Sacks, giants, owls, cats: It's a mad world in the graphic art of Francisco de Goya (1746–1828)

Abstract

While the popular belief that Francisco de Goya (1746–1828) turned suddenly to dark, irrational subjects after his illness of 1793 is arguably mistaken, what is true is that after the illness he devoted himself more closely to black- and- white media. Like Rembrandt (1606–1669), whom Goya particularly admired, the Spanish painter is one of the greatest graphic designers in the history of art. It is also part of Goya's originality that in an era when engravers were often regarded as mere copyists and not creative designers, and drawing was not seen as a complete art form, he produced large numbers of original engravings and many finished drawings in chalk, ink and wash, dating from the 1790s to his old age, and preserved them carefully in albums. Mental illness became a recurring subject in a number of these drawings, as the Spanish artist represented numerous depictions of people suffering from a mental disorder and foregrounded the notion of irrationality in his graphic art. This manuscript discusses these themes in relation to Goya's pieces, focusing on elements of his biography and contemporaneous ideas from the Enlightenment period as influences for this aspect of his work.