Painter of Kings and Demons

When asked to name some Spanish artists, the majority will answer Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí before thinking of Francisco Goya. Goya is a name recognised by many, but the same cannot be said about his long life. Considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Goya bridges the gap between the Old Masters and modern art. During his career, Goya worked for the Spanish court before turning to darker, delusional themes that suggest he struggled with his mental health.

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was born on 30th March 1746, in Fuendetodos, Aragón, Spain, to lower-middle-class parents. Around his third birthday, the family moved to the city of Zaragoza, where his father oversaw the gilding and ornamentation of the Santa Maria del Pilar (Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar). At 14, Goya studied under the painter José Luzán (1710-85) before moving to Madrid at 18 to study with Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-77).

Twice, Goya applied to study at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, but after the second failed attempt, he decided to try his luck in Rome, Italy. A gap of at least a decade is missing from Goya’s biography after he moved to Rome, leaving historians to speculate about his movements. Early biographers suggest Goya either worked for a Russian diplomat or earned money as a street acrobat.

Records reveal Goya earned second place in a painting competition held in Parma in 1771, then returned to Zaragoza to paint frescoes in the Basilica of the Pillar and the Charterhouse of Aula Dei. Around this time, Goya began studying with Francisco Bayeu y Subías (1734-95), through whom he met and married Bayeu’s sister, Josefa (1747-1812), in July 1773. Their first child, Antonio Juan Ramon Carlos, was born thirteen months later.

Bayeu helped Goya earn a commission for a series of tapestry cartoons for the Royal Tapestry Factory in 1777. The project lasted five years, during which time Goya designed 42 patterns, which later hung in the residences of the Spanish monarchy. Unfortunately, the work put a strain on Goya’s physical health, and he frequently succumbed to illnesses. With some tapestry cartoons measuring eight by ten feet, the task became too difficult for Goya. He also felt it restricted his artistic development because tapestries could not capture the same tones and textures as paintings.

Goya’s fortunes changed in 1783 when Count José Moñino of Floridablanca (1728-1808) commissioned Goya to paint his portrait. Moñino was a favourite of King Charles III (1716-88) and his half-brother Luis (1727-85), whom Goya briefly befriended. In 1786, the king offered Goya a salaried position as his personal painter, which transferred to King Charles IV (1748-1819) in 1789.

As First Court Painter, Goya earned 50,000 reales a year, with an allowance of 500 ducats for transport. Among his work for the king is the life-size group portrait of Charles IV of Spain and His Family (1800-1801), which features 14 figures, including Goya. Critics liken this painting to Diego Velázquez’s Las Meninas (1656), in which the artist includes himself looking at the viewer from behind a canvas. Unlike Velázquez‘s informal group portrait with figures conducting various tasks, Goya shows the royal family’s importance through stiff poses. Rather than only painting Charles IV, his wife and his children, the king wished to include other family members, such as his brother, his sister, his future daughter-in-law, his son-in-law and his first grandchild, Carlos Luis (1799-1883).

Goya’s connection with the king earned him many prestigious commissions amongst the highest ranks of Spanish nobility. Patrons included the Duke of Osuna, the Duke of Alba and Prime Minister Manuel Godoy (1767-1851). It is widely believed the latter commissioned Goya to paint La maja desnuda, the first life-size female nude in Western art without allegorical or mythological meaning. Goya also painted a clothed version called La maja vestida, in which the unidentified model reclines in the same pose. Suggestions for the model’s identity range from María Cayetana de Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba (1762-1802), to Pepita Tudó, Godoy’s mistress. Unable to pinpoint who the lady is, many critics believe she is a product of Goya’s imagination.

In the early 1790s, Goya suffered from a mysterious illness, leaving him deaf. The condition affected Goya’s mental health, which is evident in his paintings. Goya began depicting nightmarish elements in his work, such as Yard with Lunatics, which shows “a yard with lunatics, and two of them fighting completely naked while their warder beats them, and others in sacks.” Goya claimed it was a scene he witnessed at Zaragoza, yet his choice to paint it while recovering from an illness says a lot about his state of mind.

Art critics suggest Yard with Lunatics reflects Goya’s fear that he was going mad. Many historians believe Goya suffered from viral encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), which causes tinnitus, deafness and delusional thoughts, among other more serious symptoms. Others suggest Ménière’s disease, which affects the inner ear. Lead poisoning is another theory because Goya used large amounts of lead white paint. It is impossible to determine a definite diagnosis, but the illness marked a turning point in Goya’s career as an artist.

