Francisco Goya, The Great Hispanic Heritage Read online

  ered against the French emperor and, after years of conflict,

  14

  FRANCISCO GOyA

  broughtabouthisdefeatonthebattlefieldandhisabdication

  fromhisownthrone.Thatyear,1814,Goyawouldpainttwo

  great works, The Second of May 1808 and The Third of May

  1808.Theworksportrayedtherioting,thebloodshed,andthe

  anguished faces of those about to be executed. The canvases

  presented two scenes from Spanish history, two days eas-

  ily overlooked by many. By creating these two monumental

  works, Goya would not only remind his fellow Spaniards of

  theirvaliantstruggleagainstFrenchoppression,buthewould

  alsolaythegroundworkformodernart.

  1

  Vague

  Beginnings

  Only the barest of facts are known about Goya’s first 25 years

  of life. These early years remain little more than a vague

  shadow.HewasbornonMarch30,1746,inthesmallvillageof

  Fuendetodos,locatednearthecapitaloftheformerkingdom

  of Aragon, Saragossa, in northeast Spain. Saragossa was so

  close,infact,that“attimesabreezewouldbringthesoundof

  [its]churchbells.”7Thesmall,simplehouseinwhichhewas

  born,No.18CalledeAlfondiga,stillstandstoday.Thehouse

  wasaplaincottagehutwithdark,heavystonewallspunctu-

  atedbysmallwindows.

  HUmBLe OriGiNs

  The town of Fuendetodos was an unimportant settlement

  described by an English visitor several decades after Goya’s

  death“asastragglinghamletwithafewhundredpeopleatthe

  edge of a sluggish stream.”8 At his birth, Goya’s hometown

  15

  16

  FRANCISCO GOyA

  was“asdryastheinnerlivesofitsinhabitants.”9 Nestledon

  Spain’saridcentralplateauinoldAragon,thetownwashome

  to just over 100 residents. Fuendetodos lacked a local river,

  andtheannualrainfallwaslimited.Manyinthecommunity

  werepoorfarmerswhoworkedthesurroundingwheatfields

  for almost no pay. Many of these fields had formerly served

  as cattle pastures, but had now been overgrazed and nearly

  strippedbare.LifeinFuendetodoswasbleakanduninspiring,

  a sun-burnt landscape “with only a gnarled tree or a jagged

  outcropping of rock breaking the low line of a featureless

  horizon.”10 Itwashardlyanenvironmenttoinspireayoung

  artist.Yetthishumble,lonelyplacemaywellhavehelpedto

  formyoungGoyaintothemanhewouldonedaybecome.He

  grewupinagrayworldofpovertyandruralremoteness.In

  turn, this may have worked to create “the darker side of his

  nature—hisselfishnessandhisessentialloneliness.”11

  His mother was Gracia Lucientes, whose family had a

  claimofundeterminedAragonesenobility.Thisentitledthem

  toacoat-of-arms,althoughthearistocraticconnectionmeant

  little.Infact,duringGoya’slifetime,Spainwashometoalarge

  populationoflessernobility.Approximately5percentofthe

  kingdom’s people, at least 500,000 in number, could claim

  aristocratic roots. His father, José Goya, who also claimed

  aristocraticancestors,wasfromaBasquefamily.Atthetime

  ofyoungGoya’sbirth,Joséwasworkingasagilder,alow-level

  artist of sorts, who decorated furnishings, decorative items,

  andpictureframeswithgilt,orgold.Itwasaprofessionleft

  overfrommedievaltimes,whencraftsmenwouldoftenper-

  formtheworkofartists.TimeswerehardfortheGoyafamily,

  andJosésupplementedthefamilyincomebyworkingasmall

  plotoflandthathadbeenpartofGracia’sdowry.

  Althoughfewlegalorfamilydocumentsexisttogivemuch

  backgroundaboutGoya’syouth,thereisachurchrecordwith

  hisnameonit.Thedayafterhisbirth,hisparentstookhim

  tothelocalparishchurchwherethepriestbaptizedtheinfant.

