Francisco Goya, The Great Hispanic Heritage Read online

  remained a man of little consequence. Until his death, how-

  ever,ZapaterremainedatruefriendandconfidanttoGoya.

  saraGOssa: YOUNG GOYa’s CitY

  OF OppOrtUNitY

  Saragossawasanancientcity,datingbacktothefirst-century

  a.d. reign of Roman emperor August Caesar. The city had

  witnessed international struggle numerous times throughout

  itshistory.TheGermanicGothscapturedthetownduringthe

  fifthcentury.TheMoslemstookitduringtheeightcentury.A

  centurylater,theFrankishking,Charlemagne,triedtoextend

  hisempiretoincludethecity,butMoslemforceskepthimout.

  ItwouldbeanAragoneseking,AlfonsoI,whofinallywrested

  itfromtheMoorsthreecenturieslater,makingithiscapital.

  Theresultofthisinternationaltug-of-warwasthatSaragossa

  was a city of many roots, one in which its residents could

  “boastthatintheirveinsflowsthebloodofancientIberians,

  Berbers[NorthAfricans],andGoths.”20

  WhentheGoyasarrivedintheoldcapital,Saragossawas

  aprosperouscommunity,wherelocaltradeandtheartswere

  flourishing.Despiteitsrelativesmallsize,thetownwasknown

  foritscultureandschoolingopportunities.Itwasalsothesite

  ofreligiouspilgrimages.Thecitywasfilledwithreligiousrelics,

  includingthebonesofnumerousChristianmartyrs,mostof

  themburiedinthelocalcryptofSantaEngrácia.Itwasthere,

  accordingtolocallegend,that“silverlampsburningallnight

  anddaystrangelyfailedtoblackenthelowceiling,norwould

  thesmokeblackenasheetofwhitepaper.”21 Two ofthecity’s

  greatchurches,LaVirgendelPilarandLaSeo,werebuiltonan

  ancientbasilicaandfeaturedreligiousartwork bysuchsecond-

  tierRenaissanceartistsasRiberaandAndreadelSarto.

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  Schooling

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  Once Goya finished his rudimentary studies with Father

  Joaquin, he progressed on to another religious school, a

  Jesuit-run“college”inSaragossa.Goyadrewtheattentionof

  histutor,FatherPignatelli,apriestwhowasdescendedfrom

  Italiannobility.PignatellinotedtheyoungFrancisco’sdraw-

  ingsandbelievedhisstudenttobeblessedwithaspecialgift.

  HeproposedthatGoyastudyartunderoneofthecity’smost

  importantpainters,JoséLuzányMartinez.

  a NeW teaCHer

  EventsmovedquicklyfortheadolescentGoya.JoséGoyahad

  connections among artists in Saragossa, and he arranged to

  havehissonapprenticedtoMartinezatage14.Martinezwas

  notagreattalenthimself,buthewasthebestthatSaragossa

  hadtooffer.Hewasgoodenoughatage30tobecomeacourt

  painter after which he opened his school. He was a popular

  25

  26

  FRANCISCO GOyA

  teacher, despite his practice of teaching students by having

  them copy from the engravings of more talented European

  artists. Although he never became a first-rate artist, he was

  given the task of serving as an art censor for the Inquisition

  inSaragossa.ThisdreadedarmoftheCatholicChurch,inits

  constantbattleagainstsin,blasphemy,andheresy,usedLuzán

  asReviewerofUnchastePaintings,havinghimtouchupworks

  thatlefttoomuchfleshexposed,adding“hereandtherealeaf,

  agarment,ashadow.”22

  Hourafterhour,youngGoyasatandcopiedfromItalian,

  Flemish, and French engravings. He learned very little.

  Eventually,hewasallowedtodrawbylookingatthree-dimen-

  sionalplastercastsofGreekandRomanbusts.Onlyafterthis

  was young Goya allowed to draw from life and nature itself.

