Dark paintings by Francisco Goya. Famous Paintings by Francisco Goya Dark Paintings

Among the noble works of art that delight the eye and evoke only positive emotions, there are canvases, to put it mildly, strange and shocking. We present to your attention 20 paintings by world famous artists that make you horrified ...

"Losing mind over matter"

A painting painted in 1973 by the Austrian artist Otto Rapp. He depicted a decomposing human head, put on a bird cage, in which lies a piece of flesh.

"Suspended living Negro"

"Dante and Virgil in Hell"

"Hell"

"The Great Red Dragon and the Sea Monster"

"Water Spirit"

"Necronom IV"

"Flaying Marsyas"

"The Temptation of Saint Anthony"

"Severed Heads"

"Scream"

"Death of Marat"

"Still life of masks"

"Gallowgate Lard"

"Saturn Devouring His Son"

"Judith Killing Holofernes"

"Nightmare"

"Massacre of the innocents"

"Study of the portrait of Innocent X Velazquez"

"The Garden of Earthly Delights"

And “Two Old Men Eat Soup” is very similar in atmosphere and expression to Van Gogh’s “Potato Eaters”.

Very good quotes you picked up for amazing murals. I like them very much.

Writing directly on the wall is fantastic. I had such an experience, incredible sensations.

Julia Ria:
November 22, 2011 at 12:20

Compared to Van Gogh. Yes, the same gloomy colors, the same atmosphere of suffocation and impotence or something ... I like “Dog” most of all these paintings, such a strange atmosphere was created by Goya.

I don't remember, have you read this book about Feuchtwanger's Goya? It ends just at the place where the artist decided to paint the walls of his house. There should have been a second part, but ... the writer's life was cut short - so unfairly.

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November 22, 2011 at 13:47

The dog has such a plaintive look, there is so much loneliness, resentment in it, and in front of it there is a barely distinguishable shadow (but it may be the ledges of the wall), at which it looks with the question: “Why did you leave me?”...

I don't remember if I've read Feuchtwanger's Goya, but that won't stop me from reading this book when the mood is right.

These late works by Goya are pure expressionism. He was very ahead of his time.

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November 24, 2011 at 18:07

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November 25, 2011 at 11:30

For a long time I did not accept and rejected conceptual art, various wild, repulsive performances, actions, happenings and the like. In Russia, the term "contemporary art" is accepted, in the rest of the world they don't know about it.))

As an example, the scandalous antics of the most famous Russian artist, the man-dog Oleg Kulik. I really like one of his old works "Russian Eclipse", where he is naked with a red banner in his hand.))

It took me a long time, reading relevant literature and articles about contemporary art, to start convincing myself that everything has a place in art. And nothing can be denied.

I didn’t understand better, but I still sometimes wonder what is going on in conceptual (intellectual) art. Read the statements of Oleg Kulik, they deserve it. For example, here is one of his thoughts:

“All are good, but they lie, but the artist does not lie, but he is a greedy and arrogant egoist. The layman also has all these qualities, but in the modern world it is indecent to demonstrate them. The worst thing in the world of the layman is not the atomic bomb, not poverty, but what your neighbors will say about you. The artist is not afraid of this.

Also, I really liked it:

"Art that exists for the sake of sale is no longer art."

So the rejection and rejection I get from commercial art, paintings for sale. But I have been struggling with this “righteous anger” for a long time and quite successfully.))

Julie, what is it that makes you angry?

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November 25, 2011 at 16:16

And yet I do not quite understand what you mean by commercial art? What is sold in principle or what is drawn deliberately to the taste of the public?

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November 25, 2011 at 17:37

How can I be against everything that is for sale? I myself have sold more than a dozen paintings. Plus, everything eventually ends up on the art market.

Of course, I mean what is drawn specifically for sale. That is, knowing in advance what the public will buy. For her taste. But I've been sympathetic to this for a long time. After all, people have to live from something. Why not from pictures?

Ol, the intention of the artist is important to me. Primordial. That is what makes the difference between the works. Therefore, we call one picture art, and we don’t call the other.

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November 25, 2011 at 18:13

Now I understand. Sometimes it seems to me that you are generally against the sale.

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November 26, 2011 at 12:57 pm

Of course not! I am for it. And I am very glad when artists manage to live from their art. That's great rarity.

In this matter, it is important to understand what is the goal and what is the means.))

