Will No One Untie Us?
“First be a magnificent artist and then you can do whatever, but the art must be first” by Francisco de Goya. Francisco de Goya has produced many different forms of art throughout his life. One in spectacular, ¿No Hay Quien Nos Desate? which translates into Will No One Untie Us? is the 75th plate out of a series of 80 prints called Los Caprichos. Los Caprichos were made by aquatint and etching in 1797 and 1798 but was published as an album later in 1799. Goya “recently developed the technique of aquatint, which makes these etchings a major achievement in the history of engraving” (Magister). In 1789, Goya became an official Court painter and painted several pictures of the Spanish Royal family. Francisco de Goya is one
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of the greatest Spanish painters as shown through the techniques of Los Caprichos, Goya climate in Spain, and the themes of ¿No Hay Quien Nos Desate?. Los Caprichos was made by aquatint and etchings throughout the set.
Etching is a process of the acid being used to incise the plate. They would “coat the plate first with an acid-resistant material called a ground” ;however, there are two kinds of grounds that are commonly used in etchings, which are hard and soft (“Etching and Aquatint”). Hard ground etching is where the artist draws through a hard wax that coats the plate. The lines are usually thin, wiry, and blunt at the end, while soft ground etching is where the artist draws on a piece of paper that covers a soft wax coating on the plate (“Etching and Aquatint”). After the grounding is complete the paper is lifted and it removes the wax where the pencil pressed. The lines can vary depending on which type of grounding is used on the etching. On a soft ground etching, the lines are fuzzier at the edges similar to a crayon lines. By using soft grounding, the wax can often help make imprints of other things like leaves or lace in an etching. Etching is only one technique Goya uses in his prints, aquatint is a whole new process but is similar to etching. Aquatint is another type of ground that helps with the shading, but the difference is that it is not a solid coating on the plate. Aquatints purpose is to create different tones even though it is composed of fine particles of rosin. During the process of aquatint, “the acid bites around the particles, creating tooth, or a collection of little marks in the plate that hold …show more content…
ink” (“Etching and Aquatint”). In order to create an even tone, the artist creates a rosin dust storm in an aquatint box so that the particles will sift onto the plate evenly. “Rosin is a natural substance which is purified sap of pine trees” ("Printmaking 101: Applying Rosin for Aquatint (Using a Rosin Box)"). After the particles are in the plate, they are heated to adhere them, then it is painted in tar only in positive areas of the print. When it is submerged in the acidic solution, the acid bites into the plate creating lines within the paper. Since ¿No Hay Quien Nos Desate? is an etching, it is drawn on ivory laid paper, which is just shy of a regular sheet of paper being about 21.4 x 15 cm in size (Goya). In addition to the different techniques used in Goya’s etchings, Los Caprichos could better be explained through Goya’s time period and climate. “Los Caprichos was created in a time of social repression and economic crisis in Spain. With the repression and crisis going on in Spain, Goya was Influenced by Enlightenment thinking and was set out to analyze the human condition, denounce social abuses, and superstitions” (Johnson). Goya was passionate about Los Caprichos declaring that the chains of social backwardness had to be broken if humanity was to advance and revolutionize itself. As Goya first started out as an artist in Spain, José Luzán Martínez, a Spanish baroque painter, was Goya's teacher and learned through imitation. When he was imitating, he admired “the works of great masters, finding inspiration in the works of such artists as Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez and Rembrandt van Rijn” (“Francisco de Goya”). After studying the purpose of baroque painters, he believed that there should be no rules in painting and urged that free rein should be given to those studying art. In 1792, prior to creating Los Caprichos, Goya personally struggled and suffered an illness that we still do not know for sure “ although it could possibly be typhoid fever, Ménières disease, and lead poisoning from his paints” (Schwendener). As he was creating ¿No Hay Quien Nos Desate? he not only was dealing with a possible disease, but also lost his hearing. Goya’s personal struggles really helps demonstrates the dark horrors of his etchings in Los Caprichos. His artwork was created during the time of the Romantic period where it is often portrayal by the bold, intense emotions such as anger, fear, grief, and passion. The themes of ¿No Hay Quien Nos Desate? demonstrates a striking principal of social norms of the time being arranged marriages. The image of the etching is a man and woman being bound together; however, is tied to a tree as prey for the bespectacled owl hovering above them. Arranged marriage was a common aspect of lives in Spain, whether the marriage serves for economic benefits or as a family contract. Through Francisco de Goya’s climate he was brought into, he developed his own style to dictate the issue of arranged marriage in ¿No Hay Quien Nos Desate?. Along with the Goya’s climate issues in Spain, ¿ No Hay Quien Nos Desate?
has many interpretations. As a whole, Los Caprichos focuses a lot on the Spanish Inquisition, which was initiated in 1478 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella that guarded the orthodoxy of Catholicism in Spain. The Spanish Inquisition was governed by both civil and church authorities which gave it ultimate power. Also as Los Caprichos focuses on the Spanish Inquisition, the other themes within the set of etching were the corruption of the church and the nobility, witchcraft, child rearing, avarice, and the frivolousness of young women. In Los Caprichos, they show the owl as a symbol for unearthly forces, but in ¿No Hay Quien Nos Desate?, the owl is hovering largely in darkness gripping the head of a woman bond to the hip of a struggling man. The etching can be interpreted in many ways as it can “cast an image of tortured love?, emotional opposites, or a struggle between the sexes” (Goya's Los Caprichos: #75 - Can't Anyone Untie Us?). Forced or arranged marriage was a trap sprung on sons and daughters in wealthy families in Spain. Since divorce was unacceptable and frowned upon by the church they risked becoming victims of the inquisitions. In the etching ¿ No Hay Quien Nos Desate?, the owl is wearing glasses which symbolizes the church and state powers over the Spanish people (Goya's Los Caprichos: #75 - Can't Anyone Untie Us?). The couple not only struggles against each other and the owl, but also
against the dark looming forces of society. The owl suggests that greater forces than tangled social traditions are at work. There are many things that unnaturally snare the couple such as greed, lust for power, and sex out of wedlock are dark and powerful burdens to take on. The rope and the tree bonding the struggling couple together represent the arranged marriage. As the owl being wise and all-knowing try to separate the woman from the tree, which represents the current state of their marriage. Due to the techniques of Los Caprichos, Goya climate in Spain, and the themes of ¿No Hay Quien Nos Desate?, Francisco de Goya is one of the greatest Spanish painters. He learned the basics of the baroque through other artists such as Rembrandt. He used them to develop his own techniques and ideas on the societies issues to create a set of etching we know as Los Caprichos. Through Los Caprichos, we can discover the different messages with ¿No Hay Quien Nos Desate?. The different choices he used in his etching and along with his illness created one of the most recognized etching in the set.
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