  Therecord,signedbyJosephXimeno,Vicar,providesallthe

  pertinentfacts:

  Vague Beginnings

  17

  The small town of Fuendetodos is located in northeast Spain, not far from

  Goya’s second home, Saragossa. This small street, with the Fuendetodos

  church in the background, is reportedly the one where Goya grew up.

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  FRANCISCO GOyA

  On the 31st day of March, 1746, I, the subscribing vicar,

  baptized a child born on the day immediately preceding, the

  legitimate son of Joseph Goya and Gracia Lucientes, legally

  married,inhabitantsofthisparish,inthedistrictofZaragoza

  [Saragossa]. He was named Francisco Joseph Goya, his god-

  motherbeingFranciscadeGrasa,ofthisparish,single,daugh-

  terofMiguelLucientesandofGraciaMariaSalvadortowhom

  Imadeknownthespiritualkinshipwhichshehadcontracted

  toward the baptized and the obligation to teach him the

  Christiandoctrineshouldhisparentsfailtodoso.12

  a Lesser KiNGDOm

  Spain was an awkward nation in the eighteenth century, as

  it had been since it was created when two ancient Iberian

  kingdoms,AragonandCastile,werejoinedintoone.In1479,

  KingFerdinandofAragonandQueenIsabellaofCastilehad

  brought their two noble houses together and formed the

  state of Spain. The royal pair is best remembered for giving

  ChristopherColumbusthreeshipswithwhichhereachedthe

  Americas.Yet,whileSpainwasofficiallyasingle,unitedking-

  dom,formanyofitspeoplethismeantnothing.

  The people who lived in eighteenth-century Spain still

  thought of themselves in medieval terms. They lived locally,

  provincially, and understood little about other parts of the

  countrythatwereremotetothem.Historicallyandgeographi-

  cally, Spain had been divided into numerous regions by a

  seriesofmountainchains.Ineachoftheseregions—Aragon,

  Old Castile, New Castile, Catalonia, Leon, and Valencia—

  thereweredifferencesinclimate,landforms,andthecropsor

  animalsonwhicheachlocaleconomywasbased.Eachregion

  had its own local color and its own local loyalties. In Spain,

  onewasaCastilian,aCatalonian,oranAragonesebeforecon-

  sideringhimselfaSpaniard.Asoneeighteenth-centurywriter

  noted,Spainwas“abodycomposedofotherandsmallerbod-

  ies,separatedandinoppositiontooneanother,whichoppress

  anddespiseeachotherandareinacontinuousstateofwar.”13

  Vague Beginnings

  19

  YoungGoyafitintothispatternofculturalandregionalalle-

  giance.Asayoungman,hewouldhavenotrueloyaltybeyond

  thatofhisfamily,hisvillage,andtheCatholicChurchthathe

  wasbaptizedinto.

  The Spanish kingdom, however, did exist. With the

  advanceofSpanishcolonialismintot
heAmericasduringthe

  1500s and even into the 1600s, Spain had become a domi-

  natingempireofgreatwealthandpower,fueledbymassive

  amountsofgoldandsilvertakenfromMexicanmines.Inlater

  years,however,thekingdomfellonhardtimes,beingruled

  by a string of weak and indifferent monarchs. Eighteenth-

  centurySpainbeganwiththedeathofCharlesII,knownby

  hissubjectsasCharlestheBewitched,thelastoftheSpanish

  Habsburgs,in1700.Charleswaspronetofitsbroughtonby

  epilepsy.Hewassmallinheightandpuny,disfiguredfroma

  bonedisease,andmentallyretarded.Histonguewassolarge

  he could barely be understood, and he drooled constantly.

  Unable to produce an heir, at his death the throne passed

  outoftheHabsburgsintothehandsoftheBourbonfamily

  toPhilipofAnjou,alsoknowasPhilpV,thegrandsonofthe

  FrenchKingLouisXIV.(Philip’sgrandmotherwasaSpanish

  Habsburg.)