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December 1, 2011 at 13:57

Yes, yes, if you think only about money in the first place, spirituality and meaningfulness are lost. But, the presence of earnings does not negate the existence of meaning. These things are not always clear to everyone. Especially in our country, in Russia. The master must be poor - sits in the minds of many, and if the master is rich - then this is no longer art. The same Goya received a lot of money for his portraits and was a court painter, which he was proud of. But he did not step over himself.

The phrase: “The worst thing in the world of the layman is not the atomic bomb, not poverty, but what the neighbors will say about you” is amazing! Simple but accurate. What will they say about you ... neighbors, colleagues, just passers-by. It is disgusting from all this (however, this, alas, is in me too).

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December 1, 2011 at 15:20

Of course he doesn't deny it! People get confused, that's right. And to what extent, I can not fit in my head. For example, most people think that any painting is art. Automatically. If there are all the attributes: a canvas covered with paints, a frame, then art. What else? It never ceases to shock me. Julia, why is the word art referred to any painting? Do you have a version?

This “what they will say about you” is painfully familiar to me. Since I always didn’t care, my parents ate the consequences of my indifference to the fullest.))

When it comes to painting, the imagination tends to paint pastorals and stately portraits. But in fact, fine art is multifaceted. It happened that very ambiguous paintings came out from under the brush of great artists, which hardly anyone wants to hang at home. In our review of the 10 scariest paintings by famous artists.

1. The great red dragon and the monster from the sea. William Blake

William Blake is known today for his engravings and romantic poetry, but he was little appreciated during his lifetime. Blake's engravings and illustrations are classics of the Romantic style, but today consider a series of Blake's watercolor paintings that depict the great red dragon from the book of Revelation. This painting depicts a large red dragon, which is the embodiment of the devil, which stands on a seven-headed beast in the sea.

2. Study of the portrait of Innocent X by Velázquez. Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. His paintings, striking in their boldness and gloominess, are sold for millions of dollars. During his lifetime, Bacon often painted his own interpretations of the portrait of Pope Innocent X. In Velázquez's original work, Pope Innocent X looks thoughtfully from the canvas, while Bacon portrayed him screaming.

3. Dante and Virgil in hell. Adolphe William Bouguereau

Dante's Inferno, with its depiction of horrific torture, has inspired artists since the publication of this work. Bouguereau is best known for his realistic depictions of classical scenes, but in this painting he depicted a circle of hell where impostors fight incessantly, stealing each other's identities through a bite.

4. Death of Marat. Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch is Norway's most famous artist. His famous painting "The Scream", which personifies melancholy, is firmly ingrained in the minds of any person who is not indifferent to art. Marat was one of the leading political leaders of the French Revolution. Since Marat suffered from a skin disease, he spent most of the day in the bathroom, where he worked on his works. It was there that Marat was killed by Charlotte Corday. The death of Marat was depicted by more than one artist, but Munch's painting is especially realistic and cruel.

5. Severed heads. Theodore Géricault

Géricault's most famous work is The Raft of the Medusa, a huge painting in a romantic style. Before creating large works, Gericault painted "warm-up" paintings, like "Severed Heads", for which he used real limbs and severed heads. The artist took similar material in morgues.

6. Temptation of St. Anthony. Matthias Grunewald

Grunewald often painted religious images in the style of the Middle Ages, although he lived during the Renaissance. Saint Anthony went through several trials of his faith while living in the wilderness. According to one legend, Saint Anthony was killed by the demons living in the cave, but later revived and destroyed them. This picture depicts Saint Anthony, who was attacked by demons.

7. Still life of masks. Emil Nolde

Emil Nolde was one of the first expressionist painters, although his fame was soon overshadowed by a number of other expressionists such as Munch. The essence of this trend is the distortion of reality in order to show a subjective point of view. This painting was made by the artist after researching the masks in the Berlin Museum.

8. Saturn devouring his son. Francisco Goya

In Roman myths, which are heavily based on Greek mythology, the father of the gods devoured his own children so that they would never dethrone him. It is this act of killing children that Goya portrayed. The painting was not intended for the public, but was painted on the wall of the artist's house, along with several other gloomy paintings, collectively known as "Black Painting".

9. Judith and Holofernes. Caravaggio

There is a story in the Old Testament about the brave widow Judith. Judea was attacked by an army led by the commander Holofernes. Judith left the city walls and went to the camp of the army besieging the city. There, with the help of her beauty, she seduced Holofernes. When the commander slept drunk at night, Judith cut off his head. This scene is quite popular with artists, but Caravaggio's version is particularly creepy.

