s. a serious illness led the artist to deafness. Goya spent his last, extremely difficult years, which coincided with the period of brutal reaction, in country house(“Quinta del Sordo”, i.e. “House of the Deaf”), the walls of which were painted in oils. In the scenes created here (now in the Prado), including unprecedentedly bold for that time, highly dynamic images of crowded masses and frightening symbolic images, the ideas of confrontation were embodied past and future, the endlessly insatiable, decrepit image of time ("Saturn") and the liberating energy of youth ("Judith"). More more complex system gloomy grotesque images in the series of etchings "Disparates" (22 sheets; 1820-23, published in 1863 in Madrid under the title "Proverbs"). But even in Goya’s darkest visions, cruel darkness cannot suppress the artist’s inherent feeling perpetual motion, which for him, as for the revolutionary romantics in France, was a powerful manifestation of life. It becomes the leitmotif in “The Funeral of a Sardine” (circa 1814, Prado), in the series of etchings “Tauromachia” (1815, published in 1816 in Madrid) and other works. From 1824, Goya lived in France, where he painted portraits of his friends and mastered the technique

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes - great spanish artist, representative of romanticism. Born 1746 in Fuendetodos, near Zaragoza. At the beginning of his artistic career (1780) he was elected to the Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid, and in 1786 he was appointed court artist and turned out to be the king's first painter. At that time, Goya became widely known as a very skillful portrait painter. The style and character of this artist’s paintings changed dramatically after the Great French Revolution in the early 1790s; moreover, the artist’s condition deteriorated greatly and as a result of his illness, Francisco lost his hearing.

From this moment on, darkness reigns more and more in the artist’s paintings, which is not only the background of his canvases, but also absorbs the figures themselves. He began to use some of Rembrandt's techniques more and depict a certain hopelessness, even mortal horror. Feelings of loneliness, internal conflict, hostility external environment- all this migrated into the painter’s works. Despite this, Goya painted so abstractly and so professionally that his paintings were widely known during his lifetime and are no less famous in our time.

His famous painting The Family of King Charles IV (1800) amazed critics and art connoisseurs. No one ever dared to portray courtiers like that. Marie-Louise is depicted in it as imperious and even somewhat repulsive in her unattractiveness, and the artist himself stands in a dark corner, almost in darkness.

In 1797-98, the artist depicted without any fear the ugliness of the political foundations of his homeland. Just look at the painting “Execution of the rebels on the night of May 3, 1808,” which is full of tragedy and injustice. Here there is Goya's personal pain for his Spain, a protest against war and bloodshed. In the picture “ Saturn devouring his children” Goya depicted a merciless time that destroys people thoughtlessly and extremely cruelly - an eerie and bitter grotesque image.

Great Spanish artist He has been painting for seventy years. IN recent years He spent his life in Bordeaux, where he died in 1828.

Antonia Zarate

Maha nude

Mahi on the balcony

Portrait of the artist's wife

Tableware seller

Past and present

Water Carrier

Saturn devouring his children

Francisco Goya Lucientes was born in 1746 in Zaragoza into a middle-class family who that year moved to the village of Fuendetodos, 40 km south of the capital, while the house in which they lived was being renovated.

His father was famous master on gilding.

In 1760, the family moved to Zaragoza and here the young man was sent to the workshop of the artist Luzana y Martinez.

A few years later, involved in a fight, he is forced to flee Zaragoza.

In 1766 Goya came to Madrid. Here he gets acquainted with the works of court artists, improves his skills and even participates in competitions at the Madrid Academy of Fine Arts, hoping to be accepted into the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. His painting was rejected and he went to Italy.

He ends up in Rome, where he gets acquainted with the paintings of Italian masters. However, being an adventurous nature, he again finds himself in unpleasant story: sneaks into a nunnery at night to kidnap his beloved; caught in the act, he is forced to leave Rome.

In 1771, having received the second prize of the Parma Academy of Arts for a painting on a theme from ancient history, he returned to Zaragoza, where he worked on frescoes in the late Italian Baroque tradition (side nave of the church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar, 1771-1772).

Around 1773, Goya settled in Madrid with his friend Francisco Bayeu, and worked in his workshop. Bayeu was then the official court painter of King Charles IV and Queen Marie Louise. Francisco introduced Goya to his sister Josepha, with whom he was delighted and soon seduced her.

In 1775, Goya had to marry her when she was five months pregnant. Four months later, a boy was born, who was named Eusebio; he did not live long and soon died. In total, Josefa gave birth to five (according to various sources and more) children, of whom only one boy survived, named Javier - Francisco Javier Pedro - who became an artist.

As soon as meetings with court aristocrats became available to Goya, Josepha was immediately practically forgotten by him. Goya painted only one portrait of her.

Under the patronage of Bayeu, Goya completed for the Royal Tapestry Manufactory in 1776-80. 45 panels that served as samples (cardboards) for tapestries and got a permanent job in the factory. These works brought Goya fame.

In 1780, Goya was received at court and painted a portrait of the king, a painting in academic style“The Crucifixion” and became a member of the Royal Academy (from 1785 vice-director, and from 1795 director of its painting department), and in 1786 he was appointed court painter; after the death of Charles III, he became the court artist of Charles IV and, from 1799, his first painter.

In 1791, Goya met the Duchess of Alba, who became his lover and patron. He begins to court her. But in 1792-93 he was overtaken by an illness, as a result of which he lost his hearing.

During his recovery in 1792, Goya began working on his first in a large series etchings of Caprichos (completed by 1799) - a satire on political, social and religious orders.

In 1798, Charles IV commissioned Goya to paint the dome of his country church of San Antonio de la Florida.

In 1796, the Duchess's husband died, she goes to mourn this loss to her estate in Andalusia, and takes Goya with her. He painted her portraits many times; the two most famous of them are “Maja Nude” (c. 1797) and “Maja Dressed” (c. 1802, Prado).

After her death, he creates "Macha on the Balcony" (circa 1816, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). The Duchess of Alba died in 1802. She bequeathed to give out 3,500 reais annually from her remaining fortune to Javier Goya, the artist’s son.

In 1808, Spain was occupied by Napoleon. Goya witnessed the uprising against Napoleonic troops in Madrid and the repression that followed.

After Spain was liberated, he captured these events in two famous paintings: “The Revolt of the Puerta del Sol on May 2, 1808” and “The Execution of the Madrid Rebels on the Night of May 3, 1808” (both ca. 1814, Madrid, Prado) .

His son married the daughter of a rich merchant and began to live separately.

Goya was left completely alone. During these extremely difficult years for Goya, he lived alone in the country house “Quinta del Sordo” (that is, « Deaf House » ), the walls of which were painted in oils (1820-1823, the paintings are now in the Prado).

He meets Leocadia de Weiss, the wife of businessman Isidro Weiss, who then divorces her husband. She had a daughter from Goya, who was named Rosarita.

Fearing persecution from the new government of Spain, in 1824 Goya, together with Leocadia and little Rosarita, went to France, where he spent the last four years of his life.

In exile, he painted portraits of his emigrant friends, mastered the then new technique of lithography and made a series dedicated to bullfighting: « Bordeaux bulls » , 1826 and the painting “The Milkmaid from Bordeaux” (1827-1828). By this time, Goya's influence on artistic culture begins to acquire pan-European significance.

A crater on Mercury is named after Goya.