Francisco de Goya can rightly be registered as one of the three geniuses in Spanish painting i. e.
the third master along-side with El Greco and Velasquez. Francisco de Goya produced most of his masterpieces between the 1760s and 1828 and with his works of art he is already the forerunner of the trends and tendencies so typical of the 20th century and it is far from being surprising that he is considered to be the predecessor of modern trends in painting like expressionism and surrealism.His paintings, etchings, drawings and his graphics can be characterised with their diversity both in their topics and artistic means. This richness in themes leads to a wide variety of topics ranging from joyful festivities through royal portraits to battle scenes and dead bodies. There is a marked shift in his choice of themes and this gradual change can be viewed as an accompanying phenomenon of his physical degradation since the great affliction in his life, his deafness, caused him to turn to themes depicting more and more gloom and despair.His general mood must have become darker and darker in the course of time as it is reflected in his pieces of art.
On approaching the end of his life he painted frightening pictures about mad and sick people and about strange and freak figures. The style of these black paintings already shows the signs of expressionism. Francisco de Goya created a series of eighty print sin 1799 with the title „Los Caprichos”. This series palpably demonstrates Goya’s views on the world and on the whole mankind.This opinion of his is well-illustrated by Linda Simon’s lines quoted here.
This series demonstrates „the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilized society, and from the common prejudices and deceitful practices with custom, ignorance, or self-interest have made usual” “Los Caprichos” are undoubtedly connected to Goya’s middle period and this series is interwoven with the satirical literature of Goya’s time.In addition to this connection with literature, it also surfaces how well Goya knew and understood the messages f the English political engravings. The effects of the then fashionable Chinese theatre and shadow play tradition are also tangible. The well-known figures of the contemporary stage wearing masks also appear in Goya’s works in their misshapen forms revealing their deformities. These works of art are etchings and they keep making fun of the nobility and aristocracy of Goya’s time and give a critical, almost accusatory portrait about the members of the clergy and the inquisition.Goya’s works in the field of graphic design including his drawings, etchings and water colours cannot be coupled and associated with any previous painter’s line of artistic approach and they remain unprecedented in Spanish painting until Picasso and Dali emerge.
These products were not made to order and Goya depicts a profound social “picture” sometimes with a witty and ironical overtone and sometimes in a tragically revealing way and he provides a true and tragic insight into the everyday life of the longsuffering Spanish people on the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries.Goya as an enlightened thinker saw a fantastic opportunity in the means of painting similarly to his contemporary writers in literature. His sharp social criticism is evidently clear in his works as his literary friends, criticism is also voiced in their written works. His critical approach to his society reflects his way of a lightened thinking. He gives us a detailed picture about the social phenomena in Spain at the very end of the 18th century drawing a sharp contrast between the age of enlightenment and the revolution in France and the obsolete social structure of Spain.He was against the old-fashioned and out dated customs and traditions of the old times wanting to get rid of the dusty way of thinking still prevailing in Spain at the end of the 18th century.
The most famous piece of the series is “El sueno de la razon produce monstruos”. This graphic piece with the title “The sleep of reason produces monsters” is the best –known all over the world. It depicts a sleeping man leaning on the table as he is surrounded by winged beings similar to bats and owls.These bat-like and owl-like beings are whirling and revolving around the central figure.
The original title is “El sueno de la razon produce monstruos” is a debated issue. The main cause of this dispute and disagreement is the very fact that the Spanish word “sueno” can have two different meanings: the first meaning is “sleep” and the second meaning is “dream” and this double semantic filed lends a kind of ambiguity to the interpretation of the piece. Therefore it is possible to accept two different explanations, both of them being rather convincing.Goya was an enlightened thinker appreciating his age of enlightenment which was the period of reason. If we take this angle, than this graphic piece has the message that if the reason sleeps, the imagination produces monsters and demons and even madness can seize us.
However, there is another implication Goya may have had and it is almost contradictory to the previous explanation and it says that reasons alone without imagination can lead to madness even to horrible things.On the basis of looking at the piece of thoroughly and reading extensively about it. I would give it a new title as “Sleep releases our inner demons”. I find more convincing thinking of the Spanish title and the picture itself. In my view the etching tries to convey a very interesting and modern message to us stating that the demons dormant in our subconscious can come to light in our dreams and they are always there in our subconscious but we do not formulate them into real thoughts as we are afraid of them in our alert state of mine.In this interpretation Goya seems to be Sigmund Freud’s forerunner and he suggests by and in his etching that the dream pictures and inner demons and unknown monsters living in our subconscious do exist and they must be taken into consideration.
Goya seems to be convinced that these shapeless and sometimes fearsome dream pictures and unformulated fragments can be as important as our clever thoughts and first –hand experience.Goya things that the artist can get his inspiration in his dreams but he also accepts that nightmares, inner demons and monsters, painful and rightening pictures can also appear in dreams. He finds the state of the subconscious very significant. It is more than probable that Goya drew himself in this piece of art as he is lowering his head on the table wearing a long coat and keeping his face hidden by and covered with his hair. Some painting and drawing tools are also present reinforcing the idea that the sleeping man is an artist, a painter most probably Goya himself.
The winged beings are monster-like animals circling around the artists.There is an alert lynx on the watch right to the figure, behind him there is a sly cat and there are blood-thirsty bats and horrible-looking owls with huge wings. One of the owls is holding a paint-brush in its claws suggesting that these weird and scary creatures capture the mind, settle down in the mind of the artist who can later use them, these entities of the subconscious in the process of creation resulting in wonderful pieces of art. Maybe, it is not accidental what types of animals appear in the picture. The lynx is a symbol of secrets known for its strong vision and hearing.
The bat as well as the lynx carries supernatural significance and the presence of the bats can give a sinister and even satanic overtone to the picture. The owl indicates wisdom in most cases. It cannot be denied, either that the owl, the bat and the cat can also be associated with depression. Some of the animals have diabolic grimaces and there is a close association with the devil due to the appearance of a goat face, too.
These animals are all linked with darkness and night events and they torment people in general and they must have tormented Goya, as well.There is a subtitle to this print and perhaps this subtitle is even more eye-opening than the title itself. “Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters” and Goya seems to agree with this statement. If we realise the fact that the interpretation of dreams is in its infancy even today and we still do not know too much about the real significance, we must see how much Goya was before his time and before our time and how deeply and sensitively he could understand the process of creation combined with the importance of inspiration springing from the subconscious as well as from the real world.
