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FRANCISCO GOYA Y LUCIENTES (1746-1828)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 303 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FRANCISCO See also:

GOYA Y LUCIENTES (1746-1828)  , See also:Spanish painter, was See also:born iii 1746 at Fuendetodos, a small Aragonese See also:village near See also:Saragossa . At an See also:early See also:age he commenced his See also:artistic career under the direction of Jose Luzan Martinez, who had studied See also:painting at See also:Naples under Mastroleo . It is clear that the accuracy in See also:drawing Luzan is said to have acquired by diligent study of the best See also:Italian masters did not much See also:influence his erratic See also:pupil . See also:Goya, a true son of his See also:province, was bold, capricious, headstrong and obstinate . He took a prominent See also:part on more than one occasion in those See also:rival religious processions at Saragossa which often ended in unseemly frays; and his See also:friends were led in consequence to despatch him in his nineteenth See also:year to See also:Madrid, where, See also:prior to his departure for See also:Rome, his mode of See also:life appears to have been anything but that of a quiet orderly See also:citizen . Being a See also:good musician, and gifted with a See also:voice, he sallied forth nightly, serenading the caged beauties of the See also:capital, with whom he seems to have been a very See also:general favourite . Lacking the necessary royal patronage, and probably scandalizing by his mode of life the sedate See also:court officials, he did not receive —perhaps did not seek—the usual honorarium accorded to those students who visited Rome for the purpose of study . Finding in convenient to retire for a See also:time from Madrid, he decided to visit Rome at his own cost; and being without See also:rest urces he joined a " quadrilla " of See also:bull-fighters, passing from See also:town to town until he reached the shores of the Mediterranean . We next hear of him reaching Rome, broken in See also:health and financially bankrupt . In 1772 he was awarded the second See also:prize in a competition initiated by the See also:academy of See also:Parma, styling himself " pupil to Bayeu, painter to the See also:king of See also:Spain." Compelled to quit Rome somewhat suddenly, he appears again in Madrid in 1775, the See also:husband of Bayeu's daughter, and See also:father of a son . About this time he appears to have visited his parents at Fuendetodos, no doubt noting much which later on he utilized in his genre See also:works . On returning to Madrid he commenced painting canvases for the See also:tapestry factory of See also:Santa See also:Barbara, in which the king took much See also:interest .

Between 1776 and 178o he appears to have supplied See also:

thirty examples, receiving about 1200 for them . Soon after the revolution of 1868, an See also:official was appointed to take an See also:inventory of all works of See also:art belonging to the nation, and in one of the cellars of the Madrid See also:palace were discovered See also:forty-three of these works of Goya on rolls forgotten and neglected (see Los Tapices de Goya; See also:por Cruzado Villaamil, Madrid, 187o) . His originality and See also:talent were soon recognized by See also:Mengs,the king's painter, and royal favour naturally followed . His career now becomes intimately connected with the court life of his time . He was commissioned by the king to See also:design a See also:series of frescoes for the See also:church of St See also:Anthony of See also:Florida, Madrid, and he also produced works for Saragossa, See also:Valencia and See also:Toledo . Ecclesiastical art was not his forte, and although he cannot be said to have .failed in any of his See also:work, his fame was not enhanced by his religious subjects . In See also:portraiture, without doubt, Goya excelled: his portraits are evidently life-like and unexaggerated, and he disdained flattery . He worked rapidly, and during his See also:long stay at Madrid painted, amongst many others, the portraits of four sovereigns of Spain—See also:Charles III. and IV., See also:Ferdinand VII. and " King See also:Joseph." The See also:duke of See also:Wellington also sat to him; but on his making some remark which raised the artist's choler, Goya seized a See also:plaster See also:cast and hurled it at the See also:head of the duke . There are extant two See also:pencil sketches of Wellington, one in the See also:British Museum, the other in a private collection . One of his best portraits is that of the lovely Andalusian duchess of See also:Alva . He now became the spoiled See also:child of See also:fortune, and acquired, at any See also:rate externally, much of the See also:polish of court See also:manners . He still worked industriously upon his own lines, and, while there is a stiffness almost ungainly in the pose of some of his portraits, the stern individuality is always preserved .

Including the designs for tapestry, Goya's genre works are numerous and varied, both in See also:

style and feeling, from his See also:Watteau-like "Al See also:Fresco Breakfast," "Romeria de See also:San Isidro," to the " See also:Curate feeding the See also:Devil's See also:Lamp," the " Meson del Gallo " and the painfully realistic See also:massacre of the " Dos de See also:Mayo " (18o8) . Goya's versatility is proverbial; in his hands the pencil, See also:brush and graver are equally powerful . Some of his See also:crayon sketches of scenes in the bull See also:ring are full of force and See also:character, slight but full of meaning . He was in his thirty-second year when he commenced his etchings from Velasquez, whose influence may, however, be traced in his work at an earlier date . A careful examination of some of the drawings made for these etchings indicates a steadiness of purpose not usually discovered in Goya's See also:craft as draughtsman . He is much more widely known by his etchings than his See also:oils; the latter necessarily must be sought in public and private collections, principally in Spain, while the former are known and prized in every capital of See also:Europe . The etched collections by which Goya is best known include " Los Caprichos," which have a satirical meaning known only to the few; they are bold, weird and full of force . "Los Proverbios" are also supposed to have some hidden intention . "Los Desastres de la Guerra " may fairly claim to depict Spain during the See also:French invasion . In the bull-fight series Goya is evidently at See also:home; he was a skilled See also:master of the barbarous art, and no doubt every See also:sketch is true to nature, and from life . Goya retired from Madrid, desiring probably during his latter years to See also:escape the trying See also:climate of that capital . He died at See also:Bordeaux on the 16th of See also:April 1828, and a See also:monument has been erected there over his remains .

From the deaths of Velasquez and See also:

Murillo to the See also:advent of See also:Fortuny, Goya's name is the only important one found in the See also:history of Spanish art . See also the lives by See also:Paul Lefort (1877), and Yriarte (1867) .

End of Article: FRANCISCO GOYA Y LUCIENTES (1746-1828)
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