Gallery Guide

Valeriano Bozal
 Valeriano Bozal

Goya:
Black Paintings

Fundacion Amigos del Museo

del Prado
Floor plan of the Prado Museum

SECOND FLOOR
 FIRST FLOOR
%

\
1?,
%
%
^,0

'<>^ .V^^"

-,\> >\>'
.^^
>ie^
SV^^V

A D

BASEMENT
Second edition: 1999 (December)

All rights reserved. The contents of this work are protected by the Law, which
establishes penalties of imprisonment and/or fines as well as the corresponding
indemnities for damages for anyone who reproduces, plagiarizes, distributes or
publicly transmits all or part of a literary, artistic or scientific work, or its

transformation, interpretation or artistic adaptation on any kind of support or

transmitted through any medium without the publisher's prior consent.

Cover and interior design by Angel Uriarte

Translation by John Pownall
Axonometric projections by Ana Pazo Espinosa
Edition by Carmen Ponce de Leon and Manuel Florentfn
Layout by Antonio Martm

© Valeriano Bozal, 1999

© Fundacion Amigos del Museo del Prado
ISBN: 84-922260-9-9
Deposito legal: M. 1455-2000
Impreso en JOSMAR, S.A., c/Artesanfa, 17. Pol. Ind. Coslada (Madrid)
Printed in Spain
 Introduction

The "Black Paintings" is the name given to that series of oils

that Goya painted directly onto the walls of two of the rooms
of his country house between 1 81 9-20 and 1 823 and that
by which they have come to be known, albeit this overall
title for them can only be authenticated for the 20th Cen-

tury. Whether or not they were previously so called, we do

not know. Of all Goya's works, these have, perhaps, the
most immediate impact for us and this not only for the
nature of their subject matter or the sombre, blackened and
overpowering way in which this is conveyed but as much
again for their starkly arresting visual punch and the power
of their expressivity to button hole our responses across the
ages. These are no commissioned stuff, in these works Goya
bowed to no one's taste but his own and so put down his

thoughts on Man's estate and the WoHd. His influence upon

contemporary Expressionism and Surrealism has been gigan-
tic and his delineating of things absurd, violentand irra-
tional has become a model that bestrides modern culture.
The paintings come from two rooms of similar size but dif-
fering layout, one upstairs, the other down, in the house
bought by the artist in 1 81 9 and which he left to his grand-
son in 823 when he was driven away to France. The mean-
1

ing of the works has been the subject of much lively debate
and as yet there is no general agreement among the vari-
ous schools as to the same and so it would be as well to
have all the facts to hand before making a go at an expla-
nation of them.
The first fact is Goya's buying his country house, "La Quinta
del Sordo" (The Deaf Man's Place). Why he bought an out
of town house -close to the present day Paseo de Extremadura
- and made it his permanent residence can be explained
in the light of various factors and the first of these must be

political. After the Peninsular War, the restored King Fer-

dinand VII let lose an absolutist repression upon Madrid
life and especially against any such who, like Goya, had

had pro-french or liberal friends and were thus seen askance

by the Inquisition. Then personal considerations must be
borne in mind, the artists' age, his poor health and even,
perhaps, the affair he might have been having with Leoca-
dia Zorrilla, not to mention, though we must, the taste he
had acquired for comfortable middle class living for which
the new house made a very worthy setting. Professionally,
there is the fact the Goya had been gradually easing up on
his activity as Painter to the Royal Household, his obliga-
tions here being met, more and more, by Vicente Lopez.
This is by no means to say the Goya renounced his post as
the kings painter however, for he held on to this even after
his flight to France.
These self same factors also serve to allow for a discussion
of the drives that gave rise to the works themselves, for they
are shot through with a sharp disdain for institutions like
the Inquisition, scorn both violence and empty habit, are
soaked in an overall air of airlessness and gloom, an air
that echoes the toll of the painter's aging and recurrent illness

-which went through a turn for the worse in late 1819-

as it does his state of mind and of heart. Pictures he would
have found it hard to have done had he been fully busied
with fulfilling his duties as Painter Royal. Be all this as it
might be, it is as true that the tremendous physical out-
pouring that the "Black Paintings" represent is not com-
monly found among the depressed. His scorn for the Inqui-
sition is against a body formally abolished in March 1 820
in a moment of hope for the liberals who had made Fer-

dinand submit to swearing the Constitution of 1812.

VII
To this must be added the fact that the works were con-
ceived as "General (pictorial) Reflexions" and not as rep-
resenting any concrete or special events. This leads me to
think of the "Black Paintings" as being the outcome of a
process of drawing overall conclussions or summing up
both from the political march of events and the artist's pri-
vate and professional experiences and, as such, of them
as not being tied in with giving shape to things specific but
rather as representing new insights into a world seen as
essentially tragic.

The "Black Paintings" as a Composite Creation

Goya painted fourteen oils in all directly on to the walls of two

rooms, rooms which measured approximately 9.02 x 4.51
metres and differed as to the surfaces available. In each of
the side walls of the lower room there were two gaps that
thus imposed a broad horizontal composition between
them, whereas in the upper room, there being but one gap,
two compositions, likewise horizontal though smaller, were
called for. The remaining, vertical format works were done

on either side of the rooms' doors. The original placing of

each work has long taxed the historian, as this is seen as
being one of the keys to the overall development of images
undertaken by the artist.
They were executed between 1 81 9/20 and 1 823 and their
existence was attested by Antonio Brugada in his inventory
of the effects made on the painter's death (1828). They
stayed where they were but none too well looked after until
thelast owner of the house, Baron F.E. d'Erlanger called in

Salvador Martmez Cubells, the then restorer to the Prado

Museum, to lift them and re-back them on canvas in 1 874.
After being shown at the Paris World Fair of 1 878, they
were made over to the State in 1 881 and thus came to us
at thePrado Museum.
Transferringthem to canvas entailed changes in their size,
some damage, some touching up and re-painting despite
which the works were not robbed of their aesthetic impact
nor their power of suggestion. X-ray study has revealed that
they are painted over other, unfinished, works that were in

the main, brighter landscape studies with small figures much

more in keeping with the decoration for a country house.
When he painted these nor why he painted them over or
out is, likewise, unknown to us as if why he at times retained
parts of them them altogether or why
at others obliterated
he always altered theirmood. Some idea of them can be
had from the background landscape to The Single Stick
Duel and the left background to The Pilgrimage to Saint
Isidro's Spring {he artist in both cases here leaving in part
of his first work as valid.
It should always be remembered that these are a linked series
of works, a whole, and that there is much relevant interplay

8
between them. An attempt is here made to insist upon where
they originally stood as to each other and in which of the
two rooms they did so for this has much
towardsto offer
both an understanding and an appreciation of them.

