What Influenced Goya’s Art?

Francisco de Goya was influenced the social institutions of his time and the events which occurred around him including his upbringing, his education and most importantly the French invasion of Spain. These events led him to create his masterpieces which include Third of May 1808 and Saturn Devouring One of his Children.

As Nochlin points out, Goya was more likely than most to become a Great Artist due to the fortunate circumstance that he was male, white, and born middle class; not because of some fairy tale concept of genius. All these societal features made it more possible for him to focus on his art. So when we ask “What influenced Goya’s art?” we must take into account his upbringing and the times in which he was born. “…things as they are and as they have been, in the arts as in a hundred other areas, are stultifying, oppressive, and discouraging to all those…who did not have the good fortune to be born white, preferably middle class and, above all, male. The fault lies…in our institutions and our education” (Nochlin, 150).

Education is another factor that must be considered when one tries to understand how Goya was to become a great painter. Nicolas Pioch’s bibliography on Goya describes his youth and how he was able to pursue the arts. When Goya was a young man he was apprenticed to a local painter by the name of Jose Luzan. He continued his education in the art field in Italy and when he returned to Spain he painted frescos for the church which helped to establish his reputation. He married a woman who was from an artistic family and studied the works of Velázquez which led him to a looser brush stroke (Pioch). So, as you can see, it was not a nugget of genius which led to Goyas fame, but his education.

Goya’s Third of May painting was about French troops eliminating a town during the Napoleonic invasion of Spain in 1808. Through this painting you can see that Goya would fit in the Romantic Movement. The Romantics captured large scale traumatic events as content for their paintings. Like the media of today, they would rush to the scene in order to capture the images and interview those involved. These events created awe and horror from the audience which shows the Romantics' interest in the sublime. In Goya’s painting of The Third of May, Napoleons troops become a repetitive singular force of destruction, and since you cannot see their faces they seemmechanical rather then human. The colors are naturalistic and sparingly used. The focus is on the man in white, who appears to be radiating. His body position and the stigmata make him appear Christ-like giving the figure the role of martyr. This painting was commissioned as propaganda to immortalize a horrific event and shows the devastation caused by war, producing a blatant anti-war statement. Through this image the artist wanted to show the meaningless suffering and human cruelty that is caused by war. Because of the scenes he had witnessed, Goya became ill and insane from the horrors of war and retreated to his home.

In his farmhouse in Quinta Del Sordo (house of the deaf), Goya covered his walls with the black paintings, one of which portrays Saturn Devouring One of his Children. Saturn was the King of the Titans who, after hearing the prophecy that one of his children would overcome him, eats them. The crouching bent form of Saturn’s body suggests that he is hiding the terrible act that he is committing. Saturn’s large crazed eyes lack refinement and show that he is afraid of his own behavior and lack of control. Through this image we see Goya’s feelings of despair and isolation as he delves into the deep recesses of his mind. Goya’s subject matter is an astonishing nightmare that is the after effect of death and battle.

Because he was a man with a well established career in the arts, Francisco de Goya was able to pursue his own artistic interests while still maintaining his title of Great Artist. Linda Nochlin would probably agree that this gave him the ability to experiment, unlike other groups who were restrained by societal pressures. In her article Nochlin states “Those who have privileges inevitably hold on to them, and hold tight, no matter how marginal the advantage involved, until compelled to bow to superior power of one sort or another” (Nochlin, 152).

So when answering the question “What influenced Goya’s art?” one must take several factors into account including the society in which he was raised, the education he received and the events he witnessed. In the painting of The Third of May 1808 you can see the influence of historical events, the ideals of the romantics, and the use of form, line and color. In the painting of Saturn Devouring One of his Children, Goya has also been influenced by the torments of war, death and illness.

Bibliography

Nochlin, Linda. “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” Women, Art, andPower and
Other Essays. Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1989. 144-178.

Pioch, Nicolas. “Goya (y Lucientes), Francisco (José) de.” Web Museum, Paris. 19
August 2002. 26 Sept. 2005.

Russell, Heather. “Romanticism 1780-1840” AR 212 History of Western Art III Colorado State
University, CO. 6 Sept. 2005