  Yearslater,Goyawouldcommentonthevalueofsuchteach-

  ing, which was still practiced by painters of his day: “They

  confuse their young pupils by making them trace for years,

  with sharply pointed pencils, almond-shaped eyes, mouths

  likearchesorhearts,nosesresemblingthefiguresevenupside

  down,ovalheads.Ah,iftheywerebutallowedtostudynature.

  Natureistheonlymasterofdrawing.”23Copyingthestatues

  ofGreekandRomansculptorsprovidedGoyahisonlymeans

  of learning to re-create the human body in Catholic Spain.

  The conservative religious leaders of the time forbade artists

  frompaintingorsculptingusingfemalenudes.Todosowas

  consideredacrime.

  As an art student, Goya did not reveal himself as having

  the makings of a great artist. He did not create any impor-

  tantworksduringtheseyearsoftraining,andonlyonework

  existedintothetwentiethcentury.Hereceivedacommission

  from the Fuendetodos church in which he was baptized to

  decorate a reliquary, a cabinet in which religious relics are

  stored. The cabinet had two doors, each covering its front

  half.Goyapaintedasetoffakecurtainsabovethedoorswith

  cherubs holding the curtains open, along with a picture he

  titled The Appearance of the Virgin of the Pillar.Then,onthe

  Schooling for Life

  27

  insideofthecabinetpanels,hepaintedtwopictures;oneon

  eachdoor,titlingthem San Francisco de Paulaand The Virgin

  of the Carmen. It is not certain when the reliquary paintings

  weredone.SomearthistorianshavedatedGoya’sdecorations

  asearlyas1758to1760,whenhewasbetween12and14years

  old.Givensomeofthetechnicalaspectsofthework,however,

  especially the artist’s use of light and shading, the work was

  probablymadelater,perhapsin1763.Goyatooknopridein

  thesepaintings,andthereisastorythattellsofhimreturn-

  ing to his old hometown of Fuendetodos in 1808, following

  theNapoleonicWarinSpain,nearly50yearslater.Whenhe

  viewed his handiwork of the reliquary, he nearly denied he

  hadevenpaintedthescenes,statingvehemently:“Don’tsayI

  paintedthose.”24

  Even if the reliquary paintings were little more than an

  early effort, Goya was already taking seriously the idea of

  becoming a professional artist. He appears to have enjoyed

  painting. Becoming a Spanish artist, he knew, would give

  him great latitude in his life. He could work his way further

  upthesocialladderthroughhisartthanbynearlyanyother

  means,except,perhaps,afortunatemarriagetothedaughter

  ofawealthylandownerorstateofficial.Yethealsoknewthat

  Saragossawasnottheplacewherehewouldbecomeanartist

  of note in late eighteenth-century Spain. He would have to

  movetothecenteroftheSpanishartworld,Madrid.

  a NeW HOme iN maDriD

  Atage17,youngFranciscoGoyasetoutforMadrid.Aswith

  somanyothereventsinGoya’stumultuouslife,therearedra-

  maticstoriesatta
chedtohismovefromSaragossatoSpain’s

  cultural center. One tells of the 17-year-old art student hav-

  ingtofleequietlyindisguisefromSaragossabecausehewas

  in trouble with church officials for having a love affair with

  alocalgirl.AnothertaleputsGoyainthemiddleofrivalries

  between the parishioners of different local churches who

  would sometimes clash with one another during religious

  28

  FRANCISCO GOyA

  holydayswhilemarchingthroughthecitystreets.Ironically,

  those religious rivalries sometimes led to violence. One such

  clash led to the stabbing deaths of three young men. When

  thekillingswereinvestigatedbytheCatholicChurch’sGrand

  Inquisitor,hereceivedalistofotheryoungmenwhohadled

  the attack. Topping that list was Goya. Before he could be

  broughtbeforetheInquisition,“theturbulentyouthresolved

  onflight.”25 Whilethestoryiscolorful,thereisnoproofthat

  suchaneventtookplaceorthatGoyawaseverawantedman

  artistiC riVaLs: meNGs aND tiepOLO

  Among the artists invited to create works for the new Royal

  Palace in Madrid were two men, each representing the two

  significant art styles of the day, neoclassicism and rococo. The

  artists were Anton Raphael Mengs and the Venetian painter

  Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Mengs was the neoclassicist, a 33-

  year-old artist “certain that he had discovered in the classical

  style the one true path to beauty.”* He arrived in Madrid

  in 1761.

