Francisco Goya - reflections after lecture

After last session we had to watch a documentary about Spanish painter Francisco Goya.

I find his progress as an artist very interesting since his work at the beginning of his career is completely different from the one that we are the most used to seeing. His early works have more light and optimism with them than his late depressing, unsettling and pessimistic paintings. It is amazing how much change can be done in someone's style.



Another interesting thing I learned about Francisco Goya is how similar some of his earlier work is to one of my favourite XIX century artists - Henryk Siemiradzki. After looking closely however I think that the former did a far better paintings in this style. The way Siemiradzki is lighting his scene is something unbelievable. All of the light shadows mixed with penumbras give unique lifelike look. In Goya's paintings from Carthusian Monastery are looking very bland and lit in a very boring and unimaginative way.



Overall I feel like the whole narration in this documentary is very biased. It is still a very interesting and comprehensive piece of film, however the constant praise of Goya feel a bit excessive to me.







______________________
Sources:
Hughes, R. (2007). Goya, Crazy Like A Genius.

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