Two Old Men, also known as Two Monks or An Old Man and a Monk (Spanish: Dos viejos, Dos frailes, or Un viejo y un fraile), are names given to one of the 14 Black Paintings painted by Francisco Goya between 1819-23.[1][2][3][4] At the time Goya was in his mid-seventies and was undergoing a great amount of physical and mental stress after two bouts of an unidentified illness. The works were rendered directly onto the interior walls of the house known as Quinta del Sordo ("The House of the Deaf Man"),[5] which Goya purchased in 1819.
In 1819 Goya purchased a property for c. 60,000 Reales, set on seventeen acres of land south west of Madrid, in close vicinity to the Manzanares River and the Segovia bridge.[6] In his seventy-third year Goya retired to this property in the country. The house was coincidentally known as the Quinta Del Sordo (House of the Deaf man) after its previous owner.[7] In 1819 Goya was struck down by a mysterious disease, possibly a relapse of the affliction that had first afflicted him some twenty five years earlier, though little is known about the nature or treatment of either.[8][9] This disease left Goya gravely ill and it was only through the medical intervention of a friend of Goya, Dr Arrieta, that his life was saved.[10] In thanks for the Doctor's services he painted a portrait of Arrieta and himself, inscribing it with a dedication: “Goya, in gratitude to his friend Arrieta: for the compassion and care with which he saved his life during the acute and dangerous illness he suffered towards the end of the year 1819 in his seventy-third year.”[11] (see Self-portrait with Dr Arrieta).
The effects of this illness are often cited as the catalyst for the creation of the Black Paintings as it left the artist physically and mentally strained in its wake. There is little primary evidence to explain why the works were created or indeed what they mean, leaving art historians to interpret the works, and in turn to surmise why Goya created them.[8] The Black Paintings were probably never intended to be seen by anyone but the artist.[11]Two Old Men likely occupied a position on the first floor, opposite Judith and Holofernes.
Description
In this work we see two elderly figures dressed in Friar's habits standing before a black background. The primary figure stands at the centre of the composition dominating the foreground; the man stands slightly hunched with a pensive expression donning his face. His long grey beard is framed by his arms that rest easily on a shepherd's cane. Beside him is a highly caricatured figure whose face appears animalistic or corpse-like. This figure seems to be shouting into the ear of his companion, which may be an allusion to Goya's deafness. This dark figure provides a foreboding presence within the composition seeming to strongly suggest a negative connotation of some sort. Perhaps the animalistic figure provides a commentary on the artist's own fears of madness, a subject he had previously explored in various capacities throughout his artistic career. It is possible that the primary figure may represent Chronos, the god of time, though this seems unlikely when we consider the situation and aspect of the secondary figure. However, if we were to consider this figure as a Memento Mori, working in unison with the concept of time, this could well be possible.
There is a noticeable difference between the treatment of the two figures. Calmly resting on his walking stick with a sad but serene expression, the bearded man recalls the philosophers depicted by Velázquez, which had been copied by Goya.[12] In vivid contrast, the features of his monstrous companion recall the Friars depicted by Goya in his Caprichos and Disparates. This figure is very similar to those of another work in the series, Two Old Men Eating. Throughout the series the Black Paintings depict varying levels of dark imagery, but maintain a pervasively sinister undercurrent. The Black Paintings were not intended to be seen by anyone but the artist, one art historian going as far as stating: "these paintings are as close to being hermetically private as any that have ever been produced in the history of Western art."[13]
Restoration
The French banker Baron Frederic-Emil d'Erlanger bought Goya's property in 1873, in an area was primed for development, and paid a considerable sum in order to have the works in the Quinta restored and transferred.[14] Like other paintings in the series, the work was transferred to canvas between 1873 and 1874 under the supervision of Salvador Martínez Cubells, a curator at the Museo del Prado. The owner, Baron Émile d'Erlanger, donated the canvases to the Spanish state in 1881, and they are now on display at the Museo del Prado.[15] Much like many of the works in the series, Two Old Men was in a poor state of repair and underwent substantial restorative work. In early photographs of the work, a range of pre-restoration differences can be seen, most notably a large crack in the plaster in the upper right corner.[16] A range of alterations were made to the work in an attempt to restore it, with particular attention to the primary figure. Cubells has added various highlights to the figure, on his forehead, beard and hands providing a greater level of contrast but an overall loss of quality.[16]
The dark and brooding facial expression of the primary figure has been lessened in the process of restoration, leaving the figure with a contemplative expression. The figures form itself has been heavily edited in the arms, most notably in the shoulders and hands. This is equally apparent in the face of the second figure that has been altered markedly, the shadows disfigured as a result of degradation. Martinez Cubell's fondness for harsh black lines and simple outlines is particularly apparent in his restoration of the head and face of the figure; in doing so the restorer has lost much of the acuity present within the original work. The effect of Goya's masterful use of dark, tonal variance in moulding his forms has been lost somewhat in restoration.
