Goya: The First Modernist

Answer

Goya: The First Modernist

Francisco Goya is globally renowned as one of the greatest artists in the history of art. Goya artworks had a peculiar way in which they displayed the society. Goya’s works of art were based on the different ways in which he viewed the society and reflective of the different stages of life that he was in (Muller, 2016, p. 221). However, in the 19^th century, Goya became the pioneer of a variety of new artistic designs and tendencies. The works left by Goya extent for over 60 years in which he has not only been acclaimed but also criticized in equal measure (Fullerton, 2009). Goya’s artworks including the paintings, engravings, and drawings were the first ones to demonstrate contemporary/modern historical upheavals and have influenced a majority of painters even in the modern society. This paper seeks to prove this argument by providing Goya’s artworks and how they demonstrate that he was the first modernist.

            Born on March 30, 1749, in Fuendetodos, in the Zaragoza area of Spain, Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes was at the age of 14 apprenticed by Jose Martin Luzan, a locally renowned artist (Muller, 2016, p.111). He began to study painting at a very tender age before moving to Madrid, the capital of Spain, to get to study with Anton Raphael; then was a Spanish royalty painter. However, he subsequently moved to Rome whereby he further studied classical art (Shaw, 2003, p. 501). In 1779, he was admitted to the Spanish crown as the court painter where he established a reputation for being a portrait artist, especially in the royal circles. Unfortunately, in 1792, he became deaf and started working on non-commissioned paintings. He is best known for his ability to use art in the recording of moments of Spanish history. For instance, according to Muller (2016, p. 112), in 1814, he painted the true human cost of the war in the uprising between Madrid forces and the French forces. Unlike other artists at the time who used the traditional mechanisms of art production for aesthetic value, Goya’s artistic work illustrated the absurdity of contemporary times and thus make him the father of modern art.

Goya was the first modernist because of the manner that his artworks expressed his feelings and thoughts which later paved way for future art movements. Goya was affected by the various political activities which surrounded him at the time. As the war between Madrid forces and French went on, he became concerned about the atrocities which happened and thus his view about the human condition started to deteriorate (Muller, 2016, p.123). As such, instead of focusing on the aesthetic value of the arts that he made, he was more influenced by contemporary events. Most of his paintings and artworks were a demonstration of his views and illustrated the events which were happening in society. For instance, according to Shaw (2003, p. 481), the Disasters of War paintings which consist of 82 artworks (plates) serve to demonstrate the violence at the beginning of the 19^th century (see Figure 1 below for one of the plates in Disasters of War prints). The paintings depict the guerrilla warfare, the famine, as well as the political disillusionment which had taken place after the invasion of Spain by the Napoleon Bonaparte’s in the years between 1769-1821 (Fullerton, 2009). The brutally graphic images of the war produced by the artist were a demonstration of the modern events which have come to influence contemporary artists to follow the same design.

Figure 1: Goya’s Plate 3: Lo Mismo (The same) in Disasters of Wa. Obtained from https://www.napoleon.org/en/magazine/whats-on/francisco-goya-disasters-war/

The penetrating characterizations of Goya’s artworks displayed realism which had been unprecedented in the existing artworks. Notably, according to Muller (2016, p. 99), when Goya became deaf, his concentration turned into fantasies of his imagination. His view of the society was changed from the good customs to thoughts about the negative aspects in the society. The medication and introspection that Goya started to engage in led to the development of new ideas and the evolvement of a bold albeit freestyle mode of artistic creativity. For instance, in 1799, Goya created and published what was known as the Caprichos (see Figure 2 below for an example of this painting) which was a series of various etchings depicting the satire of human folly as well as a weakness (Harris, 1964, p.39). The portraits that he pained now became the revelation of the different subjects based on how he viewed them. For instance, his religious portraits at the time were not only broad but free in style and depicted a realism which had not been seen before. The paintings were the beginning of the modern art where people did their artwork in a freestyle representing the issues which happened in the society without painting arts only for aesthetic purposes.

Figure 2: Capricho No. 1: Francisco Goya y Lucientes, Pintor. Obtained from http://loscaprichos.org/1-Francisco-Goya-y-Lucientes-painter.html

In the fourteen paintings of Madrid’s Museo del Prado (Black Paintings), Goya produced artworks which had never seen before as they were not only amazing in style but also foretold the manner in which art was to be some more than 100 years later. Goya was an artist who could change his views based on what the society was experiencing. He was not stubborn in his paintings about the contemporary events in the society (Popczyk, 2012, p.339). For instance, he was inspired and influenced by the existing progressive ideas of the French Revolution as well as the aftermath of the same and was willing to make his country (Spain) lean from the Revolution. However, after the immense suffering, starvation, and the bloodshed which was experienced under the rule of Bonapartist, Goya revised his views about the society and concluded that; based on the disasters of the war, humanity was doomed (Muller, 2016, p.134). He was not only talented but also versatile and continued to experience and master new media techniques until the time when he was quite old. Goya’s extent of his disillusionment with society makes him be revered as the father of modern art and the first modernist in the world of art.

In conclusion, Goya’s artworks including the paintings, engravings, and drawings were the first ones to demonstrate contemporary/modern historical upheavals and have influenced a majority of painters even in contemporary society. Goya’s works were influenced by Jose Martin Luzan as well as other artists who had progressive ideas. His artworks expressed his feelings and thoughts about the manner in which the society was and the direction that it was taking. He changed his mind about society from the promising to a doomed future. His disillusionment even increased after he became deaf and was engaged in meditation. Some of his paintings such as the Disasters of War were meant to display the human cost of war and provide lessons to Spain about the importance of avoiding war. Goya was both talented and versatile based on the fact that his paintings and ideas were influenced even by some of the French revolutionaries.