- Ground floor room: Saturn Devouring one of his Child-

ren, Judith and Holofernes, A Manola: Dona Leocadia
Zorrilla, Two Friars, Two Old People Eating, Sabbath
(The Great He-Coat), Saint Isidro's Pilgrimage.

- Upper Floor Room: Two Women and a Man, The

Reading (The Politicians), The Single Stick Duel, The
Pilgrimage to Saint Isidro's Spring, The Fates (Atropos,
Clotho and Lachesis), The Sabbath (Asmodea), A Drown-
ing Dog.

Historians have never come toany agreement about the

subject matter of some of the pictures and it would be odd
if the visitor were not to find them puzzling. To guide the
visitor, to guide another's eye is then but to help it find out
for itself a possible 'why' these works are as they are, to
suggest a 'what', and point out things worthy of attention.
There works are open-ended images and though hermetic
in much, in much else amazingly immediate. No guide can

either see for the visitor not react in his stead. But he can
ask him to stay, to stare - and not to run away.
THE GROUND FLOOR ROOM
Saturn Devouring one of his Children
Judith and Holofernes
A Manola: Dona Leocadia Zorrilla
Two Friars
Two Old People Eating
Sabbath (The Great He Goat)
Saint isidro's Pilgrimage

10
 SATURN
c JUDITH AND
HOLOFERNES

>
Z

5
70
O

>

A TWO
MANOLA FRIARS

ENTRANCE

Layout of the "Black Paintings" in the lower room of

the country house beside the river Manzanares

11
12
 Ground Floor

Saturn Devouring one of his Children (Cat. No. 763)

Also known simply as Sat- ous war against the blood

urn, this work is of key
importance for the under-
standing ofthe ground floor
asa whole. Goya here gives
us an often engraved and
much painted subject of
engraving. Saturn, Cronus,
Time is a mythological
archetype to be found in
Hesiod's Theogony: son of
Gea, Mother Earth, he cas-
trates his father, Uranus,
with a flint sickle given to
him by his mother, the
blood flowing from the
wound -besides fertilizing
the world - brings into being
the Erinnyes or Furies, the
Giants or Titans and the
Nymphs. Later Saturn, now
wed to his sister Rhea,
devours their off-spring as
soon as they are born but
their mother manages to cun-
ningly save the youngest,
Zeus who, once come to
manhood, compels his sire
to regurgitate his brood and
then undertakes a victori-
sprung Giants or Titans. Sat-
urn has justly become seen
as the presiding mytholog-
ical deity of Death and
Time, Old Age and Melan-
choly and of Drought, the
genius of War, Dearth and
Catastrophes,
The moment in the tale that
has most often seized the
artistic imagination is that
in which Saturn devours his
children. A good example
of this is P.P. Rubens 5af-
urn of 1636 in the Prado's
own collection, a work pos-
sibly known to Goya him-
self. The visitor could do
worse than take a brief look
at both works, the better to
appreciate how very dif-
ferently these two giants
understood the scene,
Rubens goes along with tra-
ditional iconography and
gives us an ancient Saturn
who, clasping a scythe in
his right hand and sat upon
clouds in a cosmic land-

13
Ground Floor

scape, is busy at bolting and, by its buttocks, thighs

down a little boy. Goya and legs, more likely a
gives us none of this, makes woman than a man.
no hint at where the action Goya, though he has no
is taking place, does away truck with its mythologi-
with the prop scythe and cal trappings, makes all
even the victim is no longer the more of the cruelty of
a loveable wee child. The the scene which he raises
victim, as it has its back to to the heights of parox-
the viewer and is headless, ysm: Old Saturn's eyes
we know no more about bulge, his maw drools, his
than that it is adult, young hands mangle at a corpse

14
 Ground Floor

more fit for a shambles all Goya's trick of deforming

of which underscores the the human body, its move-

terrible humanness of the ments and limbs to create

scene. The close night, the
light that plays upon the
victim (female?) and the
god's visage, the gory red,
the inertia of the cadaver
as against the ancient's
excitement, all highlight
the scene's blatantly neg-
ative charge. There is
nothing here of Melan-
choly nor even Death,
here is the loathsome cru-
an old man might
elty that
exercise upon a young
woman.
an impression of latent bes-
tiality can be found in the
work of such present day
painters as the Dublin born
englishman Francis Bacon.
The blatant and uncom-
promising visual stamp of
the images, the rank gloomi-
ness of the anecdote, the
unashamed pictorial fact of
the figures and the lack of
all narrative packaging to
the whole arewhat make
this expressive scene mod-
ern -just that.

15
16

Judith and Holofernes
(Cat. No. 764)
This painting forms a pair
with Saturn though here the
tale runs vice-versa
woman it is who kills a
man. The title refers to
biblical scene (Judith 13),
in which Judith lops off the
head of Holofernes. As in
Saturn, Goya makes noth-
ing of the setting and goes,
head down, for the action:
here we
see the sweep of
the arm with the sword, the
gesture and stance of the
woman, that of the pro-
curess-like servant while
the severed head in the bot-
tom right hand corner
but goes unnoticed.
The lighting makes great
play of Judith's femininity,
her physical presence, her
naked bust and arms, her
modern seeming headdress.
Goya needs none of the
jewels nor rich dress that
the biblical tale refers to.
Ground Floor
The setting for the scene -
the interior of Holofernes'
and a tent - given the sketchi-
is
est treatment - just a dark
a backdrop with neither
hangings nor other fur-
nishings that might fix it.
The woman's violent act,
its cruel energy are what
the attention focuses upon
and focused, it cannot do
other than see the act as
being very like so many
others as violent in sort that
Goya had brought the eye
to in his times such as
those he had witnessed in
all the Peninsular War or dur-
ing the absolutist reaction
that followed in its wake.
But yet again, Goya's mas-
tery of his shown
theme is
by the lack here of any
anecdotal fixing detail, an
absence that thus lends his
image a universal, non-
parochial impact.
17
18
 Ground Floor