  Since he was not from Spain nor a true Habsburg, the

  new king was forced to engage in a war with the Austrians,

  anotherbranchoftheHabsburglineage,todefendhisacces-

  siontotheSpanishthrone.Formorethan10years,theWar

  oftheSpanishSuccession(1701–1714)draggedon,withSpain

  becoming a bloody fighting ground. Although Philip V kept

  histhrone,helostlands.GibraltarandtheislandofMinorca

  went to England, and the Catholic Netherlands (present-day

  Flanders),Belgium,andLuxembourgwenttoAustria.Philip

  then devoted much of the remainder of his reign fighting

  needless and expensive wars to control parts of Italy and

  to regain the Catholic Netherlands. He spent huge sums of

  moneyonhisarmies,whileignoringtheSpanishcountryside

  andhissubjects.

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  FRANCISCO GOyA

  a NeGLeCteD NatiON

  Spain was a neglected sovereignty during Philip’s 46-year

  reign.MetalfromSpain’scoloniesintheNewWorldwasused

  to purchase many of the industrialized goods the kingdom

  needed, but they were not bought from Spanish artisans or

  craftsmen.Instead,thesegoodswerepurchasedfromEnglish

  andDutchmerchantsandtraders.Inthemeantime,domestic

  industryinSpainfloundered,withthecountryrackedbyhigh

  inflationbroughtonbytheeasyavailabilityofgoldandsilver.

  ThisabundanceofpreciousmetalskeptPhilipfromworking

  hardtoadvancethelevelofdomesticindustry,allowingwhole

  partsofhiseconomytolanguish.Entireregionsofhisking-

  dom remained unproductive. There were 17 universities in

  Spain,butperhapsasmanyas90percentofthestudents“reg-

  istered as a mask for idleness.”14 Many students either lived

  offthefoodtheypickedupatlocalmonasteriesorbeggedon

  streetcorners.Evenataglance,examplesoftheking’sneglect

  ofSpaincouldbeseen:

  The capital city of Madrid had no centrally organized refuse

  collectionandnocoherentstreetlightingorcleaningservice.

  The police force was lackadaisical in the cities and virtually

  unknown in the countryside, where banditry was a well-rec-

  ognizeddanger.Thiswasmadeeveneasierbythefactthatthe

  Spanish road system was almost totally undeveloped. Rutted

  andbumpyroadsnotonlyslowedtravelers,whobecamethe

  bandits’ prey, but also made pursuit of the thieves difficult.

  Thislackofthemostelementaryservicesandprotectionswas

  onlythebeginningofthenationalgovernment’sdeficiencies.

  Therewasnosystematicattemptateducationbythegovern-

  ment, little encouragement of agricultural reforms and few

  innovationsinindustrialormercantilemethods....Fewfarm-

  ers took any interest in the intelligent management of agri-

  culture—crop rotation and irrigation, for example—and the

  qualityofalandnonetoobountifultobeginwithgrewworse

  witheachpassingyear.15

  Vague Beginnings

  21

  King Philip V, the first ruler of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain, held the crown

  from 1700 to 1746. For nearly half a century under his leadership, Spain

  floundered industrially, socially, and militarily. The losses of land following

  the War of Spanish Succession that he fought greatly reduced the Spanish

  Empire in Europe.

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  FRANCISCO GOyA

  BythelastyearofPhilipV’sreign,theyearofGoya’sbirth,

  “Spain...wasastagnant,ifnotdecadent,socialorganism.”16

  It is not surprising that many eighteenth-century Spaniards,

  includingGoya,consideredthekingshipofSpainasacrown

  ofquestionablerelevancetotheirlives.

  stOries OF His YOUtH

  There are many stories about Goya that have come down

  throughtheyears,butwhethertheydescribeeventsthatactu-

  allytookplaceornotisunclear.Somestoriestellofayoung

  Goya drawing pictures on the walls of his humble home,

  perhapsthefirstsignhewouldonedaybeatrueartist.While

  thepictureshedrewasanadultoftenfeaturelandscapesand

  backgroundsthatmirrorhissadvillageandthesurrounding

  Aragonese countryside, there is no actual proof to back up

  suchromanticclaims.

