L a - b e a u t é - s a u v e r a - l e - m o n d e ~ D o s t o ï e v s k i

L a - b e a u t é - s a u v e r a - l e - m o n d e  ~  D o s t o ï e v s k i



Friday, March 16, 2018

Spanish generals - four portraits by Goya


Antonio Ricardos Carrillo de Albornoz (1727-1794), circa 1793.
Manuel Godoy y Álvarez de Faria, príncipe de la Paz, etc. (1767-1851), 1801.
José Ramón de Urrutia y de las Casas (1739-1803), 1798.
José Revolledo de Palafox y Melci, duque de Zaragoza (1776-1847), 1814.



2 comments:

  1. I can see how Goya is so amazing, but something about his work I never like. I can appreciate it but it's not for me -weird huh? These are pretty interesting though -amazing how he does so much with so little -so few colors and yet such depth and expression.

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    1. He's decidedly an oddball. His portraits are alternately hideous or completely without character, his figures often look liked stuffed dummies. Compositions are awkward, proportions are off and/or completely graceless; the horse in the last portrait above...? Honestly, sometimes I'm surprised that I like his work at all. But I find much of it intriguing. Part of it is, I guess, his absolute audacity and originality. Also, I love his sense of color. But I think most of it is - as a "fellow painter" - my admiration for his application of paint, the way the paint is - washed - on, in thin-ish layers, and the way the light plays through the different layers; in some of his most beautiful work - like the Naked Maja - the surface just shimmers!

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