10. Garden of earthly delights. Hieronymus Bosch

Usually Hieronymus Bosch is associated with fantastic and religious paintings. The Garden of Earthly Delights is a triptych. The three panels of the painting respectively depict the Garden of Eden and the creation of mankind, the Garden of earthly delights, and the Punishment for sins that occur in the earthly garden. Bosch's work is one of the most gruesome yet most beautiful works in the history of Western art.

"Dark Pictures"

So, let's dwell on a certain moment in Goya's biography - 1819. The artist acquires a two-story estate on the banks of the Manzanares River in the outskirts of Madrid. In the same period, he again became seriously ill. The artist struggles with the disease, but deafness more and more seizes him. Therefore, the strange name given by Goya himself to the estate - “The House of the Deaf” - “Quinto del Sordo” - is not at all accidental. In the next three years, Goya painted the walls of his house in the "a secco" technique on re-moistened plaster. It is known for certain that the "Dark Pictures" were written on top of earlier images, which Goya used as a basis.

In 1823, Goya leaves for Bordeaux and leaves his estate to his grandson Mariano - possibly in order to protect property from possible confiscation after the restoration of absolute monarchy in Spain by Ferdinand the Seventh. For half a century, the murals of the "House of the Deaf" were unknown to the public, with the exception of a few friends of the artist and specialists. In 1874, the artist Salvador Martinez Cubells, at the request of the French banker Frederic Emile d "Erlanger, began to transfer all the paintings from the walls to canvases. It took several years. D" Erlanger wanted to sell the paintings at the World Exhibition in Paris, but this was not destined to happen, and in 1881 he donated the paintings to the Prado Museum in Madrid, where they remain to this day.

Goya himself did not name his "Gloomy Paintings". This was done by his friend, the painter Antonio Brugada, who, after Goya's death in 1828, cataloged the entire cycle. As a result, the paintings received the following names:

First floor of the house.

- "Festival in San Isidro"

- "Coven of Witches"

- "Judith and Holofernes"

- "Saturn devouring his children"

- "Donia Leocadia Zorilla"

- "The Old Man and the Monk" or "Two Old Men".

The second floor of the house.

- "Fantastic Visions" or "Asmodeus"

- "Pilgrimage to the source of San Isidro"

- "Atropos" or "Fate"

- "Duel on clubs"

- "Laughing Women"

- "Reading men"

- "Dog"

- "Two old men eating soup"

The location of the paintings in the house is known from photographs taken by photographer Jean Laurent in 1874. Thanks to these photographs, it is known that the paintings were also framed with stucco, as were the windows and doors in the house. In addition, you can notice the difference in the state of the paintings before transferring them to canvas, see the missing fragments.

There is no actual information about the process of wall painting itself. In this regard, there were even rumors that the paintings were not written by Goya - there was a theory that they were written by Javier, his son, after Goya left for Bordeaux. However, art historians reject this theory - the technique in which the frescoes are made and their style confirms the authorship of the artist.

It is not known what exactly prompted Goya to paint the walls of his house with these scenes. But it is known that the paintings were created in not the best period of the artist's life. His physical condition was unstable, and the state of life in Spain in general was also unstable. There was a civil war in the country, which ended with the restoration of the absolute monarchy. Three years of this war just fall on the period of writing "Dark Canvases". In the paintings, it is easy to trace an analogy with the situations in the social, political and religious spheres of the country of that time. Let's analyze some of the work.

“Saturn Devouring His Children” is a truly terrible work, at the sight of which a person awakens not with fear, but in any case, hostility and anxiety. The ancient deity - Saturn - is depicted against a background of coal-black darkness, his figure is broken and as if convulsing, his hands, similar to the plexus of tree branches, hold the body of a child whose head Saturn bites off. Blood stands out in a disturbing red color on the canvas. You can say that Goya wrote this in a depressed state, and perhaps with the thought of a war in Spain - you can compare Saturn with a country that destroys its own children.

In the painting “Judith and Holofernes”, the energy of earthly deed reigns, captured in its instantaneity. Having just jumped off the bed of Holofernes (slightly visible on the right), not yet tidying up her disheveled clothes, crumpled by love caresses, the heroine threw a sword over the head of the sleeping Assyrian commander and now cuts it off (here there is the first visual-semantic correspondence between her and Saturn - he began to devour his victim from the head). The falling forward movement of Judith, her sharply brightened face, shoulder, arm with a sword - all this also sticks out of the spatial field of the painting, like the knees, arms and head of Saturn.

