Monday, March 9, 2015

oil on tin

The Cabinet Paintings 
by Francisco Goya 
oil on tin, circa 1795



This series of small scale figure paintings that Goya made during the last decade of the eighteenth century, a time of great upheaval, hope and brutality, mark a great turning point in his work.  They reflect contemporary news stories of spectacular disasters, the sort of stuff that comes by way of imperialist expansion, current popular fantasies concerning savages, noble and otherwise,  and they clear the ground for the great graphic series just to come, his great examination of the "Spanish Character", Los Caprichos.