Francisco Goya Romanticism

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, or more commonly known as Goya, was a Spanish Romantic artist during the late 18th and early 19th century. Goya was one of the first artists to appear in the Romantic period and is now referred to as the most influential artist of the time. For a majority of his career, Goya suffered through hearing loss, causing him to express his internal thoughts through paintings he did inside of his home. The paintings depicted many characteristics of the Romantic style with his use of intense emotions and ideas such as death and horror. These romantic aspects were especially distinguished in his most famous pieces The Third of May 1808, Saturn Devouring His Son, and Witches’ Sabbath.

Romanticism was an artistic and literary movement that began in the late 18th century Europe that stressed the individual’s expression of emotion and imagination, glorification of the past and nature, and departure from forms of classicism. The movement emerged as a reaction against the ideas

He created a series of paintings called The Disasters of War, dedicated to the sufferings of the Spanish during the time. The Third of May 1808, painted in 1814, is by far Goya’s most famous piece in the collection. The painting reveals the true horrors of the battlefield as the French army attacks and kills innocent Spanish troops protecting their city in the uprising at Medina del Rio Seco. “Even though Goya had shown French sympathies in the past, the slaughter of his countrymen and the horrors of war made a profound impression on the artist” (“Zappella”). The darkness of the piece shows the threatening destruction of the troops. Goya also uses intense emotion in the piece, especially in the facial expressions of the Spanish. Each of them have distinct looks that show signs of fear, plead, and sorrow, while the French continue to shoot, showing no