Act-1

I am still learning

Born March 30, 1746
Fuendetodos, Zaragoza Spain
Died April 15, 1828
Bordeaux, France




I am Goya!... I am the voice Of war, the charred wood of towns...

I am the throat of the woman who’s hanged body, like a bell,

Clanged over the empty square...I am Goya!

By Andrei Voznesensky





The self portrait image above is a an ink-wash drawing Goya did at near the age of fifty. The original is in the metropolitan museum of Art in New York City.


During the time that Goya lived and painted, Spain, the place of his birth, went through repeated upheaval and periods of extreme violent crisis. He lived through the political dysfunction of changing leadership in Spain, the revival of the Inquisition, military occupation of Spain by France, and the installment of Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte as the King of Spain.
Afterwards, when the oppressive Spanish King Ferdinand VII was reinstated as monarch, Goya was "officially rehabilitated" along with other Spanish notables, but this situation was pre-empted by another revolution (1820), in which general Rafael Riego led insurgents against the King, and put in place a new government and liberal constitution. However, with military backing, King Ferdinand was back in power by 1822.
Despite the fact he was named to the highest privileged position for an artist in Spain, "First Painter to the King," Goya, as did many others, left the country in a search for stability. Though he would return on trips to the Spain he had lived in for most of his eighty-some years, Goya died an exile in Bordeaux, France.
Goya has often been accused by some writers for an apparent misanthropy and general bitterness toward the world. They overlook that Goya's work repetitiously disdains cruelty, arrogance, and savagely attacks - - sometimes with satire, but often with blunt reportage - - the venal practices of the powerful people he knew. That Spain was in Goya's affections is not disputable; but that he harbored a loathing for the weaknesses and the proud cruelties, the moral chaos and the failure of intellectual ideals that added to the chaos, is discernible in the evolution of Goya's approach to presenting images, and chiefly in his choices of subject matter. He was, above all, an artist, and as a man, one who learned about the failures around him by experiencing them himself.

"His analysis in paint, chalk and ink of mass disaster and human frailty
pointed to someone obsessed with the chaos of existence..."


From the book on Goya

by Sarah Symmons (1998).


Act-2

Room and the wall as space of expression


In this session I am dealing with series of work done by goya in 1820 which are known as black paintings .they are all the sort of hidden expressions on the walls of the houses he lived series dark and oppressive imageries
Thisis more art history oriented writing with reference of art historical writing on black paintings .later in the act 3 I will compare and probe in to cinematic transformation of these paintings


The anxiety and danger in which Goya lived duringthe years prior to 1820, and also in the years following the restorationof the King’s absolute power, were the reasons for his not havingPublished them, and that, in order to protect himself from any possible danger that might result from their interpretation, he only kept a series of proofs, to which he gave these vague titles, under the general heading of Disparities, so as to render them completely inoffensive.

They thereby became totally devoid of comment or criticism mere disparate even though initial purpose may have been to criticize actual deeds or events.
Their meaning would only be apparent to thosewho knew his own hidden thoughts and opinions concerning the politicalsituation of the time. The same spirit lay behind them as lay behind thepaintings on the walls of the two rooms in his Quinta property: the?black paintings?, so called because of the dominance of that colour.

This property, from the bill of sale dated 27 February 1819, consistedof some ten hectares of cultivated ground and a small house, situated onthe far side of the Manzanares, with extensive views over the city. The house was enlarged by Goya, and he himself decorated two rooms in this extension, one on each of its two floors. One was intended to be used asa reception room, and the other as a dining room. He painted them in away that was unusual by any standards, since, from a technical point ofview, it is extremely rare for oil paints to be applied directly toplain whitewashed walls. It is also a technique that renders the painthighly susceptible to deterioration.



The fourteen paintings that comprise the two groups were completed afterhis serious illness in 1820. The mysterious quality of the differentscenes depicted and the fact that their meaning is so hard to interpret,does not mean that they developed piecemeal as work progressed, with noprevious overall plan. In the inventory drawn up by Brugada after Goya’sdeath, mention is made of seven small preparatory sketches, which showsthat he prepared this decorative scheme with the same care that he gaveall his other works.

In fact, a number of small sketches have recentlycome to light that may well have been done by Goya, and it is possiblethat they are the same ones that Brugada came across while preparing hisinventory.