A Manola*: Dona Leocadia Zorrilla

(Cat. No. 754)

A female figure rests against have been led to believe that

a funerary mound.The paint-
ing stood across from Saturn
and Judith and Holofernes
and would have seemed to
contemplate them. The
Manola's pose corresponds
to the established mode of
depicting Melancholy,
Much ink has been spilt
upon who this woman was
and it is thought that she was
Leocadia Zorrilla, wife to
IsidoroWeiss, though what
she meant to the painter still
remains rather cloudy. We
do know that she lived with
Goya in his house and went
along with him to Bordeaux,
and that the then aged
she could well have been
his own natural daughter.
Be she Leocadia or not
- and the figure shown
seems younger than Leoca-
dia who was already 32 in
1 820 - the picture is not so
much a portrait as an alle-
gory that turns upon the
veiled beauty of the Manola
and the funerary mound. Her
thoughtful gaze does not
quite lift the eye from her
slim and supple body, her
generous bust or those ever
so tiny feet... The open back-
ground is in contrast with
focal grouping and is, with
its blues and clouds, amongst

painter doted upon Rosario, the happiest of Goya's out-

Leocadia's daughter, so put. Here the overall tone is
much so that there have not brooding though the
been some historians that foreground group is solemn.

Fashionable Madrid Society' took to aping the styles and manners of the
city's demi-mondains, male and female, in Goya's times and far some
time See Richard Ford, Handbook for Spain, 1846. (Tr. N.)
later.

19
20
 Ground Floor

Two Friars (Cat. No. 759)

This work complements ures. While his hand was

Leocadia and was to be great at portraying the young,
found on the other side of especially young women, so
the entrance. Its title, Two it was with the aged as well.

Friars, does not really answer If the young breath their sen-

to what Goya has painted, suality and erotic being, the

for here a bearded ancient aged are all ambiguity, have
wrapped in a cape and sunk into a time of defor-
propping himself up with mity, have lost any charm
a staff is whispered at by a they might once have had
deformed mannikin. The and are left with naught but
only hint of what is going a dignity, like that of the
on is given by the contrast bearded fellow, to lend their
between the two figures. lives something positive. If

The elderly bearded man, the fiend is intimating the

both in his face and ges- old man's end to him, the
ture, bears a stamp of dig- ancient at least can bear the
nity, a quality not to be news with serenity.
found in the whisperer with Maybe it would be going
his beastly maw, brow to far to see a kind of
wrinkling up across his skull metaphoric self-portrait of
and what would appear to Goya himself in the good
be huge and pointed ears. old man but then again the
The jangler has many of the fact is he was old - 74
that
traits of a fiend and to that in 1 820 - and had already
fraternity could well belong. heard his call given more
Goya often drew such fig- than once.

21
22

Two Old People Eating
(Cat. No. 762)
It is not known
exactly
where this picture stood,
Both its size and format
would seem to argue for
over one of the doors so it
could well have figured
over the entrance to the
downstairs room. However,
certain technical consider-
ations might lead to its
being understood as hav-
ing been done for the
upstairs room. There is lit-
tie to no agreement as to its
content either. Only one of
the old people holds a
spoon and is about to eat
and what is more, looks
more like an old woman
than a man. The other fig-
ure pointing at her (?)
looks like an eyeless corpse
and could well be an image
of Death itself.
The subject is as hermetic
as the work is simple and
Ground Floor
Goya's skill when giving
us a powerful yet enig-
matic subject is here once
again amazing. The crone's
gaze, the wicked grin on
the gummy mouth, the
over-pronounced chin are
echoed in the acolyte,
What this second creature
is pointing at is anybody's
guess. Are they papers they
have before them, a list per-
haps? Is the fate of those on
it being whispered about to
the grinning hag? As so
often in this master's work,
what is suggested or could
be supposed swamps mere
certainty,
These creatures are at one
side with the cast of witches and
crones with which Goya
peoples so many of his
drawings, plates and paint-
ings and blend into the sub-
ject matter of many other
23
Ground Floor
of the "Black Paintings".
Rather than reflecting the
World as it is, they, through
allegory, do so as it is
sensed to be. Those who
dwell within this world of
shades and expressive dra-
matic effects are emblem-
atic of the paintings proper
to this room.
The counterpoint here
between the genre nature
of the work's motif and
24
Goya's treatment of the
same is not only eye catch-
ing but most disturbing. By
rights, we should
be enjoy-
ing the most domestic of
scenes but the way in
which the sharp old hag is
expressed has blighted this
expected pleasure, has so
fractured it as to turn it
inside out. This shattering
of conventional expecta-
tions is a constant through-
 Ground Floor

out the whole gamut of the Despite its size - it is the

"Black Paintings" where smallest of the "Black Paint-
everyday subjects are given, ings"- Two Old People Eat-
time and again, darkly tragic ing is a most striking work,
overtones. Even the appar- its skull-like faces being

ently mythological refer- charged not only with irony

ence of some of the scenes
is peeled away by Goya
who draws our attention
rather to the alarmingly
come-day-go-day realities
that tie in with his 'high'
subject matter.
but stamped, withal, with a
most sarcastic grimace by
which the artist breathes a
horrid sort of liveliness into
what, otherwise, would be
little more than two warmed-
up death masks.

25
26
 Ground Floor

Sabbath (The Great He Goat)

(Cat. No. 761)

From the left hand side wall caught in motion and yet
of the lower room, this is is not still, being fanned

the only "black painting" alive by the brush work, its

that had no neighbours.
Goya has here used a free-
handed brush stroke that
has followed the pure ges-
ture of his wrist and hand
as if a broad house painter's
stroke were aimed at, this
giving the work dynamism
and lending rhythm and
direction to the faces of the
assembled witches crowd-
ing before a devil in he-
goat's shape who presides
over the rite assisted by a
secretary/curate to his right.
Set apart, a young woman,
stillalmost a child, awaits
her initiation sat upon a chair.
The mob of witches that are
the focus of the scene is
stroke and the composition
endowing the mass with a
terriblemute dynamism as
though all were fired by a
dreadful ecstasy. The faces
in it are deformed, the bod-
iesdoubled up or over,
some show fear. If they are
closely examined, different
types of folk can be made
out, for, though most are
witches, there is a friar just
in front of the "curate" and
a working man or farm
hand in the third head from
the far left. These charac-
ter sketches do not, how-
ever, disturb the mass vor-
tex feel of the whole, a feat
not that marks out Goya from
27
Ground Floor

the rest of the painters of the sense of Life that the

his times. child woman is about to
The setting is left vague. learn of, as her initiation
Certain objects and fore- will be into things deathly.
ground references would Goya here returns to a sub-
seem to bespeak some- ject matter that had exer-
where out-of-doors but cised his imagination at the
what then of the close tail end of the 1 8th Century
atmospheric darkness that in drawings, plates and
crowds the left and upper paintings, but now there is

background? We are thus no comic touch or even

within a metaphor for the critical tone. He does
not
world, and "metaphoric" is here attack witchcraft or

