Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "The Birth of the World" by Joan Miro (1925)

The artist isn't as good as David, but it is rather interesting.

 

Next: "The Third of May" by Francisco Goya

1814, oil on canvas, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

[image=http://homepage.mac.com/dmhart/WarArt/Goya/3rdMay1808.JPG]

Goya painted this large picture and the companion piece "The Second of May" to illustrate the uprising of the Madrid population against the Napoleonic occupiers.

[image=http://hmtships.googlepages.com/773px-Goya_-_Second_of_May_1808.jpg/773px-Goya_-_Second_of_May_1808-full.jpg]

The "Second of May" shows the Mamelukes (Egyptian mercenaries) clearing the Puerta del Sol, a square in the centre of Madrid, packed with angry demonstrators.

"The Third of May" shows the execution of demonstrators outside the walls of the city. We see the demonstrators, the central figure in an obvious Christlike pose (complete with stigmata), but of the troops, we see only their backs--they are abstract. This wasn't a success at the time, but the pictures have influenced both other artists, but also film directors (Eisenstein especially--and here I mean the Odessa Steps sequence in "The Battleship Potemkin").

 

I'm not an artist or art student, but this is a pretty iconic and striking painting, for sure. The only place I've heard a discussion on it is in the movie Stay, actually There's also reference to it in a song I like.

I think something I notice about this painting is the striking light falling across the otherwise dark scene. It appears to be coming from to the left of the viewer... where is it supposed to be coming from? The soldiers have shadows from it, but the victims don't seem to, which they should. The lighting is unnatural, presumably purposefully.

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

[image=http://io.uwinnipeg.ca/~vincent/4500.6-001/Cosmology/time-goya-painting.gif]

Goya had a fevered imagination, possibly caused by lead poisoning. The above painting is called 'Saturn Devouring His Children'

 

I dig Goya.

 

I'm not sure, but I guess I always thought that yellow box sitting on the ground right in front of the soldiers could be a lantern of some sort? *shrug*

It's a very powerful scene. The civilian in the Christ-like pose attracts one's eye immediately and expresses the utter despration they all must feel being held at gunpoint. I've always liked this painting a lot. I also really like Saturn devouring one of his children. Gruesome scene from mythology painted with such madness and terror. Goya was awesome.

 

Good point, I enlarged it, but I wasn't sure.

Goya was indeed awesome, but not for the weak of heart.

The Black Paintings (of which "Saturn" is one) for one and "The Disasters of War" for another.

Here's one:

[image=http://www.malaspina.com/jpg/goya.jpg]

Do you really need to know what they're going to do with those babies...?

 

Both of those last two paintings are very disturbing images. Interesting, and the "vibe" reminds me of the same feeling I get when I watch ROSEMARY'S BABY.

In the Goya painting, "Saturn" looks lion-esque.

 

You have to watch carefully with Goya. For instance, this picture:

[image=http://traumwerk.stanford.edu/philolog/goya.jpg]

Looks like an innocent pastoral scene at first glance, doesn't it? It isn't. Look closer, and it illustrates a coach hold-up, murder and rape.

 

You're right, the colors on initial glance would seem an idyllic, pastoral setting. But once one notices the vivid red, and takes in the figures...it conveys something quite different. Interesting psychological approach. Reminds me slightly of David Lynch's work...he sometimes presents an idllyic, rural setting, then on closer examination there is violence and death. Lynch started out as an art student and painter, I'm sure Goya is someone he is quite aware of...it's right up his alley.

 

It's interesting watching Goya's sixty-year transformation from a sly propaganda artist to a disillusioned old man. The Black Paintings were all actually painted on the walls of his house - he never really intended for anyone to see them. Of course, they eventually became precursors to the whole damn Modernist movement.

Here's another classic Pintura Negra:
[image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Witches.jpg]

 

A Website Showing the Black Paintings As They Originally Appeared

Click on the door, then on the left hand painting; it rearranges the perspective.

 

Those are some amazing images from a dark and fertile mind.

 

This site gives the background

The companion painting to "Saturn" is "Judith and Holofernes" which shows Judith hacking his head off. "Asmodea" is damned strange, too.

