If It’s Goya, It Has To Be Good!
What a fabulously inspired man Goya was! I suppose my tastes tend to air on the side of the bizarre, but I cannot help myself. I am extremely fascinated by his painting style and these 14 or so “Black Period” paintings. I feel that they have such great passion and emotion behind them, more so than his other paintings.
Sometimes I don’t really like Art History, haha. I’m really not fond of the whole Renaissance religious movement of paintings. I’m definitely not interested in the whole Christian themed series of paintings spurned from that movement either. I like paintings with a variety of theme and message. I’m not knocking the religious movemet, christianity, or things related to such. It’s just…well…how many madonna and child pictures can you possibly look at?! It’s repetitive and gets dull.
This tortured artist stuff from Goya? Yeah. I’ll take that any day! I want some art with real heart and soul and a personal touch behind it. I don’t like “trendy” art. Well, okay I do, but I don’t give it the same respect that I do the really personal and meaningful stuff.
While his plight is terrible I’d like to thank those in the Great Beyond for delivering us this tortured soul so that we may discuss the fascinating dark corners of the human psyche. I’m very interested in also checking out the film “Goya’s Ghosts”. It looks like it would contain some fascinating insights on the man.
I’d like to discuss the painting below with all of you today. While my brain sometimes does not allow 100% cohesive or comprehensive setences…I’d like to at least throw my interpretation and views out there for people! Thank you to Prof. Williams Art History II class discussion this week about the social impact and meaning behind Francesco de Goya’s paintings.
The painting “Witches Sabbath/The Great He-Goat” is a painting of Oil on gesso. Sources estimate this painting’s creation between 1820 and 1823 as part of Francesco De Goya’s “Black Period.” This painting depicts a witches seance and gathering with a goat-devil at the helm. In many stories and legends the devil appears as a horned creature or goat-like man beast. This large, hulking, shadowy figure in the foreground dwarfs his cowering followers. One might think that this hulking beast could be the leaders of the Spanish Inquisition, and the cowering figures and deformed faces would be their followers. Perhaps the girl in the corner is representative of the artist. She is put in front of everyone, trapped with her hands in the muff, cornered with no way out.
I would interpret this as the artist seeing himself put on display as a political prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition. Seances and black witches often used young children and virgins as conduits for contacting the spirit world. Just like the girl in the painting, he would be sacrificed for a cause and wouldn’t be able to defend himself. Doing some research it also appears that literature of the time reflected the Devil in a positive light. Perhaps this painting would even have been socially acceptable in some circles.
This site has some fantastic close-ups of the entire image.
I see this painting as a passionate embodiment of the artist’s own struggle and turmoil. During this time in his life he was undergoing personal turmoil. He caught a very serious illness, he went deaf, and was under constant political threat from the ongoing Spanish Inquisition. I would think it hard not to inject this pain and torment into your work when painting is your livlihood. You paint what you feel, what you live, and what you hear or see. When your mood is dark it is only natural for your work to take on that same life! I only wish this man was still alive. I’d love to have spoken with him about his life. Hell, I’d learn sign language to do it even. What a fantastically tormented man.
I’m going to research Goya to all hell. *pardon my pun of sorts*
[As a side note if I might recommend those who like his black period paintings to check out some of the bizarre current artists of Hi-Fructose magasine. Some of them are very fascinating! A few issues back they ran a series of paintings that were just as gruesome and bizarre as some of these classic Goya paintings! It's a fantastic magasine and really you should all go out and buy it...NOW.]
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