28

even mock it, he but shows
Night's own world. The
crowding witches and their
like, the presiding and over-
bearing male goat, its being
contrasted with the maiden,
are all dramatic stratagems
that the circular 'spin' of
the composition further
heightens.
Be it formally, icono-
graphically or semantically,
Goya's works are in many
Ground Floor
ways heralds of many
aspect of modern art. His
pictorial approach, visual
punch, the expressivity of
a brush work that at times
seems downright gestural,
the ease with which he
shapes the irrational, the
deformity and weird sea
changes in his figures are
all still to be found as nov-
elties in the art and culture
of our own times.
29
30

Saint Isidro's Pilgrimage
This painting must bring to
mind those paintings Goya
did in the 1 8th Century of
public holidays and events,
especially the one he drew
up as a cartoon for a tapes-
try never, alas, realized, on
the subject of the Meadow
of Saint Isidro. The sense of
fun of those images, their
luminosity and chromatic
play, the lively manners of
their protagonist, the very
concrete expressing of just
where all was taking place
are here absent... gone and
this is a very different world.
Now shades shroud this
procession of celebrants
who come on towards the
Viewer. Their music, if there
were any, would be sodden
with tragedy and hopeless-
ness rather than bright with
joy. Even the veiled beauty
of the women behind their
'mantillas' is drowned in
the squalor of the group.
A "romerfa", far from being a formal pilgrimage, was more a local day
off and general outing to the saint in question's shrine. (Tr. N.)
Ground Floor
(Cat. No. 760)
And whatever charm that
the setting might once have
had - and indeed the land-
scape that Goya suggests
and even some of the fig-
ures could be attractive - is
drained of all promise by
the character of this so
unpromising rout.
The scene has been under-
stood by some historians as
a Saturnalia, a festival in
honour of Saturn who, like
Saint Isidro, was a patron
of labourers. This could
indeed be what this outing
celebrates but here there is
nothing of the excess and
merry making of the classi-
cal festival. Goya's paint-
ing does not bespeak the
past as would a work redo-
lent of nostalgia for classi-
calmythology but rather is
cheek to jowl with a dead-
eningly humdrum present.
The characters, their dress,
their very standing are all
31
Ground Floor

of Goya's own times or fortably off, people from

even lessdetermined than every call and calling in
that. The master here is in Life, for all qualities and
no way after a historical stations of people took part
reconstruction - any more in this celebration, as we
than he is in any other of do too, for, willy-nilly, he
the "Black Paintings" - and also sweeps us up into the
if he does hint at classical picture which not only
iconography, he does so spills towards us but, by the
only to underline his pre- stares and glances of some
sent world of the turn of the of the foreground figures,
century. draws us into its action and
They are a mixed bunch scope by the eye language
coming towards us.
that are dialogue that these stares
There are beggars, work- and glances provoke.
ingmen, fieldhands, the This last is a thing common
well-heeled and the com- to the whole run of "Black

32
 Ground Floor

Paintings". Goya does not The technical elements

offer here material to be Goya uses to achieve these
looked upon from without effects are wonderfully plas-
but has cunningly made use tic.The group crowds out
of elements in his composi- the foreground and makes
tion that strike up an imme- the focal line to such
itself
diate affinity between the a degree that the sheer
world of his works and that weight of its density of feel-
of his spectators. A virtual ing, its ill-defined dimen-
conversation is thus estab- sions, that left unseen, that
lished between the viewer which might be - or be
and the foreground beggars coming -behind it quite
in the procession. Their unsettles the spectator and,
movement into the Viewers this riveted, the eye clings
territory, their presence, stares to what can be accomo-
and gestures beg this of him, dated and simply seen: the
beseech it, mutely impose it. celebrants themselves.

33
THE UPPER FLOOR ROOM

Two Women and a Man

The Reading (The Politicians)

The Single Stick Duel

Pilgrimage to Saint Isidro's Spring

The Fates (Atropos)
The Sabbath (Asmodea)
Drowning Dog

34
36
 Upper Floor

Two Women and a Man

(Cat. No. 765)

A visitor coming into the tion. At present it is gener-

upper room of the Quinta ally held that the composi-
would have been met by tion is about masturbation:
two paintings one on either the man is masturbating and

side of the door: Two the watching women are

Women and a Man and laughing either at him or
The Reading (The Politi- with him.There is, however,
cians). Both, like their no hint here of any com-
neighbouring horizontal ment at all on this, let alone
works, would seem very censure,
different in their subject They could be in some kind
matter to those to be seen of interior or, then again,
in the lower room. Now the outside and maybe even in
mundane rules, even the the street. Once again, Go-
frankly vulgar, as if we were ya cheats us out of our cer-
faced again with a new set tainties. The light falls on
of "very common com- the arm, the elbow, the
monplace scenes". white shirt of the man and
The poses and gestures of the some onto the lap of one
man and both women have of the women slightly to the
always given rise to much rear of him. Shadow swal-
comment and as much - and lows all else, deepening the
contradictory - interpreta- further we travelfrom the

