11 votes

The Goya paintings you aren't supposed to look at

3 comments

  1. Oxalis
    Link
    I remember getting really interested in the black paintings. Not just due to their nature as art for the isolated artist but also as an element of the architecture and living spaces that Goya...

    I remember getting really interested in the black paintings. Not just due to their nature as art for the isolated artist but also as an element of the architecture and living spaces that Goya found himself secluded within. Paintings made directly onto walls (or wallpapers, in this case if I remember correctly) meant that these ghastly images were daily sights within the villa.

    Somewhere deep in all my bookmarks, wallabagged items, or maybe pocket clippings is someone's 3D recreation of La Quinta del Sordo complete with probable painting positions to see how they contrasted with window or door openings into the Madrid countryside. I can't seem to find it though. Maybe it was a VR Chat world?

    A cursory search did find a couple attempts at recreating the space the paintings were embedded within. They both disagree with one another so don't take them as the truth since the accounts on the villa were sparse, the photos were few and poor in quality, and it has been long demolished.

    https://theartwolf.com/goya/black-paintings-virtual-tour/ - Non-scholar attempt at placing the paintings on walls. Doesn't take into account the second story at all or any attempt to make the space seem like more than a weak gallery, which is weird.

    https://www.elmanana.com/suplementos/dominical/las-pinturas-negras-de-goya-en-3d-y-mas-politicas-que-nunca/4800389 - A scholarly interpretation of painting positions based on a rare find of a sculpted diorama of the municipality of Carabanchel by a military engineer that just happened to include the old villa, far on the outskirts. The researcher seems to posit that the paintings and their positions are solely "a political narrative about the tension between the absolutist monarchy and the reformist liberals" and the statements about them stemming from dreams or nightmares was subterfuge.

    4 votes
  2. R3qn65
    Link
    A friend and I were screwing around in Madrid about a decade ago. We'd happened to be going through the Prado and found it fine, but not particularly engaging. I told my buddy we should leave, and...

    A friend and I were screwing around in Madrid about a decade ago. We'd happened to be going through the Prado and found it fine, but not particularly engaging. I told my buddy we should leave, and he convinced me to stay for another 15 minutes. By chance, the next salon we walked into was the Black Paintings gallery... And we were completely blown away. We spent 30 minutes in there in near silence. Art is always best viewed in person, of course, but some pieces (like these) are worth a special trip.

    3 votes