Francisco de Goya, one of Spain’s most influential artists.
The statute of Francisco de Goya, is at the Paseo de Prado – close to the entrance of the Prado Museum. Who is Francisco de Goya? He was one of Spain’s most influential artists and his work is at the Prado Museum. This fitting and well-detailed statue, dedicated and honors him.
If you are a Goya fan, then the statue is a must see. If not, you will walk past it and not pay it a lot of attention.
More about the Francisco de Goya statue and why it is important.
Francisco de Goya is categorized among the old Spanish Masters. He enjoyed a lot of prestige and fame among Spanish and European artists in the 19th century. This statue was made by Spanish sculptor, Mariano Benlliure in 1902. Goya in this statue is not a young man but considerably older. He is depicted standing, in an overcoat with a hat in his left hand. He is standing on a granite pedestal. At the bottom of the pedestal, you will see haunting images from his series of Black Paintings. At the base of the statue is a marble image of his La Maja desnuda. The series of Black Paintings in the Prado Museum shocked me. I found it disturbing. More about that later.
What do other travelers have to say about the Francisco de Goya statue?
After many previous visits to Madrid’s Prado, this was the first time I had really
noticed and so made time to study this magnificent monument to Francisco Goya. First of all this bronze figure would seem to perfectly capture the brooding physical presence of the man in a way that 150 years later others would do to encapsulate similar characteristics in Churchill. How fitting that this 3D representation gazes across at the great Prado which houses so many of his finest paintings. The bronze sits on a huge Rodinesque plinth which incorporates marble reproductions of some of Goya’s most famous subjects on canvas, the prize example being the carving of his Nude Maja with a stifled cheeky expression surely worthy of the Mona Lisa! The monument’s location couldn’t be more perfect against a trimmed grass bank topped with trees and the white Hotel Ritz behind, a building probably from Goya’s time.
Francisco de Goya the man and artist.
Born to a modest family in 1746 in the village of Fuendetodos in Aragon. At the age of 14, he started to study painting and moved to Madrid. In 1773 he married a woman called Josefa Bayeu. They had a complicated life together, marked by a constant series of pregnancies and miscarriages. Only one son survived. Goya became a court painter to the Spanish crown.
If you look through his work at the Prado Museum, you will see portraits of Spanish aristocracy and Rococo style tapestry cartoons. The Crown commissioned them.
The Black Paintings and Goya.
To get back to the controversial Black Paintings that can be seen in the Prado Museum. They are very disturbing and came as a shock. I am not a Goya fan and did not know much about this work. Goya eventually retreated from public life and became a recluse. Tormented by old age and very politically aware, he started to work on the Black Paintings. He converted a farmhouse into a studio. At this stage, Goya was practically deaf. The house, appropriately named, “La Quinta del Sordo” or the “House of the Deaf Man“.
Later life of Goya.
Historians don’t know much about Goya during this time of his life. They believe he felt alienated from social and political trends. He did not want the art published. Few people knew what he actually worked on. He completed the Black Paintings at the age of 75. 50 years after his death, the Black Paintings appeared. They took the murals down and transferred them to canvas. During the restoration process, people altered the works significantly. Not only altered but the damaged and suffered a loss of paint.
They are on permanent display at the Prado Museum. The Prado museum does not allow photographs.