In 1808, the French invaded Spain, leading to the Peninsular War, which lasted until 1814. Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844), the older brother of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), usurped the Spanish throne, leaving Goya in a precarious position as First Court Painter. Goya claims he kept neutral during the war but continued to produce paintings for French patrons. After the restoration of the Spanish King Ferdinand VII (1784-1833) in 1814, Goya continued working in the royal courts but never painted anything at the request of the king. Any portraits produced of Ferdinand were commissioned by other members of the court.

Goya witnessed several events during the Peninsular War, which may have contributed to his health woes. He also lost his wife in 1812, and only one of their seven children lived past infancy. In 1814, Goya painted two war scenes titled The Second of May 1808 and The Third of May 1808, which art historians believe he did not witness in person but heard about in stories. The first painting, also known as The Charge of the Mamelukes, depicts an uprising of Spanish people against the Mamelukes of the French Imperial Guard. The French received instructions to charge and subdue the rioters, but instead, the revolt became a chaotic, ferocious melee.

The Third of May 1808 is set a few hours after the riot. Hundreds of Spaniards involved in the uprising were rounded up and shot in various locations around Madrid. Unlike The Second of May 1808, in which Goya attempted to depict the Spanish as heroic, the second painting has no motive other than to record the executions. Art historian Kenneth Clark (1903-83) described it as “the first great picture which can be called revolutionary in every sense of the word, in style, in subject, and in intention.” The position of the man standing with his arms raised later inspired Gerald Holtom’s (1914-85) international peace symbol:
“I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing squad. I formalised the drawing into a line and put a circle round it.”

From 1819 onwards, Goya began to retreat from public life. Whilst he continued completing some royal commissions, much of his work he produced privately. He moved to a small cottage outside the city, which people referred to as La Quinta del Sordo (The House of the Deaf Man). Fearing old age and madness, Goya’s paintings became even darker. Fourteen artworks produced between 1819 and 1823 are collectively known as the Black Paintings because they demonstrate Goya’s bleak outlook on humanity. Goya poured his fears and the panic, terror, and hysteria he experienced during the war into these artworks, which include Saturn Devouring His Son, Judith and Holofernes, and Witches’ Sabbath.

Goya’s Black Paintings were never exhibited in his lifetime, and he likely never intended to show anyone these works. The disturbing themes indicate Goya was not of sound mind during his final years, but so does how he produced the paintings. Rather than using canvases or wooden boards, Goya painted directly onto the walls of his cottage. Fred Licht (1928-2019), in his book Goya: The Origins of the Modern Temper in Art, wrote, “these paintings are as close to being hermetically private as any that have ever been produced in the history of Western art.” Following Goya’s death, the walls were carefully demolished to preserve the murals, which now reside in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

Despite his hermit-like ways, Goya had a live-in maid called Leocadia Weiss (1788-1856), a widow with a young daughter, Rosario, who also lived at the cottage. Weiss met Goya at the wedding of his son Javier, which suggests she may have been related to the bride’s family. Weiss left her unhappy marriage to Isidore Weiss, a Jewish jeweller, in 1811, leaving many wondering about the identity of Rosario’s father, who was born three years later. Some suspect Goya, who is listed as Rosario’s godfather, but there is no evidence Goya and Weiss were ever romantically attached.

Although Goya struggled with his health, he taught Rosario how to draw. She studied with him until 1823 when she started receiving lessons from the architect Tiburcio Pérez. Goya spent the final year of his life paralyzed on his right side following a stroke, eventually passing away on 16th April 1828. He left nothing in his will to Weiss or her daughter, and both women contested the will, suggesting a closer relationship than maid and pupil, but Goya’s son denied them anything. Weiss spent the remainder of her life in poverty, as did her ex-husband. Rosario continued to develop her artistic career but passed away at age 28 from cholera.

Following his death, Goya was buried at a local church. Later, the Spanish consul reinterred his body in the Real Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida (Royal Chapel of St. Anthony of La Florida) in Madrid. On digging up Goya’s body, they discovered the skull was missing. The whereabouts of Goya’s skull remain a mystery.

Goya’s 82 years of life have been immortalised in contemporary films, such as Goya’s Ghosts (2006), starring Stellan Skarsgård (b.1951) as Goya and Natalie Portman (b. 1981) as the artist’s model. Goya has influenced many artists since his death, including Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Salvador Dalí (1904-89), who admired his Black Paintings.

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