Goya, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

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Spanish painter and engraver. One of the major figures of European art, Goya depicted all aspects of Spanish life – portraits, including those of the royal family, religious works, scenes of war and of everyday life. Towards the end of his life, he created strange, nightmarish works, the ‘Black Paintings’, with such horrific images as Saturn Devouring One of His Sons (c. 1822; Prado, Madrid). His series of etchings include The Disasters of War (1810–14), depicting the horrors of the French invasion of Spain.

Goya was born in Aragón. After studying in Italy, he returned to Spain and was employed on a number of paintings for the royal tapestry factory as well as numerous portraits. In 1789 he was appointed court painter to Charles IV. The eroticism of his Naked Maja and Clothed Maja (c. 1800–05; Prado, Madrid) caused such outrage that he was questioned by the Inquisition. The Shootings of May 3rd 1808 (1814; Prado, Madrid), painted for Ferdinand VII, is passionate in its condemnation of the inhumanity of war. Technically, Goya attained brilliant effects by thin painting over a red earth ground. Much influenced by Rembrandt (‘Rembrandt, Velázquez, and Nature’ were, he said, his guides), he turned in later years to a dusky near-monochrome. His skill, however, seemed to increase with age, and the Milkmaid of Bordeaux, one of his last paintings, shows him using colour with great freedom.