Personally, I am unconvinced by the various attempts to explain the two groups of paintings in terms of their philosophical and symbolic meaning, but there does undoubtedly exist a relationship between thedifferent compositions, and in order to interpret them?to read them?we must examine precisely the way in which they relate physically one toanother, both side by side and face to face. It also seems certain thatthe underlying feeling which Goya gave the paintings was linked to hisrelationship with Leocadia Weiss, a young and beautiful woman, who wasliving with him at the time, as well as to a conscious awareness of hisold age, the inevitability of death and a general disillusionment withlife and his fellow men. Ail these elements combined to make him paintthese great, nightmarish compositions. Their colouring is not black there are other shades and tones, which combine to produce anoverpowering feeling of gloom, nowadays further accentuated by thecondition of the paintings. Black however, would certainly describe Goya’s mental state as revealed by the pictures, which can only be described as reflections of deep-seated pessimism. We have no alternative but to interpret them by using the titles given them by his family, which we know through Brugada’s inventory and a later description of the pictures by Yriarte. Both of these sources agree with each other on all the main points and they confirm that the traditional titles were still being used by the family in 1867.



In the room on the ground floor, on each side of the main door, theinventories state that there were two portraits, of the master andmistress of the house, with, on the left hand side, la Leocadia thiswas the name by which Leocadia Weiss, the woman who lived with Goya, was commonly known - leaning against a mound surmounted by a low railing,which must be interpreted as belonging to a grave (pages 147, 148- 149).

it is also possible that the pose was derived from an engraving by Ribera, known as The Poet. On the right are the Two Old Men, one ofWhat is certain is that on the walls opposite the door into the room, oneach side of the window, we again encounter the two protagonists, hiddenbehind the cloak of their symbolic representation: Leocadia appears as Judith, an obvious allusion to the latter?s victory over Holofernes by virtue of beauty and treachery, while Goya appears as Saturn eating one of his children. Saturn symbolizes melancholy and the passing hours devoured by him. It has recently been suggested on the basis of early photographs that Saturn appeared with his member erect, a representationhich would give a clear picture of the reasons for the liaison with Leocadia: a picture completed by the portrait of Judith and Holofernes.

If that was indeed the case, then Goya’s relationship with Leocadia through those long, lonely years,could be explained by a combination of his desire for her and a terror of becoming her victim, as Holofernes had become the victim of Judith.
Next m Leocadia, on the main wall, was a portrayal of /The Witches Sahbath, /in which the Devil appears as a horned goat, surrounded by his female disciples, all of them hags, except for the enigmatic figure of a young woman, almost a child, who bears no relation to the bestial conclave in which she finds herself. The significance of this figure inthe composition, however, remains a mystery.



On the opposite side of the room was the /Pilgrimage of St. Isidorein which groups of people and couples wander throughan arid landscape in the far distance, while in the foreground a groupof young figures are singing at the top of their voices. If one comparesthis scene with that of the Meadow of St. Isidore paintedin 1788, the extent of

Goya's profound spiritual transformation becomes immediately apparent.The latter exudes all the joie de vivre of a spring evening, with the buildings of Madrid bathed in a pink and white light in the distance,and the majos and majas picnicking and chatting on the grass. InQuinta del Sordo, in the painting that both inventories describe as
Pilgrimage of St. Isidore the countryside is scorched and the men wander aimlessly through it. The joie de vivre has become melancholy,with an element of violent anguish in the expressions of the frenzied singers in the foreground. Between la leocadia and the counterpartportrait of Goya, above the door, was the painting of Two Old MerrEating, probably an illusion to the door?s function: it may well have been the one through which dishes from the kitchen were brought in.



In order to visualize the appearance of either room, we must bear in mind what Yriarte wrote, and also what the paintings themselves tell us.The rooms were of very modest dimensions?, which would have made the figures in the paintings seem larger: certainly larger than they now appear in the museum in which they are housed. This would also have made them appear even more overpowering. It should be remembered, too, that,according to the inventories, the furniture was upholstered in yellow,which would have further emphasized the gloominess of the paintings, as would the matching yellow curtains that in all probability framed the doors and windows.