  Tiepolo arrived the following year, and, in his seventies, had

  accomplished a great artistic career with influences that spread

  from Italy to Germany. He was the last of the original great

  masters of rococo. Tiepolo used warm colors and covered large

  canvases with lively compositions that were free from restraints

  and rules. He painted religious subjects, but he also created pic-

  tures of pagan myths, filled with frolicking gods and goddesses.

  He was commissioned by Carlos III to decorate a huge portion of

  the ceiling of the Royal Palace. He and his two sons produced

  a 140-square-yard fresco called the Apotheosis of the Spanish

  Monarchy, a sprawling, cloud-filled pantheon of cherubs, mytho-

  logical gods, craggy cliffs, and stumpy columns.

  yet, the day of rococo had seemingly past, and the younger

  Mengs had his own supporters in Carlos’s court. He also had a

  giant ego. Mengs was “overwhelmingly ambitious, jealous, hated

  Schooling for Life

  29

  concerningtheInquisition.Itmaybemoreaccuratetosaythat

  GoyawenttoMadridbecauseitwasthenextnaturalstepinhis

  processofbecomingtheartisthewantedtobecome.

  Whenhereachedthecapital,Goyafoundhimselfinacity

  split by two art worlds, both old and new: the neoclassical

  andtherococo.TheneoclassicalwasledbyayoungGerman

  painter, Anton Raphael Mengs. Rococo found its chief sup-

  porterinGiovanniBattistaTiepolo,anoldVenetianpainter.

  The older of the two styles was rococo, an approach to art

  other painters.”** While many art historians today think that

  Mengs had no imagination as an artist, “an ignoramus pretend-

  ing to be a scholar,”*** Carlos wanted the young neoclassicist to

  paint for him so much that he gave into Mengs’s vain and vari-

  ous demands. The king even paid Mengs’s passage to Spain by

  providing him with a large Spanish naval vessel. Once Mengs

  began producing works of art for the king, he was soon elevated

  above Tiepolo. Carlos III appointed Mengs as the director of the

  Royal Academy of San Fernando.

  Mengs was destined to become an important artist in his

  own time. His father had been so determined that his son

  become a painter that he took him to Rome when the boy was

  12 years old and “parked him in the Vatican galleries with a

  hunk of bread and a bottle of water and told him to start copy-

  ing.”† Mengs copied the works before him, producing works of

  the Belvedere collection of antique statuary, the ceiling of the

  Sistine Chapel, and the paintings of his godfather, Raphael.

  * Quoted in richard schickel, The World of Goya, 1746–1828

  (new York: Time-Life Books, 1968), 35.

  ** Quoted in evan s. connell, Francisco Goya: Life and Times

  (new York: counterpoint publishers, 2004), 17.

  *** ibid.

  † ibid., 16.

  30

  FRANCISCO GOyA

  established in France during the early eighteenth century. It

  was a lighter, more graceful, and entirely more playful style

  thanitspredecessor,thebaroquestyle.Asrococowasabreak-

  away style from baroque, so neoclassicism represented an

  attempttoturnawayfromrococo.Bornaboutthesametime

  asGoyahimself,neoclassicismrecalledthepurearchitectural

  andartisticlinesofancientRomeandGreece.Itstrippedaway

  theexcessiveornamentationofboththeheavierbaroqueand

  thewhimsyoftherococo.Goyawouldhavetochoosebetween

  thetwostyles.

