Posts Tagged ‘Goya’
“It is our own misperceptions of who we really are that leads to every self-created hell you’ll find in this world”*…
“Penitent Mary Magdalene”, by Nicolas Régnier
The idea that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute before meeting Jesus is not found in the Bible…
Revel in wrongness at the “List of common misconceptions.”
* Bill Hicks
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As we render ourselves to rectification, we might send masterful birthday greetings to Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes; he was born on this date in 1746. An artist and printmaker who was Court Painter to the Spanish Crown, Goya is regarded both as the last of the Old Masters (for “La Maja Denuda,” among many, many others) and the first of the Moderns. Indeed, in the words of art historian Sir Kenneth Clark, “El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid” is “the first great picture which can be called ‘revolutionary’ in every sense of the word, in style, in subject, and in intention.”
Goya’s “Black Paintings,” created late in his life, are anguished, haunted works, reflective both of his fear of dementia and of his dystopian outlook for humanity.
“Saturn Devouring His Son” (detail), probably the most famous of the Black Paintings
Portrait of Francisco Goya by Vicente López y Portaña (1826)
“I see black light”*…
Robert Fludd’s black square representing the nothingness that was prior to the universe, from his Utriusque Cosmi (1617) – Source: Wellcome Library
Is black a color, the absence of color or a suspension of vision produced by a deprivation of light? Beginning with Robert Fludd’s attempt to picture nothingness, Eugene Thacker reflects on some of the ways in which blackness has been employed through the history of art and philosophical thought. Head for the dark side at “Black on Black.”
* Victor Hugo’s last words
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As we paint it black, we might spare a thought for Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes; he died on this date in 1828. A painter and printmaker who was Court Painter to the Spanish Crown, Goya is regarded both as the last of the Old Masters (for “La Maja Denuda,” among many, many others) and the first of the Moderns. Indeed, in the words of art historian Sir Kenneth Clark, “El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid” is “the first great picture which can be called ‘revolutionary’ in every sense of the word, in style, in subject, and in intention.”
Goya’s “Black Paintings,” created late in his life, are anguished, haunted works, reflective both of his fear of dementia and of his dystopian outlook on humanity.
“Saturn Devouring His Son” (detail), probably the most famous of the Black Paintings
Portrait of Francisco Goya by Vicente López y Portaña (1826)
“Jack shall have his Jill, Nought shall go ill”…
This Midsummer’s Weekend (June 21-23) the Royal Shakespeare Company will mount its 40th production of Midsummer Night’s Dream: the play will be performed by members of the company in real time, directed by Artistic Director Gregory Doran, culminating in a wedding, which those present can attend. Simultaneously, in cooperation with Google Labs and Google+, the RSC will be making the production available online.
In anticipation of the event, the RSC has posted this helpful introductory video, in which playwright Billy Shakespeare and his pet pig Francis (Bacon) explain the antic goings-on…
More information on the production at the RSC’s site; sign up to follow the progress with the RSC on Google+.
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As we remark at “what fools these mortals be,” we might recall that it was on this date in 1808 that Napoleon’s forces executed captured rebels in Madrid– an event memorialized in Goya’s “El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid .” Anxious for its strategic access to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, Napoleon had occupied Spain, giving rise to a a Spanish resistance and the five-year Peninsular War, the first real guerrilla war. The executed prisoners were particpants in the Dos de Mayo Uprising (also memorialized by Goya in a companion painting).
In 1814, after the expulsion of the French, Goya secured a commission from the Spanish government to do the paintings. Though it drew on sources from both high and popular art, “El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid” was a clear break from tradition– a groundbreaking work that has become an archetypical image of the horrors of war. In the words of art historian Sir Kenneth Clark, “El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid” is “the first great picture which can be called ‘revolutionary’ in every sense of the word, in style, in subject, and in intention.”
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