Conflicting emotions somehow blended in his mind as they do within his art. One shudders, and one smiles when looking at his pictures, and sometimes one feels called upon to do both at once. Who is this compelling artist? It could only be Francisco de Goya. Francisco de Goya lived from 1746 to 1828 during his life time he made his way into history books for his creative expression of the truth. When one thinks of Goya an image of his most famous paintings The Third of May 1808 (fig5) or the Black Painting Saturn (fig 8) may appear but Goya hadn't always painted such dark expressive paintings. In his very early works such as The Parasol (Fig 1) done 1777 he painted brightly lit, colorful cartoon tapestries. Seeing his work of the mid 1700 next to his later work would cause confusions of whether it was even the same artist. In viewing his collection one may ask if his prints and paintings show us the solid war-torn world that the artist saw around him--or fantasies that swarmed through his demon-ridden dreams. To begin to understand what inspired Goyas drastic changes in his painting style one must first examine the political events in his lifetime, examine his paintings, and finally consider the emotional events which occupied him during his final years, only then can one begin to understand his unique artistic style.
There are many ideologies which surround the reason for Goyas drastic change in painting style but the leading one would be the Political and social events of the period, as evident in Third of May 1808, and the nightmarish Black Paintings of 1821-23, which he painted on the walls of his house outside Madrid. .
"No one is innocent once he has seen what I have seen. I witnessed how the noblest ideas of freedom and progress were transformed into lances, sabers and bayonets. Arson, looting and rape all supposed to bring a New Order, in reality only exchange the garrotte for the gallows - .
