Francisco de Goya

Francisco de Goya
Francisco de Goya was born in 1746 and died 82 years later in 1828. Throughout Goya’s life time the political situation changed entirely and that is deeply relevant in Goya’s work.
Goyas father was a gilder which meant he was surrounded by art from an early age, also the king that was in power when he was growing up supported creative arts and change,
In Goyas early career he was mainly a resident painter for aristocratic families, this paid well but tended to be quite tedious, so he used to add little details to make the pictures seem slightly more fun and lively and more intriguing to paint.
When Goya got older napoleon invaded Spain and instilled a different kind of monarchy which did not support change or the creative arts, Goya became the resident painter for napoleon and painted portraits of the whole French renaissance
after this period in his life the French finally left Spain and a Spanish king was once again put on the throne, they all expected him to be like the last Spanish king, but he was nothing like him, he stopped the constitution and reinstated the Spanish inquisition.
Goya was deeply horrified by this and began depicting images of the appalling scenes he had encountered, it began as a kind of keeping track of the event happening in the Spanish society at the time but eventually turned into a social protest with much more emotion instilled in these paintings and etchings.
Goya also pioneered the etching into copper which hadn’t been previously used as a medium before and opened a new medium up to the world.
What began as an interest in art developed into a career in art. This art served as a social indicator of the peace and tranquility of the Spanish empire of his youth. His art developed into a social comment as he painted “snapshots” of the conflict that occurred during Bonaparte’s invasion of Spain.
Finally, de Goya’s art became a social protest as he painted the atrocities suffered by the people of...