Footnotes
↑ Dowling, John (1973). "Buero Vallejo's Interpretation of Goya's 'Black Paintings'". Hispania. 56 (2): 449–457. doi:10.2307/339706. JSTOR339706.
↑ Hughes, Robert (2004). Goya. London: Vantage. p.32.
↑ Hagen, Rose-Marie, Hagen, Rainer (2003) Francisco Goya, 1746-1828,Taschen, Koln. p. 74.
↑ The Pinturas Negras (Black Paintings) in alphabetic order; A Pilgrimage to San Isidro, Atropos (The Fates), Fantastic Vision, Fight with Cudgels, Judith and Holofernes, La Leocadia. Men Reading, Procession of the Holy Office, Saturn Devouring His Son, The Dog, Two Old Men, Two Old Men Eating Soup, Witches' Sabbath, Women Laughing,
↑ Glendinning, Nigel, (1975) "The Strange Translation of Goya's Black Paintings", The Burlington Magazine, CXVII, 868: 446.
↑ Havard, Robert (2007) The Spanish Eye: Painters and Poets of Spain, Woodbridge, Tamesis, p. 60.
↑ Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, Laurinda S. Dixon, “Goya’s ambiguous Saturn” in Twenty-first-century Perspectives on Nineteenth-century Art: Essays in Honor of Gabriel P. Weisberg, University of Delaware Press; Newark, 2008, p. 127.
1 2 Licht, Fred (1983). Goya: the origins of the modern temper in art. New York: Harper and Row. p.168.
↑ Hagen, Rose-Marie, Hagen, Rainer, (2003) Francisco Goya, 1746-1828, TASCHEN, Koln, p. 74.
1 2 Licht F. (1983) Goya: the origins of the modern temper in art. New York: Harper and Row, p.160.
↑ Brown, Jonathan, and Mann. Richard G. (1990) Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C. p. 3.
↑ Licht, Fred. (1979) Goya: The Origins of the Modern Temper in Art. Universe Books, p. 159.
↑ Glendinning, Nigel, (1975) "The Strange Translation of Goya's Black Paintings", The Burlington Magazine, CXVII, 868: 466.
1 2 Glendinning, Nigel, (1975) "The Strange Translation of Goya's Black Paintings", The Burlington Magazine, CXVII, 868: 474.
Bibliography
Benito Oterino, Agustín, La luz en la quinta del sordo: estudio de las formas y cotidianidad, Madrid, Universidad Complutense, 2002, p.33. Edición digitalISBN84-669-1890-6.
Bozal, Valeriano, Francisco Goya, vida y obra, (2 vols.) Madrid, Tf. Editores, 2005. ISBN84-96209-39-3.
Bozal, Valeriano, Pinturas Negras de Goya, Tf. Editores, Madrid, 1997.
Brown, Jonathan, and Mann. Richard G. (1990) Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C.