37
Upper Floor

lighted focal point. In this though she seems younger

way and although the scene than those witches; while
has nothing biblical nor the other, to the left, has
mythological to it, it has its very much in common with
affinities with the scenes in Judith'shandmaid.
the room below and with These can lead to
affinities

the others on this floor. two ways of understanding

This similarity also extends the picture, there being
to the characters depicted those who, thanks to them,
here. The man's ecstatic ges- argue that it should be seen
ture is yet another instance as another allegory as the
of that grotesque twisting subject of onanism lends
into the bestial of other fig- itself to such a treatment

ures in Goya's work, the while others - and myself

giggling woman would be among them - while in no
quite at home at a Sabbath way denying this possibil-

of the lower room, even ity, would tend to see it in

38
 Upper Floor

quite another light, rather man's face marked by his

seeing the historical scenes drooling gawp and leery eyes
as being shot through with are contrasted with the bru-
that same everyday hard- talguffaw of the woman
ness that here is the domi- watching him and the pert
nant note. Two Women glance of the woman to the
and a Man offers no bolt left. All three together set up

hole from the here and now an interplay of reactions

and this ties in very well around the act that, though
with Goya's methods of patent, is never spelt out, all

working when he puts aside of which lends the icon a

all mythological and bibli- hermetic reek itself born as
cal trappings. much of the painter's indif-
The artist has nailed his eye ference to the act as such as
upon the expression proper his abounding interest in the
to each one of his subjects. reactions of his protagonists'
The gross delight in the to it.

39
40
 Upper Floor

The Reading (The Politicians)

(Cat. No. 766)

The publishing of newspa- and a Man, seeks an expres-

pers, pamphlets and all sive rather than a natural
manner of other produc- effect. Playing on group
tions, especially if satirical centre, it has no given
or political, hit a peak dur- source and scatters shad-
ing the three years of lib- ows in every direction.
eral government ('El Trienio Thus, and so simply, Goya
Liberal') thanks to its grant- turns what could well have
ing of freedom to the press. been another's every-
People read alone or quite day and picturesque scene
often in groups like that - and so it was treated in
Goya gives us here where many prints and cartoons-
we have a gathering of men into a dramatic event. The
to listen to a group reading picture's charged atmos-
of one of these broadsheets, phere is its dominant key
whether this paper is a and highlights both char-
political one or not, we can- acters and their very lim-
not tell from the picture ited gestures. What Goya
alone, any more than we homes us in on is thus their
can make out exactly where absorbed attentiveness and
the reading is taking place this is almost as intense as
- they tended to be held in our own. The spectator's
cafes, the street or private curiosity is so very much a
parlours. Yet again Goya parallel to that of these lis-

has left us in the dark on tener-spectators that, as

this part of his subject mat- spell bound as they are,
ters. being drawn into the world
The lighting of the scene, of the work is all but
like that of Two Women inevitable.

41
42
 Upper Floor

The Single Stick Duel

(Cat. No. 758)

Thisis one of the best and as the viewer chooses but

most widely known of the whatever the choice, the
"Black Paintings". It shows scene is as sure to imprint
a brutal duel to the death itself on the memory in one

in which the duellists, way or another with all its

buried up to the knee, are tragic drama, plead against
denied all option to flee, the inescapable fate to
Though no one can have which the combatants are
any doubt as to what is condemned and scorch the
going on, nobody could see mind's retina with the
the work as a mere anec- extreme violence with
dote. It is as much an alle- which its overbearing all is
gory upon the violence of expressed and do all this
Spanish life in the painter's with all the simplicity of a
times, time's overloaded blow to the face,
with conflict, as it is a com- This is one of the few works
ment upon the congenital in the "Black Paintings"
violence of his nation at all darkness does not
series that
times and his fellow coun- dominate. The landscape is
trymen's dreadful tendency bright and clear, the fields
towards fraternal strife that and hills that spread to the
so marks them out. skyline offer an almost
The image can be as broad- bucolic setting, highlighted
ly or narrowly understood by the blue of the sky, the
43
Upper Floor
fairclouds and the strength
of the sunlight. This peace-
ful beauty only intensifies
the scene's dramatic impact
and makes the more explicit
the harshness of the world
of men as against that of the
gently browsing cattle of the
middle ground: The pres-
ence of these beasts could
lead us to think of the fight-
ers astwo cowherds - they
are lage dressed - but
vi I rating a country house than
were they to be so, this
could not dock one little fin-
ger's grip of the duel's uni-
versal reach.
44
The luminous background
landscape has been left in
from the previous, under-
lying painting. It shows us
two things of which the
most obvious must be that
the original paintings that
Goya intended for his walls
had nothing tragic about
them but were very much
more the sort of work then
thought suitable for deco-
the "Black Paintings" could
ever have been accepted
as being. Second only to
this, it shows the painter's

original work for the wall
to have been by a hand in
total control of the ways
and nneans of his art, up to
creating landscapes of
breath-taking beauty well
beyond the pastoral bucol-
ics that had crowded up the
walls of his age. Goya uses,
above all, light and air as
the 'ingredients' for his
composition thus modu-
lating the luminosity of the
scene and making its
atmospheric density the
unifying chord to its all.
Thus the two men locked
Upper Floor
in brutal combat are seen
in silhouette. By the use of
such simplicity of means
when giving body to his
images he lends them an
added value and meaning
out and beyond any mere
representing them be it ever
so formally. The stand point
for both landscape and
background is not the same
as that for the figures, the
comfortable distancing of
the first thus further throw-
ing the fighters almost into
the viewer's/spectator's own
limits of 'safe' space.
45
46
 Upper Floor

Pilgrimage to Saint Isidro's Spring

(Cat. No. 755)

Also known as The Holy that are in no wise the supe-

Office's Walk this picture riors of the witches in the
stood across from the pre- Sabbath or the crones of his
vious one and bears some drawings and engravings,
resemblances to it. As The same goes for those
before, the master has kept coming in from the right,
in a good part of his origi- some of whom, crippled or
painted over,first
nal, half deformed, stagger along on
work - the landscape and crutches or with sticks. The
some small figures -but has Pilgrims seek a cure for
given the whole a new twist these misfortunes but Go-
that has little to do with the ya's foreground figures
mood of his earlier effort. would seem to offer very
Goya gives us a procession little hope of this,
would appear to be led
that This is perhaps the only

by a toady of the Holy one of the "Black Paintings"

