Francisco Goya's The Family Of Charles IV

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Francisco Goya was considered an influential Spanish Romanticist painter and print maker, he is still revered today. Goya has been cited as the last of the old traditional artists, but also as the first of the Modern artists, this makes him a unique figure in art history. He created many popular paintings throughout his lifetime. His paintings earlier on are known more for their blissful, cheerful tones, but later on in his life, Goya’s art took on darker tones for sure. Many speculate that this had to do with the loss of his hearing. “The Family of Charles IV” was painted from 1800- 1801 and it is one of Goya’s most well-known paintings. It is famed for brutal honesty when it comes to the appearance of the royal family, which is surprising …show more content…

This painting is actually a direct reference to Velazquez's "Las Meninas," but it is during the reign of Charles IV instead of Philip IV. Goya's self-portrait of himself in the painting is more shadowed than Velazquez was in his painting. People are so used to royal portraits having characteristics of idealism, but this painting is unique in this way. The royal family’s faces are in no way beautified or romanticized which is surprising in a way considering Goya was a Romanticist himself. In saying that, Velazquez was a realist and “Las Meninas” was painted in a very lifelike way, so it would not make sense to paint “Charles IV and his family” Romantically. The way Goya painted the royal family strikes the audience as unflattering, especially the King and Queen. Some of the people in the portrait look somewhat glorified but those are the children, and it is not a momentous difference. I think that Goya just painted the children to look relatively idealized to symbolize their purity. Overall, the faces of the royal family look like those of ordinary people. The children were portrayed as young and beautiful and the costume was painted in a way that made it appear absolutely spectacular, there is glistening jewelry everywhere. To me this signifies that the people in the royal family were not especially beautiful in looks, but the way that they dressed was

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