Dowling, John (1973). "Buero Vallejo's Interpretation of Goya's 'Black Paintings'". Hispania. 56 (2): 449–457. doi:10.2307/339706. JSTOR339706.
Licht, Fred. Goya: The Origins of the Modern Temper in Art. (Universe Books, 1979).
Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, Laurinda S. Dixon, “Goya’s ambiguous Saturn” in Twenty-first-century Perspectives on Nineteenth-century Art: Essays in Honor of Gabriel P. Weisberg, (University of Delaware Press; Newark, 2008).
Robert Havard, The Spanish Eye: Painters and Poets of Spain, (Woodbridge, Tamesis, 2007).
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and engravings reflected contemporary historical upheavals and influenced important 19th- and 20th-century painters. Goya is often referred to as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns.
Saturn Devouring His Son is a painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya. It is traditionally interpreted as a depiction of the Greek myth of the Titan Cronus eating one of his offspring. Fearing a prophecy foretold by Gaea that predicted he would be overthrown by one of his children, Saturn ate each one upon their birth. The work is one of the 14 so-called Black Paintings that Goya painted directly on the walls of his house sometime between 1820 and 1823. It was transferred to canvas after Goya's death and is now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
The Colossus, is known in Spanish as El Coloso and also El Gigante, El Pánico and La Tormenta. It is a painting traditionally attributed to Francisco de Goya that shows a giant in the centre of the canvas walking towards the left hand side of the picture. Mountains obscure his legs up to his thighs and clouds surround his body; the giant appears to be adopting an aggressive posture as he is holding one of his fists up at shoulder height. A dark valley containing a crowd of people and herds of cattle fleeing in all directions occupies the lower third of the painting.
The Dog is the name usually given to a painting by Spanish artist Francisco de Goya, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. It shows the head of a dog gazing upwards. The dog itself is almost lost in the vastness of the rest of the image, which is empty except for a dark sloping area near the bottom of the picture: an unidentifiable mass which conceals the animal's body. The placard for The Dog painting in The Prado indicates the dog is in distress, quite literally, drowning.
Fight with Cudgels, called The Strangers or Cowherds in the inventories, is the name given to a painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. One of the series of Black Paintings Goya painted directly onto the walls of his house sometime between 1820 and 1823, it depicts two men fighting one another with cudgels, as they seem to be trapped knee-deep in a quagmire of mud or sand.
Witches' Sabbath or The Great He-Goat are names given to an oil mural by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya, completed sometime between 1821 and 1823. It explores themes of violence, intimidation, aging and death. Satan hulks, in the form of a goat, in moonlit silhouette over a coven of terrified witches. Goya was then around 75 years old, living alone and suffering from acute mental and physical distress.
La Leocadia or The Seductress are names given to a mural by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya, completed sometime between 1819–1823, as one of his series of 14 Black Paintings. It shows a woman commonly identified as Goya's maid, companion and lover, Leocadia Weiss. She is dressed in a dark, almost funeral maja dress, and leans against what is either a mantelpiece or burial mound, as she looks outward at the viewer with a sorrowful expression. Leocadia is one of the final of the Black Paintings, which he painted in his seventies at a time when he was consumed by political, physical and psychological turmoil, after he fled to the country from his position as court painter in Madrid.
The Burial of the Sardine is an oil-on-panel painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya, usually dated to the 1810s. The title is posthumous, referring to the culminating event, Entierro de la Sardina, of a three-day carnival in Madrid ending on Ash Wednesday. Masked and disguised revellers are seen dancing their way to the banks of the Manzanares, where a ceremonial sardine will be buried. Goya does not illustrate the fish in the painting, nor the large doll made of straw, called a pelele, from which it hung; the centrepiece is the darkly grinning "King of the Carnival".
Atropos, or The Fates is one of the 14 Black Paintings painted by Francisco de Goya between 1819–1823. Goya, then 75 and in mental and physical despair, created the series directly onto the interior walls of the house known as the Quinta del Sordo, purchased in 1819.