Office who is the right fore- which is downright satiri-
ground figure with a fool's cal. Neither the toady nor
face and gestures and all the old biddies around him
decked out out-dated
in or Holy Herberts in the
garb. He is surrounded by procession would frighten
a court of hags and besoms anybody but rather raise a
47
Upper Floor
grin. This, and the artist's
attitude to his subjects,
could well be due to the
signal fact that precisely
during the time of its paint-
ing, the Inquisition had at
lastbeen abolished never
to rise again, not even
under a restored abso-
lutism, not even as a con-
48
sequence of the many pres-
sures brought upon Ferdi-
nand VII to set it up and
on its way again.
As even the ecclesiastic
authorities confessed, the
Inquisition had been as
much a political as a reli-
gious institution and its
baleful influence had done

much toshape Spain's cul-
tural Goya himself had
life.
come under its scrutiny on
various occasions, the first
time for his "Caprichos"
(Fancies), a series of engrav-
ings, and then again, after
the War of Independence
against the French, when
he was identified as he
Upper Floor
who had painted the "Ma-
jas"belonging to Manuel
Godoy which were held to
be obscene works. The
demise of this institution
was surely met with relief
by then aging painter and
this work captures his wry
glee at the welcome
event.
49
50
 Upper Floor

The Fates (Atropos)

(Cat. No. 757)

The four upper room paint- in his Theogony teWs us that

ings so far described have these merciless deities never
in common a more or less slacken in the chase until
everyday subject matter and they visit their harsh pun-
could be understood as ishment upon all those that
scenes from Spanish life. have committed crimes.
The same could never be There are four figures in
said of the remaining three Goya's composition here,
whose meaning has given the three goddesses them-
rise to a host of different selves and a bound (?) man
and wildly conflicting read- that they are carrying off.
ings. All three works are The has made short
artist
imbued with that silence shrift of the traditional
that also permeates some iconographic elements
of the "Disparates" (Absur- proper to the Fates. Clotho
engraved by the artist
dities) holds a human figure - a
during the same period. doll, an ex-voto of the
The Fates is the most acces- body? - rather than her con-
sible of the threesuch a if ventional distaff or spinning
word could properly be wheel; Lachesis does not
applied to any of them. tease out her thread of Life
Goya draws upon three but rather peers at what
mythological figures: Clotho, might be a mirror or maybe
Lachesisand Atropos, Daugh- it is through a quizzing glass
ters of Night, who grant while Atropos who put the
Man both Good and Evil final shears to the thread of
and harry his sins and even Life is but equipped here
those of the gods. Hesiod with scissors. The man
51
upper Floor
stares out at us devoid of
all initiative.
If its themeimportant to
is
any understanding of the
piece, as important are the
elements that Goya has
added to the tale. First
among these must stand his
having dismissed all trace
of the heroically sublime
or mythological. The Fates
are great gods and are
shown as such in traditional
written or plastic iconog-
raphy. But not here, where
their faces are deformed
and brutal, especially
Clotho's, so much so that
their sex must be a given,
Goya's vision of these
"divine" daughters of Old
Night has as little to
52
the ideal nobility of neo-
classicism as it does with
the sentimentalized terror
of most romantic creations,
If anything leaps out from
his figures, it is the sordid
brutality that he has seen
in them. Other european
artists of the period made
a try at representing the
gods of night but only Goya
dared to see them in this
way, tossing aside every-
thing positive, other-worldly
or ideal that the notion
"divine" usually urges on
the artist.
And this is not the only
thing that seizes the atten-
tion of the spectator, for
another must be the noc-
do with turnal landscape in which
 Upper Floor

the action is set. Its moon- Goya had worked at noc-

lit beauty with its silvers turnal landscapes before
and golds, the luminous and these recall this one,
sky, its trees and bushes in for instance in his "Capri-
deep shadow, the angular chos" (Fancies), where night
handling with which its flying witches are shown,
working space is manipu- the same holds for the "Dis-
lated are hallmarks of
all parates" (Absurdities), where
Goya's mastercraftsman- the dream-like element is

ship. The overall effect is as overpowering as in Atro-

that of a dream, and, being pos itself. Notwithstanding,
dream-like, all here answers a painting in oils on this
to the demands of that scale offers much more
state. The between
contrast scope than any drawing or
this silent landscape and engraving ever could, espe-
the presences and charac- cially when it comes to the
ter of the Fates, the doll- treatment given to moon-
like profile of he who is light, here endowed with a

being borne off through the so much greater intensity,

air are the elements that a monumental tone so
work the expressive effect much the more impressive
here. in its possibilities.

53
54
 Upper Floor

The Sabbath (Asmodea)

(Cat. No. 756)

This is the most hermetic (The crippled devil) by Luis

of all the "Black Paintings" Velez de Guevara, a nar-
Its title comes down to us rative known to and pro-
via the inventory made by moted by A.R.Lesage and
Goya's friend Antonio Bru- D. de Torres. This Asmodeus
gada who must have had is a flying devil of popular
his reasons for so calling it. superstition,an ability that
Whatever these were, they allows him to eavesdrop on
escape us and the work households. This source has
itself gives no hint of them, been often forwarded.
Asmodeus, in the mascu- In these and other possible
line form, is the devil from sources, there is but one
the Book of Tobit that slew aspect that could tie them
the husbands of Sarah one in with the picture and that
after the other before they is flying as such whereas
could consummate their there are many and more
marriages. The last of them which disqualify them all

all, Tobias, on the advice and, above all, the fact that
of Archangel Raphael, the "Asmodea" not
title is

drove off this fiend with a "Asmodeus". To add to the

stench of fish and chased conundrum, Goya has put
him off to Upper Egypt, soldiers firing away into the
where the Archangel bound foreground right and what
him to earth. would seem to be an army
Another literary source for baggage train into the back-
the painting's theme, could ground - though it is hard
have been El diablo cojuelo to tell if the first are firing

55
Upper Floor
on the second - both of
which puts out of joint any
reading of the work's images
anchored upon classical
sources. The modern world
is very much there with its
muskets, fusiliers, uniforms
and carriage horses and all.
Be this as it may, it would
also only be right to draw
attention to the fact that
those in the air might be
classically dressed (might
be became Goya was also
given to turning out mod-
ern figures in such guise).
56
It just would not do to glide
over these problems and
suggest a meaning that
ignored them. Which does
not mean that we should
give up on the image which
is among the most fasci-
nating of the series with its
shining sky sharp con-
in
trast with the nocturnal
luminosity of Atropos
which, as will be remem-
bered, stood across from
this work, with its move-
ment of flying people, the
enigmatic import of those
 Upper Floor

firing soldiers seen from the Things fantastic or dream-

back, the picturesque bag- wrought rather than terri-
gage train in the back- ble, density and not mere
ground, the vasty rock portrayal, crystalline images;
crowned with buildings that these are all plastic quali-
one of the fliers is pointing ties in painting without
out... would not risk a pic-
I which modern art would
torial nor historiographic lack consistency. These
commentary on this paint- characteristics hark back to
ing and yet, arguing from Goya's first etching them in
an association of ideas and and which, even when we
speaking only for myself, cannot break through to the
find in some manner of
it sense behind them, would
mood that
foreboding of the still compel us to admit to

enshroudsh some of Kafka's the depth of the feelings they

tales. can stir up in us.

