Goyas Black Roberts Daughter

Quinta del Sordo The House of the Deaf Man"

00 - exterior photo

purchased in 1819. on the banks of the Manzanares near Madrid

named after a previous occupant who had been deaf, although Goya had also been left deaf after contracting a fever in 1792.

born in 1746, so he was 72-73. lived there until 1819.

Black Paintings

00b - layout of paintings

14 paintings, seven each floor

painted directly on the wall

in two rooms, one on the first floor and one on the second dining room (downstairs) and reception room (upstairs).

transferred to canvas in 1873–74 under the supervision of Salvador Martínez Cubells, a curator at the Museo del Prado. The owner, Baron Emile d'Erlanger, donated the canvases to the Spanish state in 1881, and they are now on display at the Museo del Prado.

photos taken by J Laurent prior to removal. you can see frames, walls, etc.

first floor:

01 - La Leocadia - Doña Leocardia Weiss - 57" x 51"

a woman commonly identified as Goya's maid, companion and (most likely lover) Leocadia Weiss

01b - photo by Laurent.

02 - Witches Sabbath (The Great He-Goat) - 55" x 170" other Witches Sabbath (1798) 17" x 12"

02b - witches sabbath 1798

02c - photo by Jean Laurent, 1873 - 1874 balance was shifted

offbalance (characteristic of this time) similar to

02d -Tauromauqia - Unfortunate events in the front seats of the ring of Madrid, and the death of the Mayor of Torrejón. 1815-1816

03 - Saturn Devouring his Son - 56.3" x 31.9"

references / precedent?

04 - Judith and Holofernes - 56.5 x 32.0"

04b - Judith Slaying Holofernes, Artemisia Gentileschi 1611-12 the more famous

05 - The Pilgrimage of San Isidro - 140 x 438cm pilgrimage towards the Hermitage of Madrid. drunken, distortion compared to

05b - Meadow of San Isidro. 1788. 44 x 94cm bucolic

06 - Two Old Men - 146 x 66cm 'symbolic portrait' Xavier de Salas

06b - I am Still Learning. chalk on paper. 1824. 19.5 x 15 cm

07 - Two Old People Eating - 49.3 x 83.4 over the door, perhaps to kitchen

second floor:

08 - atropos the fates - 123 x 266 cm beside the Fight with Cudgels and across from the Fantastic Vision.

three fates. Atropos, the inexorable goddess of death, who carries a few scissors to cut the thread of life; Clotho, with her distaff (which Goya replaces with a doll or newborn child, possibly an allegory of life), and Lachesis, the spinning one, which in this representation looks across a lens or in a mirror and symbolizes time, since she was the one who measured the length of the fiber.

nocturnal atmosphere (greed out)

these are UGLY! compare to other fates.

09 - duel with Cudgels - 123 x 266cm up to there knees in mud 09b, 09c - NC Wyeth, Robinson Crusoe, Giant

10 - men reading - 125.3cm x 65.2cm counterpoint to women laughing

11 - women laughing - 125.4cm x 65.4cm counterpoint to men reading masturbating? women laughing?

12 - Pilgrimage of the holy office - 123-265 cm

figures in 17th century dress, we can assume that there is a connection with the steps taken by Ferdinand Vll to revive the inquisition soon after his restoration to the throne. (Salas)

13 - Asmodea - 123-265cm

14 - the dog - 130-84cm

use of empty space

14d -Tauromauqia - Unfortunate events in the front seats of the ring of Madrid, and the death of the Mayor of Torrejón. 1815-1816

"naked power with which Goya has played off void against solid, black against light, empty space against full" (Robert Hughes, 2004)

Goya's health

15 - self portrait at 69 years (four years prior, 1815)

In 1792, Goya developed a sudden serious illness which included dizziness, weakness, delirium, sickness, abdominal pain, deafness, and partial blindness.[1][2] By the time he returned to Madrid, in 1793, Goya was completely deaf. Various diagnoses of this serious illness have been offered: syphilis, lead poisoning, cerebrovascular disease, acute infection of the central nervous system, and the rare condition of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome—temporary inflammation of the uveal tract associated with permanent deafness

16 - Self Portrait with Dr Arrieta - 1820 - 46 x 31"

Inscription Reads: "Goya, in gratitude to his friend Arrieta: for the compassion and care with which he saved his life during the acute and dangerous illness he suffered towards the end of the year 1819 in his seventy-third year"

lived 8 more years.

Context

court painter for 40 years french occupation and uprising and reoccupation peninsula war, inquisition

cartoons - for tapestries at Royal Palace of El Pardo

The Parasol - 104 x 152cm oil on linen, 1777 Blind Man's Bluff - 269 cm × 350 cm, oil on linen, 1989

Los Caprichos - 1799

Goya described the series as depicting "the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilized society, and from the common prejudices and deceitful practices which custom, ignorance or self-interest have made usual"

published, then withdraw after threats from the inquisition.

Disasters of War. 1810-1820. 82 prints inspired by the Peninsular War prefigured wartime photojournalism. opponent of inquisition and absolute monarchy.

"caprichos enfáticos" ("emphatic caprices"

visual protest against the violence of the 1808 Dos de Mayo Uprising, the subsequent Peninsular War of 1808–14 and the setbacks to the liberal cause following the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1814.

1808, the people of Madrid rebelled against the occupation of the city by French troops, provoking a brutal repression by the French Imperial forces and triggering the Peninsular War

not published until 1863, 35 years after his death. It is likely that only then was it considered politically safe to distribute a sequence of artworks criticising both the French and restored Bourbons

Living Situation

site specific, not the particularities of la quinta del sordo (aside from coincidence of naming), but the fact of it being his home

Art you choose to live with versus art you show, disperse, whatever.

Strategies, Methods

developed in his own home, space. public/private. performative.

signifying system?

what is he trying to communicate

quasi systems art. "derive their value solely through their assigned context" work individually, but also signify in a network of meaning.

he never mentioned or wrote about any of the "Black Paintings"