  Another story tells of a priest carrying a bag of wheat to

  thelocalmillonedayandpassingbytheyoungGoyawhowas

  drawingapictureofapigonavillagewallwiththeblackened

  end of a charred stick. Impressed by what he saw, the priest

  askedtheyouthwhohadtaughthimtodraw.Goyatoldthe

  priestthatnoonehad.Realizingtheyouthtobeatalentwith

  noteacher,thepriestmadearrangementsforGoyatobesent

  todrawingschoolinSaragossa.Yetsuchastoryisnotunique

  toGoya.Asimilartaleistoldofthethirteenth-centuryItalian

  painter, Cimabue, who spotted a young shepherd drawing a

  picture of a sheep on a rock. Impressed, Cimabue asked the

  boy if he would like to become an artist. The youth and his

  father excitedly agreed. In time, the young man became one

  ofthegreatestpaintersoftheearlyRenaissance,Giotto.Such

  stories,whenrepeated,becomemorequestionablewitheach

  newtelling.

  a mOVe tO saraGOssa

  FuendetodoswasthefamilyhomefromyoungGoya’sinfancy

  throughhisearlyadolescence.JoséandGraciahadonlymoved

  tothesmall,ruralcommunityafterGraciainheritedhersmall

  Vague Beginnings

  23

  dowry.Theretheytriedtoliveoutthefantasyoftheirnobility

  off the income from the estate. Things had not worked out,

  however.Joséhadactedthepartofthenobleman,butheand

  hisfamilystilllivedinaramshacklehouse,andJoséworked

  the fields as any other peasant might. The family moved to

 
Saragossa between 1758 and 1760 just as young Goya was

  growing into his early teen years. There, José could take up

  hiscraftasagilder.(WhilelivingatFuendetodos,hewasnot

  allowedtopracticehistrade,since“noblemen”werekeptfrom

  performing any “useful” work.) His fortunes did not change

  markedly.Throughouttheremainderofhislife,Joséstruggled

  to make ends meet. When he died years later, his official

  deathregistrystatedsadlythat“hediedwithoutleavingawill,

  becausehehadnothingwhatever.”17

  While life might not have improved for José and Gracia

  insocialstatusandwealth,itprovedanimportantchangefor

  young Francisco. José enrolled his three sons in the Escuela

  Pia, a local school under the direction of Father Joaquin of

  theteachingorderofEscolopes.(Goyahadtwoolderbroth-

  ers: Camillo, who would become a priest, and Tomas, who

  would be a gilder like his father.) The school was similar to

  manyacrossSpain,wheremonksandpriestsservedasteachers

  andreligiousguides.TheEscuelaPiawaslittlemorethanan

  adequateinstitutionwhereyoungGoyalearnedtheessentials

  ofreadingandwriting,pickedupsomeLatinthroughRoman

  literature,andlearnedsimplerhetoric.Joséwantedhisboysto

  havesomethingofaneducation,eveniftheEscuelaPiawasthe

  onlyschoolhecouldafford.

  Perhaps the most important result of young Francisco’s

  days at the Escuela Pia was that he met a young man who

  wouldchangehislifeforever.FellowstudentMartinZapater,

  “a stable, sensible fellow,”18 would remain Goya’s friend for

  manydecades.TheadultGoyawouldrefertoZapaterinhis

  letters as “The Good Martin.”19 In their adult years, Zapater

  wouldprovetobeGoya’soppositeinnature.WhenGoyawas

  reckless, Zapater was controlled. When Goya was depressed,

  hisfriendMartinwouldhelphimrecover.Althoughhisfriend

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  FRANCISCO GOyA

  neverachievedgreatness,Goyaoftenusedhimasasounding

  boardfornewideasandinspirations.Theirlongtimefriend-

  ship,however,wouldhaveadarksideaswell.AsGoyabecame

  more famous, he seemed to take delight in measuring the

  distance he had moved ahead in life even as Martin Zapater