57
58
 Upper Floor

Drowning Dog
(Cat. No. 767)

Before hazarding an inter- puzzling about a dog's

pretation, let the visitor
give the dog's head a
look, its gaze, where
muzzle is pointing... Apart
from the ditch, these are the
only anecdotes with which
to entertain the eye. The
scene could not be simpler;
a dog's head is thrust forth
from a ditch, it is staring at
first head, a ditch nor space and
good yet combined, the result is
its hermetic for neither dog,
ditch nor space exhibit fea-
tures that allow for placing
them. Rather quite the
opposite, for the dog is no
more than that - any old
dog - and shorn of any
attributes that could give it

something to the right and any mythological standing,

slightly higher up but its we have no idea of the
gaze is at nothing - though ditch in itself, whether it be
some historians hold that cut into sand, clay, stone,
there once were fluttering and the background's space
birds there - and behind could just be the painting
this possible nothing, there itself. In short, its hard to

is infinite space or nothing say what the painting is

again. about because more than
To say that this is a pro- anything else, it is just a
foundly visual work is not, painting,
however, to state the obvi- An x-ray study of the work
ous. The few anecdotic ele- has shown that it suffered
ments that Goya offers are more than any of the oth-
by no means incompre- ers when being lifted on to
hensible - there is nothing canvas and it could be that

59
Upper Floor

Goya never finished it - quicksand, the dog is escap-

though there is no way of ing, it is coming to us, is

knowing this for sure, showing its head... No one

Whatever the case, the
work is not a jot the less
effectiveand this to such a
degree that it has become
an emblematic image for
modern art itself in its most
obscure and anguish ridden
aspects. This is not the only
occasion on which Goya
anticipates the inference skills
could gainsay any of these
explanations but then again,
none of them is as charged
with expression as the
painting is, not one of them
clears up the cosmic
dimension of the back-
ground space, nor makes
clear what manner of ditch
- if a ditch - the ditch is,

proper to our own times, for nor even what sort of dog
they are also displayed in his this dog could be. would I

"Disparates" (Absurdities). Be therefore bet that the visi-

no other time does
that so, at tor will find it hard to shake
he show to such effect and off the uneasiness and
with so much mastery as he doubts that the picture gives
does here the intractability rise to, and it is maybe this
between a figure and sheer power to dog the spectator
room nor underline within that is its real meaning. In

awork the pure challenge it the "Black Paintings" as

and anguish inherant in exist-
ing.
The layman as much as the
historian can only feel an
urge to conceptualize the
image, to explain it away,
wrap it round with a tale:
the dog is drowning in
a whole reach their peak of
intensity: one step further
on than their anecdotal sub-
ject matter, they suggest
there is a world to be
looked at yet. Would it be
to go too far to find our own
in the dog's outlook?

60
 The "Black Paintings" and
1819. February 27: Goya
buys the "Quinta", a coun-
try house on the banks of
the River Manzanares. Dur-
ing the lastmonths of the
year he becomes gravely ill.
1820. On March 9: Ferdi-
nand VII svy/ears the 1812
Constitution. This ushers in
the so-called "Trienio Lib-
eral" (Three Years of Liber-
alism).The Inquisition is
abolished on March 20.
Goya swears the Constitu-
tion on April 4, before the
Royal Academy.
1823. On September 1 7,
he wills the "Quinta" to his
17 year old grandson,
Mariano. As he is a minor.
the deeds are handed over
to Francisco Javier Goya,
his father.
Invasion by the Hundred
Thousand Sons of Saint Luis
(French invasion under the
auspices of the Holy
their Times
Alliance) sent to restore
absolutism. Madrid falls on
May 23, Cadiz surrenders
on September 30.
1824. Goya hides away in
the house of Canon Jose
Duaso y Latre. On May 30,
is granted leave to take the
v\/aters at Plombieres
(France). After a brief stay
in Paris (from June 30 to
September 1) he arrives in
Bordeaux.
1825. Leave to continue his
waters cure is extended
(January 13) and then fur-
ther so for taking the baths
atBagneres (July 4).
1826. Journey to Madrid in
May. Is allowed to retire on
full salary (50000 reales)
on June 17.
1827. Travels to Madrid
during the summer.
1828. Goya dies on April
16, attended by Leocadia
Zorri la and in the presence
I
61
of Antonio Brugada and
Jose Pfo de Molina.
la
Antonio Brugada makes his
inventory of Goya's Quinta
effects.
1830. May 3, Mariano
makes the "Quinta" over to
his father, Francisco Javier
Goya.
1832. The "Quinta" is mort-
gaged to Joaqufn Azpiazu
and let to Severiano Fi-
gueras at 8000 reales a
year. The date of this trans-
action is uncertain.
1854. Death of Francisco
JavierGoya, March 12.
December 14, The "Quinta"
surveyed by the architect
Manuel Garcfa for Narciso
Bruguera.
1856. Death of Leocadia
August 6.
Zorrilla,
1857. January 2, the
"Quinta" let to Santiago
Ortiz who sub-lets it to
Francisca Vildosola, who
will be the second wife to
Mariano Goya, widowed
on March 14,1859. By her
he will have two daughters,
Luisa and Francisca.
62
1859. The "Quinta" sold to
Segundo Colmenares in
early June.
1863. May 23, bankruptcy
of Segundo Colmenares
results in requisition of his
goods and properties.
On November, Luis Rodol-
fo Coumont buys the
"Quinta" for 5.209.728
reales, perhaps commis-
sions Laurent to photograph
its paintings.
1873. The property, now
owned by Ch. Saulnier, is
bought by Baron Frederic
Emile d'Erlanger.
1874. F.E. d'Erlanger has
Salvador Marti'nez Cubells,
restorer to the Prado Mu-
seum, lift the paintings on
to canvas. In this task the
latter is assisted by his
brothers Enrique and Fran-
cisco.
1878. The paintings are
shown in the Trocadero
during the Paris World Fair.
1881: The pictures, having
been bequeathed to the
Spanish State, are assigned
to the Prado Museum.
 Basic Further Reading
Anculo Iniguez, D., "El Saturnoy Las verse Books, 1 979 (London, John Mur-
Pinturas Negras de Goya", Archivo ray, 1 980).
Espanol de Arte, XXXV, num. 138, Lopez Vazquez, J.M., El programa neo-
1962, 173-177. platonico de las pinturas de la Quinta
Arnaiz, J.M., Las Pinturas Negras de del Sordo, Santiago de Compostela, 1 981
Goya, Madrid, Antiqvaria, 1996. Malraux, a., Saturne (Essai sur Goya),
BoZAL, v.. Imager) de Goya, Madrid, Montrouge, NRF, 1950.
Lumen, 1983. MoFFiTT, H.F., "Hacia el esclarecimiento
BozAL, v., Pinturas Negras de Goya, de las Pinturas Negras de Goya", Goya,
Madrid, TF Editores, 1998. no. 215, 1990, 282-293.

