“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see,” Edgar Degas. Everyone has a different way of expressing themselves, I express myself through dance and music and others through art, writing, or poetry. You can express yourself in ways that emphasize what you like, feel, or think because art is influenced by emotions, dreams, reality, and surroundings. The famous Spanish artist, Francisco de Goya was known for painting the Spanish royal family, gloomy and dreamlike artwork as well as scenes from the French invasion of Spain. He was born in 1746 and started his career at the age of 14. Janis Tomlinson, author of “Burn it, Hide it, Flaunt it: Goya’s Maja and the Censorial Mind” discusses one of his paintings, better known as the Naked Maja. She argues that the church and monarchy restricted sexual images of both men and women but mostly women and that this influenced the appealing nature of the images to people of that time period. She also writes that although most religious leaders were against nude images, a few religious leader, people, and artists like Francisco Goya were in favor of it.
During the late-eighteenth century, images of nude women were highly censored in Spain. The images were viewed as a taboo because the culture at the time was very religion oriented. To retaliate, the Spanish upper class had a tradition known as the cortejo, in which a single man escorted a married woman. It’s unknown what this relationship entailed although some people thought it was an innocent relationship between a man and a married woman while others deemed it pure adultery. Some religious leaders fantasized in secret.
The Duke of Alba was actually in favor of the paintings and instead of ordering them to be burned, he kept them in a gallery he created. The gallery held works by Francisco Goya and other artists. It also served as a place for men or the palace guests to view nude paintings of women and admire them without feeling ashamed or guilty. Artists wanted to save their paintings because they were beautiful and creative and not meant to offend the public or God however, everyone did not share this same idea.
Francisco Goya worked for the royal kings in Spain and some of them were not in favor of the nude images that he and other artists painted around the palace. In 1762 and 1792, King Carlos the third and the fourth ordered the paintings to be burned. The author states that the kings had a misconception between the reality of a nude image and a painting. The idea was that if a man, especially a religious leader saw a naked woman whether painted or real, it was a transgression to their spiritual and Godly nature. Mengs, who was another painter, saved the paintings by insisting that they had a creative and artistic value that was different from real nude women.
The author states that Goya was not comfortable with his painting, the Naked Maja because she believes that he was torn between his respect for religion, which was very important and sacred to the Spanish culture and his love for painting nude images. Her evidence is that the Maja was a “stilted representation of the attributes of female sexuality imposed on a Rococo doll,” suggesting that it was difficult for him to transform “sin to female flesh.” The author also states that other paintings Goya painted after the Naked Maja were less gaudy or less vulgar. They were small scale drawings and usually miniatures.
I agree with the author that religion and religious leaders played a tremendous role in the paintings that artists painted. However, I don’t agree with her statement that Goya was not comfortable with his work because his other paintings of males and females showcase the same degree of nudity. I think it’s strange that Goya painted naked males often and not females.
Tomlinson, Janis “ Burn it , Hide it, Flaunt it, : Goya’s Maja and the Censorial Mind” .Art Journal Vol. 50, No. http://www.jstor.org/stable/777324?&Search=yes&term=Flaunt&term=Maja&term=Censorial&term=Hide&term=Burn&term=Mind&term
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/art-is-not-what-you-see-but-what-you-make-others/534093.html
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.oceansbridge.com/paintings/collections/reclining-nude/big/Francisco_Jose_De_Goya
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