In the case of the first floor room, we have not been able to establish such clear links between the different compositions, but undoubtedly the overall theme was that of death, and, as has already been said, the significance of each painting would have been enhanced by its physical relationship to others in the group.

To the left of the door was Atropos or The Fates a picture that still remains an

Enigma there are, as is well known, only three Fates, but what, then,is the identity of the fourth figure, whose wrists appear to be bound?

The next scene, on the other side of the door or window, was the one called The Strangers or Cowherds in the inventories, which iscommonly known as The Fight with Cudgels. It shows two men fighting with cudgels, locked in mortal combat and imprisoned up to their knees in mud or sand. In painting this composition, Goya was recalling Saavedro Fajardos 75th allegory or 'emblem', Bellum colligrit qui discordias seminat, which, according to the authors interpretation,means: 'Medea sows [in order to prepare for the theft of the GoldenFleece the teeth of serpents ... and squadrons of armed men spring forth, who, fighting amongst each other, are destroyed...'. Theengraving of the scene shows a fight between men who seem to be buried up to their waists or half submerged in water. Saavedra went on to clarify his allegory by explaining how some Princes stir up discord, and thereby find themselves faced by wars and unrest within their countries.

By fermenting disharmony, they think they will be able to enjoy peace and quiet, but things turn out quite contrary to their designs. At thetime that Goya was recalling this allegory, it could well have been applied to the policies of Ferdinand Vll and to Spanish politics in general.

Opposite the wall of the entrance door, on both sides of the door orwindow, were the compositions of Two Men, as it is called in Brugadas inventory, or The Poiticians, as Yriarte describes it, and Two Women or, alternatively, /Two Women laughing their heads off The latter painting, which shows two women laughing at a man indulging in the vice of Onan, would seem to hold the key to the meaning of both works. The incessant talk of the politicians, one of whom is reading a newspaper that they seem to be passing comment on amongst themselves, was perhaps, in Goya?s eyes, as sterile as the solitarypleasure which the women are making fun of.



On the wall to the right of the entrance.door, which must have beendivided by a door or window, were the Pilgrimage to the Fountain of St.Isidoreand Asmodea. Asmodea is spelled with the feminine a ending, rather rhan as Asmodeus the conventional spelling for the evil slayer of husbands, but we do not know the reason for this change of gender; nor do we know why she is shown flying over groups of warring soldiers or what significance there is in the mountain that dominates the scene in the background. In the case of the Pilgrimage (also known

as the Holy Off ice), however, with its figures in 17th century dress,we can assume rhat there is a connection with the steps taken by Ferdinand Vll to revive the inquisition soon after his restoration to the throne. This was an anti-liberal measure, which Goya seems to haveclassified as anachronistic by the old-fashioned dress he gave the black-clad man on the right, with his large collar, like the ones worn during the 16th and 17th centuries. There is also an implicit criticism in the grotesque way that he has portrayed the monks in the procession.

Finally, next to the door was the most enigmatic of all the paintings:The Dog, whose significance Yriarte clarified by defining it as A Dog fghting against the Current /(page 147). Perhaps this is how Goya saw his own situation: as a dog who was barely able to keep his head above the water or the sand, a personificarion of the proverbial ?swimming against the current?. We have already stated on several occasions that these murals in La Quinta were conceived in the same spirit as the Proverbs. there are also a number of other, small compositions that were inspired by the same sentiments: the four in Besancon Museum, for example, and other series, of which four are in the museum in Munich and two are in Spanish collections

All of these contain certain elements that link them thematically to some of the lithographs of the same period. As far as portraits from this time are concerned,
their scarcity indicates Goya?s growing isolation, since the only onesthat he did paint were of his closest friends: men such as Dr. Arrieta,who, as has already been mentioned, appears in a portrait along with the artist himself, and also Ramon Satue and Tiburcio Pe?rez Cuervo, in whose house Rosario Weiss took refuge, and DonJose?Duaso

in whose home the artist himself sought refuge during the early months of 1824, when he felt that he was in danger of arraignment. As well as these, he did a portrait drawing of Francisco Otin, Duaso?s nephew,and an extremely fine portrait of Maria Martinez de Puga, about whom we know nothing, but in whose portrait, by his sober composition and his brilliant use of black, Goya achieved a monumental quality similar to that of his later Bordeaux portraits.