"Pilgrimage to San Isidro" echoes an earlier work by Goya, written in 1788 - "Folk Festival on the day of St. Isidore." Both works depict one of the favorite holidays of the inhabitants of Madrid. Every year on May 15, they went to the banks of the Manzanares River to have picnics there, dance and drink healing water from the source, which, according to legend, was found by Saint Isidore. And, if in 1788 the painter presented this scene as a colorful and cheerful national holiday, full of carefree fun, then in the later version from the "House of the Deaf" black tones dominate and an alarming feeling of impending inevitable disaster reigns. A crowd of people huddled close to each other wanders along the dry, uneven ground. Their faces are distorted with terrible grimaces, they express fear, pain, horror, malice and bestial malice.

The same motifs appear in The Witches' Sabbath. The compositional center of the picture is also a faceless, ugly crowd, concentrated around the figure of a goat in a monastic cassock, listening to every word of the messenger of Satan. The faces of people - ugly grimaces that do not even look like people's faces - Goya seemed to want to emphasize how a person can easily lose his human appearance.

In "Duel with Clubs" you can also find a response to the military events taking place next to the artist - two people who are so similar to each other are trying to cripple each other with heavy maces in a brutal blind duel. It is not visible how their feet stand on the ground - they seem to be floating in space, just like the characters in the paintings "Atropos, or Fates" and "Asmodeus".

These paintings are full of mysticism, they seem to depict a completely different, unreal world, it is impossible to even say who the characters in the paintings are people or some fantastic creatures. The plot of the painting "Atropos" - the interpretation of the images of the ancient Greek goddesses of fate - Moir or fate as such Homer, Hesiod, Virgil and other ancient authors. The Moirai were led by Atropa, a ruthless goddess who cut the thread of life with her scissors. Clotho and Lachesis were her associates, but there is also a fourth figure on the canvas, resembling a man with his hands tied - perhaps because he is powerless before the goddesses who determine his fate.

“Dog” is written in lighter colors than other “Dark Canvases”, but it still carries sadness and hopelessness - the picture shows the head of a dog that is drowning either in the waves of the sea or in piles of sand - the exact plot of the picture is inexplicable, it may not have been completed at all, one can only speculate. The muzzle of the dog is directed upwards, sad eyes look somewhere ahead, as if they are looking for salvation. In Laurent's photograph taken in 1874, the painting shows outlines resembling a cliff and bird figures, which the dog may be looking at.

The range of all fourteen canvases is black, brown, sand, dark shades, there are practically no bright, rich colors in the paintings, except that in the “Duel” a piece of the blue sky stands out, and in “Saturn” bright red blood. Thanks to such tones, the emotions that the plots of the paintings carry in themselves are amplified many times over. It is no coincidence that these canvases are called "Gloomy".

But it must be said that all the names and interpretations of paintings are the result of the activities of other people, other generations. It is not given to us to know what the artist actually had inside when he painted the walls of his house, for what purpose he did it, to whom he wanted to leave these paintings and what to say with them. One can only draw analogies with the well-known biographical facts about Goya, with the events taking place in the 1820s in Spain. These events could not but be reflected in the work of Goya, attentive and sensitive, worried about changes in the life of his country, noticing human vices and weaknesses, and exposing them, as he did in the Caprichos series.

There is no doubt that the Murals of the “House of the Deaf” are a unique heritage of Spanish and world art, the paintings are really unusual and outstanding for the period of time when they were painted. In them we see the “real” Goya - after all, the artist painted them on the walls of his house, and not in order to put them up for public judgment or sell them - which means that he could accurately convey his thoughts and states to these canvases.

A number of iconic works of the famous Spaniard.

Goya

Francisco de Goya is a famous Spanish painter and engraver. He gained his initial fame as a creator of beautiful tapestries, but the true fame came to him already as a court painter of the Spanish crown. The uniqueness of Goya's works is given by a creative approach and a bold use of colors. The master's style inspired many imitators and had a major impact on the art world.

Umbrella (1777)

This work is part of a series of 63 works that the artist created at the beginning of his career. It is believed that the work on this cycle helped the master to study the ways of human interaction, which later turned out to be important in the creation of later masterpieces. "Umbrella" combines the motives of French and Spanish fashion.