Garrido, C., "Algunas consideraciones Muller, p., Goya's "Black" Paintings.

sobre la tecnica de las Pinturas Negras Truth and Reason in Light and Liberty,
de Goya", Boietfn del Museo del Prado, New York, Hispanic Society of Amer-
V, no. 13, 1984,4-38. ica, 1984.

Glendinninc, N., "The strange Trans- NordstrOm, p., Goya, Saturn and
Goya's Black Paintings", The
lation of Melancholy, Almqvist & Wiksell, Stock-
BuHington Magazine, CXVII, no. 868, hol, Goteborg, Uppsala, 1962.
1975,465-479. Paz, Alfredo de, Goya: Arte e con-
Glendinninc, N., The Interpretation of dizione umana, Napoles, Liguori Edi-
Goya's "Black Paintings", London, tote, 1 990.
Queen Mary College, 1977.
Sanchez Canton, F.J., "Como vivia
Glendinninc, N., "Goya's Country Goya", Archivo Espafiol deArte, XVIII,
House in Madrid. The Quinta del no. 73, 1946.
Sordo", Apollo, CXXiil, no. 288, 1986,
Sanchez Cant6n, F.J., y Salas, X. de,
102-109.
Goya y sus Pintures Negras en la Quinta
Glendinninc, N., "La Quinta del Sordo del Sordo, Barcelona, Milano, Vergara,
de Goya", Historia 16, XI, no. 120, Rizzoli, 1963.
1986,99-109. Sebastian, "Interpretacion Iconolog-
S.,

Glendinninc, N., "Las Pinturas Negras", ica de Negras de Goya",

las Pinturas
en Jornadas en torno al estado de la Goya, no. 148-150, 1979, 268-277.
cuestion de los estudios sobre Goya,
Torrecillas Fernandez, M" del C,
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, 4-
"Nueva documentacion fotografica
23 deoctubre, 1992.
sobre las pinturas de la Quinta del
Gonzalez de Zarate, J.M^, Goya de Sordo de Goya", Boietfn del Museo del
lo bello a lo sublime, Vitoria, Instituto Prado, VI, no. 1 7, 1 985, 87-96.
de Estudios Iconograficos EPHIALTE M^ del C, "Las
Torrecillas Fernandez,
del Ayuntamiento de Vitoria-Gasteiz,
pinturas de la Quinta del Sordo
1990.
fotografiadas por Laurent", Boietfn del
Light, Goya. The Origins of the
F., Museo del Prado, XII, no. 31, 1992,
Modern Temper in Art, New York, Uni- 57-69.

63
General Information on the Prado Museum

EDIFICIO VILLANUEVA Coffee Shop

Paseo del Prado, s/n Tuesday to Saturday:
28014 Madrid 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m
Telephone: Sundays and holidays:
91 330.28.00 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Fax:
91 330.28.56 Restaurant
Information: Monday to Saturday:
91 330.29.00 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Wheelchair access available
Shops
VISITING HOURS Tuesday to Saturday:
Tuesday through Saturday: 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Sundays and holidays:
Sundays and holidays: 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Closed on Mondays HOW TO GET THERE
Metro:
ENTRANCE FEES Atocha, Banco and Retiro
General Admission 500 ptas stations

Spanish youth card, student Bus:

card, or international Numbers 9, 10, 14, 19, 27,
equivalents. 34, 37, 45
Cultural and education group
rates (by advance request) From the airport:
91 330.28.25) 250 ptas Airport shuttle bus to Plaza de
Colon, then No. 27 bus
Senior citizens over 65 or
pensioners. General Information about the
Members of the Fundacion Fundacion Amigos del Museo
Amigos del Museo del Prado. del Prado
Cultural and educational Museo del Prado
volunteers c/ Ruiz de Alarc6n,n° 21 -
Free bajo. 28014 Madrid
Tel: 91 420.20.46
Free General Admission Fax.: 91 429.50.20
Days E-mail: famprado@canaldata.es
Saturdays, from 2:30 p.m. to
7:00 p.m. Office hours:
Sundays, from 9:00 a.m. to Monday to Friday, from 9:30 a.m.
2:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

64
FUNDACION
AMIGOS DEL MUSEO DEL PRADO Alianza Editorial

One Amigos del

priority of the activities of the
Museo Prado Foundation is the publication of
del
these explanatory guidebooks to the major artists
whose work is on display at the Prado Museum.
The aim of these guidebooks is to help visitors
broaden their knowledge of the pieces on display by
means of insightful textual passages. The texts are
accompanied by graphic reproductions for immediate
identification of each piece.
This service, which the Amigos del Museo del
Prado Foundation offers to all the visitors to the
Museum, provides an innovative and efficient
solution for making information available within the
galleries themselves. In addition, it contains further
information regarding the Museum and the
Foundation.

The publishing of this guide for visitors is sponsored by

= MUSINI
SOCIEDAD ANONIMA DE SEGUROS Y REASEGUROS

ISBN 84-922260-9-9

9 788492"226092'