Goya (y Lucientes), Francisco (José) de (b. March 30, 1746, Fuendetodos, Spain--d.

April
16, 1828, Bordeaux, Fr.), consummately Spanish artist whose multifarious paintings,
drawings, and engravings reflected contemporary historical upheavals and influenced
important 19th- and 20th-century painters. Like Velázquez, Goya was a Spanish court painter
whose best work was done apart from his official duties. He is known for his scenes of
violence, especially those prompted by the French invasion of Spain. The series of etchings
Los desastres de la guerra ("The Disasters of War", 1810-14) records the horrors of the
Napoleonic invasion. His masterpieces in painting include The Naked Maja and The Clothed
Maja (c. 1800-05). He also painted charming portraits such as Senora Sabasa Garcia.

For the bold technique of his paintings, the haunting satire of his etchings, and his belief that
the artist's vision is more important than tradition, Goya is often called "the first of the
moderns." His uncompromising portrayal of his times marks the beginning of 19th-century
realism.

Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes was born on March 30, 1746, in Fuendetodos, a village
in northern Spain. The family later moved to Saragossa, where Goya's father worked as a
gilder. At about 14 young Goya was apprenticed to Jose Luzan, a local painter. Later he
went to Italy to continue his study of art. On returning to Saragossa in 1771, he painted
frescoes for the local cathedral. These works, done in the decorative rococo tradition,
established Goya's artistic reputation.

U seriji od 80 grafika pod imenom Kaprici (Los caprichos), objavljenoj prvi put 1799. godine,
Goja direktno napada političke, društvene i religijske prilike i dogme, koristeći se tada
popularnom tehnikom karikature, ali obogaćujući je svojim umjetničkim kvalitetima i
nesvakidašnjom dovitljivošću. Njegovo majstorsko korišćenje upravo u to vrijeme razvijene
tehnike akvatinte, naročito njenih tonalnih mogućnosti, daju Kapricima dramatičnu vitalnost,
zbog čega mnogi ugledni istoričari i kritičari umjetnosti, smatraju Kaprice najvećim
dostignućem u istoriji grafike. Nekoliko mjeseci kasnije, Goja postaje prvi slikar kraljevskog
dvora.

From 1775 to 1792 Goya painted cartoons (designs) for the royal tapestry factory in Madrid.
This was the most important period in his artistic development. As a tapestry designer, Goya
did his first genre paintings, or scenes from everyday life.

The experience helped him become a keen observer of human behavior. He was also
influenced by neoclassicism, which was gaining favor over the rococo style. Finally, his study
of the works of Velázquez in the royal collection resulted in a looser, more spontaneous
painting technique.

U onima koje radi u narednom periodu, primjećuje se progresivno udaljavanje od umjetničkih

tradicija koje dolaze izvan Španije i razvoj vlastitog stila, kao posljedica studija djela slikara
Dijega Velaskeza, koja su se tada nalazila u kraljevskoj riznici. Goja studira Velaskeza preko
slobodnih kopija njegovih djela koristeći se različitim tehnikama grafike. Mnogo kasnije, u
svojim spisima bilježi: „Priznajem samo tri majstora: Velaskeza, Rembranta i povrh svega
prirodu“. Rembrantove grafike su za Goju bile izvor inspiracije u njegovim kasnijim crtežima
i grafikama, dok su mu slike Velaskeza pokazale put prema studiji prirode i otkrile tajne
likovnog jezika realizma.
At the same time, Goya achieved his first popular success. He became established as a portrait
painter to the Spanish aristocracy. He was elected to the Royal Academy of San Fernando in
1780, named painter to the king in 1786, and made a court painter in 1789.

A serious illness in 1792 left Goya permanently deaf. Isolated from others by his deafness, he
became increasingly occupied with the fantasies and inventions of his imagination and with
critical and satirical observations of mankind. He evolved a bold, free new style close to
caricature. In 1799 he published the Caprichos, a series of etchings satirizing human folly and
weakness. His portraits became penetrating characterizations, revealing their subjects as Goya
saw them. In his religious frescoes he employed a broad, free style and an earthy realism
unprecedented in religious art.

He expressed his horror of armed conflict in The Disasters of War, a series of starkly realistic
etchings on the atrocities of war.

From 1819 to 1824 Goya lived in seclusion in a house outside Madrid. Free from court
restrictions, he adopted an increasingly personal style. In the Black Paintings, executed on the
walls of his house, Goya gave expression to his darkest visions. A similar nightmarish quality
haunts the satirical Disparates, a series of etchings also called Proverbios.

In 1824, after the failure of an attempt to restore liberal government, Goya went into
voluntary exile in France. He settled in Bordeaux, continuing to work until his death there on
April 16, 1828. Today many of his best paintings hang in Madrid's Prado art museum.

Francisco Goya, considered to be "the Father of Modern Art," began his painting career just
after the late Baroque period. Over the course of his long career, Goya moved from jolly and
lighthearted to deeply pessimistic and searching in his paintings, drawings, etchings, and
frescoes. Goya was one of the first artists to make human madness a major theme in his
work. Many of Goya's paintings, such as "Saturn Devouring His Children" (shown here) and
etchings depict madness, and even his portraits often emphasized the neurotic and decadent
nature of his subjects.

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.

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

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