Dog (1823)

The group of well-known "Black Paintings" created by Francisco in the later stages of his work also includes the image of a dog, which is easy to lose in the artistic space of the picture. Usually the work is interpreted as a symbol of a person's struggle with troubles and evil forces.

Mahi (1797–1805)

Both works (“Maja Nude” and “Maja Clothed”) are located side by side in the same room of the Prado Museum (Madrid). Among the artists who created paintings inspired by these works of Goya, Ignacio Zuloaga and Edouard Manet should be noted. To this day, it is not known who served as a model for the main character of the picture, but traditionally the 13th Duchess of Alba is called the source of inspiration for the artist.

On the pedestal of the monument to the artist, installed in front of the Prado Museum, there is a sculptural image based on the painting "Nude Maja".

Great Goat (1821–1823)

The "Black Painting" is often regarded by art historians as a satire on the subject of superstition and depicts Satan speaking to a group of witches.

Charles IV and his family (1801)

The portrait shows the ostentatiously dressed King of Spain and his family. It should be noted that the unwillingness of the artist to flatter and lie led to the fact that Goya, according to modern researchers, showed the corrupt nature of their power in the portrait of the monarch and his family. Probably, the person barely visible on the left is the author of the work.

Disasters of war (1810–1820)

This series of 82 engravings is one of Goya's most significant works. Art historians divide the series into three parts:

• The first 47 engravings show the horrors of war.
• The second 18 works depict the consequences of the famine.
• The last 17 reflect the disappointment associated with the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy.

This series is a phenomenal visualization of the author's position, which contains indignation and bold political statements.

Disasters of war. 39 work from the series.

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1799)

This composition is also part of the Caprichos series, consisting of 80 works. Sleeping among the tools, the artist is surrounded by monsters that symbolize ignorance and other vices of society.

Saturn Devouring a Son (1819–1823)

This masterpiece is based on the Roman myth, according to which the titan Saturn ate his children, as he was predicted to die at the hands of one of his sons. However, the prophecy was destined to come true.
“Saturn devouring his son” is an unsettling portrait, part of a series of “black paintings”.

Third of May 1808 (1814)

On May 2, 1808, the people of Madrid rebelled against the French occupiers. Goya depicts this scene in the painting The Third of May 1808. In the center of the canvas is a retaliatory strike by French troops, as a result of which hundreds of Spaniards were shot. Revolutionary in style and level of symbolism, the painting inspired Pablo Picasso to create the famous Guernica.

Burial of a sardine (circa 1808–1814)

Accademia San Fernando, Madrid Goya presents the folk carnival as a demonic feast. Under the pressure of the Inquisition, the artist was forced to change the original version of the painting and replace the inscription on the gonfalon mortus (died) with the grimace of the mask. The seething joy and distorted joy of the unbridled crowd are a grotesque allegory for the existing social order. In his work, Goya rebels against the order established by the Inquisition and demonstrates the impotence of his contemporaries in front of them.

Portrait of Francisco Baie (1795)

After 1794 Goya creates a number of portraits from life. Thanks to the sharp observation and precise technique of the artist, his works are distinguished by deep psychologism and penetration into the inner world of a person. Here is a portrait of Goya's court painter and brother-in-law, Francisco Baye (1734-1795), shortly before his death. A tired, slightly irritated facial expression and a casually buttoned frock coat characterize the personality of the model. At the same time, the frozen posture, the characteristic bend of the hand, and the attentive gaze emphasize the inner dignity of the person being portrayed.

Court of the Inquisition (circa 1800)

Goya repeatedly turned to the theme of the court of the Inquisition, emphasizing the cruelty of the ceremony and the tragic fate of its victims, who were put on the caps of heretics. Lighting effects and the manner of overlaying colors help depict the trial, which is led by obscurantists. The faces of the judges - monks and priests - are distorted by the grimaces of death, and their figures merge into a single amorphous mass.

Blind Man's Bluff (1791)

Scenes of everyday life and folk entertainment, which are characterized by rich colors and ease of composition, showed new trends in the artist's work. Goya reveals the real world in all its infinite diversity. The attractiveness of this sketch for a tapestry designed to decorate an office in the Escorial Palace is manifested in the bright colors, in the ease of movement of the characters. For Goya, the depiction of figures in a gentle, watercolor color is typical, the figures of the characters seem to dissolve in a thin haze.

Famous paintings by Francisco Goya updated: January 21, 2018 by: Gleb