Commemorating Goya's Birthday Through His Art

     Every March 30th, the world commemorates the birthday of Francisco de Goya, a remarkable Spanish painter, and reminisces the memory of him and his ideas through his art. 

    Born in 1746, Goya remains one of the most influential and important artists of this period. His art perfectly captured the image of romanticism as a response to the horror of that era. He started with his mesmerizing rococo-style paintings of royal families before they turned into dark and horrifying images of his inner turmoil as the nation led by King Charles IV into a long and complicated political maelstrom. 

    His previously light-hearted and youthful rococo paintings depict the royals in scenes of love, elegance, and nature. El Quitasol or The Parasol (1777) is one of his iconic rococo-style paintings, depicting a woman with a dog on her lap and a man holding a parasol to shade her face. This painting is one of his designs for tapestries and became the painting that brought him to popularity and the success that eventually transformed his career path for the better. 

The Parasol (1777) by Francisco Goya

    The loss of his friend, Martin Zapatere, devastated him and manifested overwhelming fear and anxiety in his paintings. In his series of 80 aquatint etchings, Los Capricos (1797-1798), the horror and devastation can be seen in each painting as he used them to criticize and expose the prevalence of superstition and the rejection of rationality. Politically, the paintings shame the ignorance and the inability of the rulers at the time. 

The Sleep of Reason Produces Reason (1797)

    The Sleep of Reason Produces Reason, is one the most memorable and influential pieces in this series. It exposes how at this era, the refusal of reason and rationality was what produced the monster they imagined to be real. 

    The horror of May 3rd of 1808 when the French troops executed the Spanish rebels by gathering and shooting them in cold blood produced another one of Goya’s remarkable paintings. The Third of May 1808 depicted the terrifying scene and exposed the inhumanities of war. 

The Third of May 1808 (1814) by Francisco Goya

    When his illness started to affect him like never before in 1819, Goya settled in silence in his house and produced what was later known as The Black Paintings. This series covers 14 horrifying animalistic cannibalistic images that too vile to simply be forgotten. They are the kind of image that is etched up on the back of your eyes forever once you’ve seen them. Saturn Devouring His Son becomes one the most memorable paintings out of this series as it successfully depicts the petrifying and cannibalistic nature of greed and power. 

  

Saturn Devouring His Son (1819)

by Francisco Goya

    To this day, Goya remains one of the most influential and significant painters. His influence on romanticism and modern art is a huge part of his legacy. He is considered to be one of the last Old Masters of modern artists as we can see the reflection of his influence on their art decades after his death. 

    To remember Goya is to remember his art and his messages. Remember his fierce criticism and exposure of the possessors of power and keep them alive.