  Yet,artisticopportunitiesdidnotautomaticallyopenup

  to Goya. He was sufficiently confident of himself to enter a

  competitionforascholarshiptostudyart.Thecontest,held

  everythreeyears,wassponsoredbytheRoyalAcademyofSan

  Fernando,themostprestigiousartschoolinSpain.Whenthe

  prizewasannouncedinJanuary1764,ananxiousGoyafound

  hehadnotonlyfailedtowinthegrantbuthehadnotreceived

  a single vote. More disappointing, the aspiring young artist

  wouldhavetowaitanotherthreeyearsbeforethenextcom-

  petition. This fact leaves a gap in Goya’s biography. Almost

  nothingisknownabouthisactivitiesfrom1764to1766.Itis

  believedheremainedinMadridwherehecontinuedtoprac-

  ticehisart.Certainly,hehadplentyofartworkstostudyinthe

  city’s churches where religious paintings were in abundance.

  Heprobablystruggledfinancially,livinginthepoorerpartsof

  thecity.Livingonlittleandmakingalmostnothingasanartist

  maywellhavegivenGoyaexperiencesthatwouldlateraffect

  his art. Since many of his adult works were of economically

  lower-classsubjects,includingnotjustthepoor,butoutcasts,

  lunatics,andthecrippledandthemalformed,Goyamayhave

  had many opportunities to associate with such subjects in

  Madrid’staverns,flophouses,andotherdensoflowmorality.

  UNiNspireD LeaDersHip

  EvenifGoyamadenoprogressduringhisfirstyearsinMadrid,

  thecitywasexperiencingextraordinarychangeitself.By1764,

  Schooling for Life

  31

  Spainhadgonewithoutageneralwarformostofageneration,

  first under King Ferdinand VI, then under his half-brother,

  CarlosIII,“whowasperhapstheonlygenuinelyenlightened

  monarch Spain has ever experienced.”26 Short in hei
ght, his

  skinasdarkasmahogany,Carloswasatalented,gentleman,

  evenashewaspronetodepression.Despitehissolidqualities,

  he was boring. He lived and expected his royal court to live

  without excess. He was not prone to drink, he hated music

  and going to the theater, and absolutely despised watching

  bullfights,oneofthemostcommonandpopularactivitiesin

  allofeighteenth-centurySpain.Carlos,afterall,hadleftSpain

  attheageof16andlivedinItalyforthenext27years.

  Ferdinand had managed to institute several important

  reforms in his country. He restructured the navy, abolished

  the state sales tax, and provided government subsidies for

  such industries as mining. He ordered the construction of a

  modern road system as well as a canal system to encourage

  commerce. He encouraged the spread of the Enlightenment

  inSpainandsoughttosupporttheartsandliterature.Itwas

  duringhisreignthattheSpanishRoyalAcademy,whichGoya

  dreamedofattending,wasestablished.TheAcademybecame

  knownforproducingastatedictionarytoestablishastandard

  for the national language. Some of Ferdinand’s reforms and

  intellectualcausescontinuedtoadvanceandeventhriveunder

  hishalf-brother,CarlosIII.

  ForGoya,whomayormaynothavebeenawareofallthe

  king was doing to develop intellectual thought and artistic

  talentinSpain,theheartofhisnewworldwasMadriditself.

  The new Royal Palace, a neoclassical architectural wonder

  with1,200rooms,wasnearlycompletedafter30yearsofcon-

  struction.Tomatchthesplendorofthenewpalace,citywide

  renovationswereundertaken.Streetswerewidenedintobou-

  levards,andnewgovernmentbuildingswereconstructed.The

  newcitywasevenlargerthantheold,itslimitsspillingoutinto

  theformercountryside.Modernstreetlampswereerected,a

  newsewagesystemwasinstalled,andimprovedwater-delivery

  32

  FRANCISCO GOyA

  systemsweredeveloped.Anexpandedandmoreprofessional

  police force was established as well. With the advance of

  SpanishcolonialismintotheAmericas,lifewasfullandrichin

  Madrid,andeverywhereonecouldfindexcitement: