Francisco Goya, The Great Hispanic Heritage Page 3
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.
2
Schooling
for Life
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.Ӡ 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: