Goya Paintings

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes one of the greatest geniuses of world painting and precursor of many subsequent pictorial tendencies. It is considered one of the universal art painters, both in production quality, the strength of his personality and his subject engaged in a contentious period in the history of Spain and by the admiration and influence he awoke later in the artistic styles and the vanguard of contemporary art. Therefore we can say that is the initiator of new artistic and technical roads. As for his works, we can say that these are very faithful with respect to the time since Goya was an example of an artist committed to his time, first had to be the painter of the spirit of reason and hope, reflecting on their paintings the illusion of harmony with his world of Spanish manners gentle, then at the end of his life would be like any other artist, the whistle blower in a time of betrayal, failure and misery. The last years of his life, residing in France, could provide a very illuminating, from outside a country, yours, at his death left the two factions clashed for a long time had to be referred to as "the two Spains. " Next to an important official work, consisting of portraits, genre paintings, religious and war, Goya developed a personal work represented by "Caprichos"and "Pinturas Negras", where symbolically, not without irony, said most intimate concerns and criticism directed towards the world around him.

It is noteworthy works as "Saturno devora a un hijo"terrifying mythological scene that recreates the legend of Saturn, god of time and death, who, threatened by the oracle that his son would dethrone him, decided to eat at all. We form an overwhelming picture that trembles for his cruelty and violence unleashed. "Dos viejos comiendo" , characters old and expression resabiada, cruel faces that resemble a skull, close to death that ready to eat ... or "El aquelarre",shows us a Figure around the devil, represented here as a silhouette in the shadow of a goat surrounded by witches hallucinated expression, or other works such as "El coloso".

Some of his most representative works would "El coloso" (right) and El afilador" (left). El coloso has a landscape in which a male figure walking backwards gigantic proportions, surrounded by clouds, his eyes closed, his left fist raised. At the bottom, all very small, men and women, carriages and animals run or stop in his flight. The box arrived at the Prado in 1931 and was accepted and admired as the epitome of modern Goya. It was, however, a period in which the studies to date on the artist were in their infancy and the knowledge of the followers and imitators of the master-theme-considered and then was still precarious. From that moment, and throughout the twentieth century, El Coloso was becoming one of the most cited works in the literature of Goya and the most popular, becoming must figure in Spain, the war Independence. Its dark color and lack of light on the matter, determined that modern photos and reproductions (black and white do not appreciate the details) I have usually presented with results that could be defined as photogenic, do not respond to the reality of box. Seen with adequate light (the light level that is exposed at the Museum does not penetrate the pigments, very opaque in this work) is made manifest poverty of his technique, his light and color, and the marked difference in El coloso with the masterpieces of Goya documented attribution. The question of the "hand" of the artist, and of course, the authorship of the painting, has received a big boost with the recent identification, much discussed in the prensa1, the initials "AJ" in the paint surface, and hence the hypothesis that the painting is the work of the Valencian painter Asensio Julia, known from the late eighteenth century as an assistant principal of Goya's workshop.
   
El afilador is shown in full operation. He is slightly stooped, leaning toward the wheel to place the knife on his right leg while supported on the truck. The movement of the wheel and the heat produced in the spirals are reflected by the red strokes near the axis. A thin stream of water falls on it to counteract the heat. The pose of the character reminiscent of the Belvedere Torso, that Goya drew on Italian pages of the notebook. Is aware of the presence of the spectator, as he lifts his head and looks at us directly, as if we had interrupted and did not give supply to demand. His face reflects the toil of work. Wearing a white shirt open in front to stop showing the chest and sleeves rolled to the elbows. Not recognizable place where, as the fund is neutral and flat, without any depth.
       
El afilador would be the one responsible for having in place the knives of the combatants, who were often the only weapons at their disposal. Goya was able to reflect in his work on both sides of inequality, and its war scenes abound with images of Spanish defending rocks, sticks and especially knives.