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GOYA Y LUCIENTES, FRANCISCO (1746-1828)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 303 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GOYA Y LUCIENTES, FRANCISCO (1746-1828) , See also:Spanish painter, was See also:born iii 1746 at Fuendetodos, a small Aragonese See also:village near See also:Saragossa. At an See also:early See also:age he commenced his See also:artistic career under the direction of Jose Luzan Martinez, who had studied See also:painting at See also:Naples under Mastroleo. It is clear that the accuracy in See also:drawing Luzan is said to have acquired by diligent study of the best See also:Italian masters did not much See also:influence his erratic See also:pupil. Goya, a true son of his See also:province, was bold, capricious, headstrong and obstinate. He took a prominent See also:part on more than one occasion in those See also:rival religious processions at Saragossa which often ended in unseemly frays; and his See also:friends were led in consequence to despatch him in his nineteenth See also:year to See also:Madrid, where, See also:prior to his departure for See also:Rome, his mode of See also:life appears to have been anything but that of a quiet orderly See also:citizen. Being a See also:good musician, and gifted with a See also:voice, he sallied forth nightly, serenading the caged beauties of the See also:capital, with whom he seems to have been a very See also:general favourite. Lacking the necessary royal patronage, and probably scandalizing by his mode of life the sedate See also:court officials, he did not receive —perhaps did not seek—the usual honorarium accorded to those students who visited Rome for the purpose of study. Finding in convenient to retire for a See also:time from Madrid, he decided to visit Rome at his own cost; and being without See also:rest urces he joined a " quadrilla " of See also:bull-fighters, passing from See also:town to town until he reached the shores of the Mediterranean. We next hear of him reaching Rome, broken in See also:health and financially bankrupt. In 1772 he was awarded the second See also:prize in a competition initiated by the See also:academy of See also:Parma, styling himself " pupil to Bayeu, painter to the See also:king of See also:Spain." Compelled to quit Rome somewhat suddenly, he appears again in Madrid in 1775, the See also:husband of Bayeu's daughter, and See also:father of a son. About this time he appears to have visited his parents at Fuendetodos, no doubt noting much which later on he utilized in his genre See also:works. On returning to Madrid he commenced painting canvases for the See also:tapestry factory of See also:Santa See also:Barbara, in which the king took much See also:interest.

Between 1776 and 178o he appears to have supplied See also:

thirty examples, receiving about 1200 for them. Soon after the revolution of 1868, an See also:official was appointed to take an See also:inventory of all works of See also:art belonging to the nation, and in one of the cellars of the Madrid See also:palace were discovered See also:forty-three of these works of Goya on rolls forgotten and neglected (see Los Tapices de Goya; See also:por Cruzado Villaamil, Madrid, 187o). His originality and See also:talent were soon recognized by See also:Mengs,the king's painter, and royal favour naturally followed. His career now becomes intimately connected with the court life of his time. He was commissioned by the king to See also:design a See also:series of frescoes for the See also:church of St See also:Anthony of See also:Florida, Madrid, and he also produced works for Saragossa, See also:Valencia and See also:Toledo. Ecclesiastical art was not his forte, and although he cannot be said to have .failed in any of his See also:work, his fame was not enhanced by his religious subjects. In See also:portraiture, without doubt, Goya excelled: his portraits are evidently life-like and unexaggerated, and he disdained flattery. He worked rapidly, and during his See also:long stay at Madrid painted, amongst many others, the portraits of four sovereigns of Spain—See also:Charles III. and IV., See also:Ferdinand VII. and " King See also:Joseph." The See also:duke of See also:Wellington also sat to him; but on his making some remark which raised the artist's choler, Goya seized a See also:plaster See also:cast and hurled it at the See also:head of the duke. There are extant two See also:pencil sketches of Wellington, one in the See also:British Museum, the other in a private collection. One of his best portraits is that of the lovely Andalusian duchess of See also:Alva. He now became the spoiled See also:child of See also:fortune, and acquired, at any See also:rate externally, much of the See also:polish of court See also:manners. He still worked industriously upon his own lines, and, while there is a stiffness almost ungainly in the pose of some of his portraits, the stern individuality is always preserved.

Including the designs for tapestry, Goya's genre works are numerous and varied, both in See also:

style and feeling, from his See also:Watteau-like "Al See also:Fresco Breakfast," "Romeria de See also:San Isidro," to the " See also:Curate feeding the See also:Devil's See also:Lamp," the " Meson del Gallo " and the painfully realistic See also:massacre of the " Dos de See also:Mayo " (18o8). Goya's versatility is proverbial; in his hands the pencil, See also:brush and graver are equally powerful. Some of his See also:crayon sketches of scenes in the bull See also:ring are full of force and See also:character, slight but full of meaning. He was in his thirty-second year when he commenced his etchings from Velasquez, whose influence may, however, be traced in his work at an earlier date. A careful examination of some of the drawings made for these etchings indicates a steadiness of purpose not usually discovered in Goya's See also:craft as draughtsman. He is much more widely known by his etchings than his See also:oils; the latter necessarily must be sought in public and private collections, principally in Spain, while the former are known and prized in every capital of See also:Europe. The etched collections by which Goya is best known include " Los Caprichos," which have a satirical meaning known only to the few; they are bold, weird and full of force. "Los Proverbios" are also supposed to have some hidden intention. "Los Desastres de la Guerra " may fairly claim to depict Spain during the See also:French invasion. In the bull-fight series Goya is evidently at See also:home; he was a skilled See also:master of the barbarous art, and no doubt every See also:sketch is true to nature, and from life. Goya retired from Madrid, desiring probably during his latter years to See also:escape the trying See also:climate of that capital. He died at See also:Bordeaux on the 16th of See also:April 1828, and a See also:monument has been erected there over his remains.

From the deaths of Velasquez and See also:

Murillo to the See also:advent of See also:Fortuny, Goya's name is the only important one found in the See also:history of Spanish art. See also the lives by See also:Paul Lefort (1877), and Yriarte (1867).

End of Article: GOYA Y LUCIENTES, FRANCISCO (1746-1828)

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