 

From what I heard, Goya painted "Saturn" right next to his dining room table.


"Half-Submerged Dog" is another interesting one:
[image=http://www.hbvk.com/ct/black/negra15.jpg]

 

Is that a dog? It looks like a rat.

Goya couldn't even be trusted with a royal task; here's his take on the Spanish Royal Family:

[image=http://emptyeasel.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/thefamilyofcharlesiv.jpg]


The queen in that last picture (at centre) had a lover, Manuel Godoy, who essentially ruled the country. He was good-looking, oversexed, vain lout, and here's the picture Goya painted of him:

[image=http://www.fotos.org/galeria/data/537/medium/Francisco-de-Goya-Manuel-Godoy-Duke-of-Alcudia-Prince-of-the-Peace.jpg]

He is shown reclining with a staff between his legs. Yikes. You wonder how Goya escaped with his life.

 

Man, that Judith painting is a nasty piece of work. I wonder what Goya was like around the house!

The Royal family all seem to be looking in different directions.

The painting with the Manuel and the staff, wow, long before Freud.

If that's not a statement, I don't know what is.

The guy behind him seems to be looking directly at it.

I suppose it could have been worse. He could have put the SWORD between his legs instead!

 

This is Goya's take on Godoy's wife.

[image=http://www.fuenterrebollo.com/FernandoVII/Ilustracion/condesa-chinchon-14-pe.jpg]


She was a young member of the royal family who was forced to marry Godoy to shore up his position. He was much older and treated her badly (to say the least of it). Goya painted her with a rare compassion (she was pregnant at the time). He *still* couldn't resist an editorial comment--she is surrounded by darkness.

 

I don't think Goya made a single painting without some sort of editorial comment. Even his propaganda pieces were often pretty ironic.

 

"In the 1810s, Goya created a set of aquatint prints titled The Disasters of War (Los desastres de la guerra) which depict scenes from the Peninsular War. The scenes are singularly disturbing, sometimes macabre in their depiction of battlefield horror, and represent an outraged conscience in the face of death and destruction. The prints were not published until 1863, 35 years after Goya's death."

Examples:

[image=http://www.philosophy.ubc.ca/faculty/russellp/full%20images/goya.jpg]

[image=http://www.abcgallery.com/G/goya/goya144.JPG]

[image=http://artgallery.dal.ca/exhibitions/images/Merry_folly.jpg]


The Disasters spare no one. Dead, mulitated bodies, French, Spanish.

 

He really foreshadowed a lot of the despair we would eventually see over World War I. Like I said, Goya pretty much is the origin of Modernism.

 

Those are some grim images indeed.

 

There were some I couldn't post.

 

And now for something completely different:

"Portrait of Marie Marcoz, later Vicomtesse de Senonnes"

1814, oil on canvas, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Nantes

[image=http://www.nantes.fr/uploads/pics/senonnes.jpg]

When Ingres painted this portrait, Marie Marcoz was having an affair with the Vicomte, but they would marry the next year. The portrait is a combination of criticism and idealization; the lady's bourgeois origins are hinted at (the over-ringed hand), as is her cocotte status...the cards in the mirror, and the lavish jewellery combined with a rather worn dress. The book claims it is so idealized as to be abstract; which is carrying it a bit far. The Vicomtesse died in 1828, and the picture fell on hard times; removed to an attic (the Vicomte married again) and then slashed with a knife. Rescued, it is now acknowledged as one of Ingres' best.

This was before his decline into painting sugary cookie-cutter nudes.

 

[image=http://static.royalacademy.org.uk/images/width370/mellon-turner-1084.jpg]

J. M. W. Turner, "Dort or Dortrecht: The Dort Packet-Boat from Rotterdam Becalmed"

c. 1818, oil on canvas, Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven

The picture shows the Dutch city of Dort; a boat is becalmed, and chandlers' boats are reprovisioning her.

Inspired by Cuyp's "The Maas at Dordrecht":

[image=http://www.geerts.com/images/painters/cuyp-maas%20dordrecht.jpg]

"Dort" is one of the two most famous Turners in America. The other is "Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead or Dying":

[image=http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/turner/i/slave-ship.jpg]