Judith and Holofernes is the name given to one of the 14 Black Paintings painted by Francisco de Goya between 1819 and 1823. By this time, Goya was in his mid 70s and deeply disillusioned. In mental and physical despair, he painted the private works on the interior walls of his home—applying oils directly on plaster—known as the Quinta del Sordo, which he had purchased in 1819. Judith and Holofernes was likely painted on the first floor, beside Saturn Devouring His Son. The picture is a personal reinterpretation of the narrative of the Book of Judith, in which the protagonist saves Israel from the assault of the general Holofernes by seducing and beheading him. Judith is the only historical figure who can be identified with certainty among the Black Paintings.
A Pilgrimage to San Isidro is one of the Black Paintings painted by Francisco de Goya between 1819–23 on the interior walls of the house known as Quinta del Sordo that he purchased in 1819. It probably occupied a wall on the first floor of the house, opposite The Great He-Goat.
Two Old Ones Eating Soup or Two Witches is one of the fourteen Black Paintings created by Francisco Goya between 1819 and 1823. By this time, Goya was in his mid-70s and deeply disillusioned. He painted the works on the interior walls of the house known as the Quinta del Sordo. They were not intended for public display. Two Old Men Eating Soup likely occupied a position above the main door to the house, between La Leocadia and Two Old Men.
Man Mocked by Two Women or Women Laughing or or The Ministration are names given to a painting likely completed between 1820 and 1823 by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya.
Asmodea or Fantastic Vision are names given to a fresco painting likely completed between 1820 and 1823 by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya. It shows two flying figures hovering over a landscape dominated by a large tabled mountain. Asmodea is one of Goya's 14 Black Paintings—his last major series—which, in mental and physical despair, he painted at the end of his life directly onto the walls of his house, the Quinta del Sordo, outside Madrid.
Men Reading or The Reading or Politicians are names given to a fresco painting likely completed between 1820 and 1823 by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya. It is one of Goya's 14 Black Paintings painted late in his life when, living alone in physical pain, spiritual torment and disillusionment with the political direction of Spain, he painted 14 bleak, agonised frescoes onto the walls of the Quinta del Sordo, the house he was living in alone outside Madrid.
The Black Paintings is the name given to a group of 14 paintings by Francisco Goya from the later years of his life, likely between 1819 and 1823. They portray intense, haunting themes, reflective of both his fear of insanity and his bleak outlook on humanity. In 1819, at the age of 72, Goya moved into a two-story house outside Madrid that was called Quinta del Sordo. Although the house had been named after the previous owner, who was deaf, Goya too was nearly deaf at the time as a result of an unknown illness he had suffered when he was 46. The paintings originally were painted as murals on the walls of the house, later being "hacked off" the walls and attached to canvas by owner Baron Frédéric Émile d'Erlanger. They are now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
Self-Portrait with Dr Arrieta is the English title given to a painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya. The work is an oil on canvas, painted in 1820, and is currently held in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota. Many scholars have seen religious themes in the work. Other interpretations compare and contrast the painting with Goya's series of Black Paintings, contextualizing the work within his career at large.
Salvador Martínez Cubells was a Spanish painter and art restorer, who specialized in history painting and Costumbrismo.
Pilgrimage to the Fountain of San Isidro or The Holy Office are names given to an oil mural by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya (1746–1828), probably completed between 1821 and 1823. The mural is one of the fourteen Black Paintings that Goya applied in oil on the plaster walls of his house. Between 1874 and 1878 the paintings were transferred to canvas supports under the direction of the art restorer of the Museo del Prado, Salvador Martinez Cubells.
Portrait of Manuel Godoy is a large 1801 oil-on-canvas painting by the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya, now in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. It was commissioned by the Spanish Prime Minister Manuel Godoy to commemorate his victory in the brief War of the Oranges against Portugal.
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