269
Book
ReviewPleasures
and PainsGoya.
Robert Hughes, 2003. London: Harvill Press; ISBN 1 843 43054 1, 429 pp.,
£20.00
SAGE Publications, Inc.2004DOI: 10.1177/09675507040120030406
Sue Veck
University of Southampton
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One
of the main fascinations of this important new study of Goya is the author's
relationship with the artist and his works. As a school- boy in Australia
Hughes's first purchase of a work of art was one of Goya's `Caprichos' etchings.
Goya made him realize that extremity of tragedy could be portrayed in a small
etching. Having intended to write a book on Goya for many years and although
a prolific and admired writer on other art topics, Hughes found himself with
a block in relation to Goya. This continued until a dramatic car acci- dent
in 1999, which smashed his body `like a toad's' and left him in a coma for
five weeks. During this period Goya and an attendant gang of `heavies' visited
him in hallucinatory dreams. The prosthetic brace applied to his shattered
leg became a contraption of torture administered by Goya. On his return to
health, Goya had assumed such importance in his consciousness that Hughes
managed to over- come his block and write this comprehensive volume about
his life and work. Hughes states that Goya could portray pleasure and sensuousness,
beauty and the enjoyment of the best things in life. However, he could also
describe powerfully the depths of physical pain, torture and humiliation wreaked
by humanity upon itself. Hughes cites Goya as one of the few artists who could
convincingly handle both pleasure and pain. The historical background of Goya's
life is meticulously presented. Sometimes one loses sight of the works in
a detailed sea of dates and battles, but this was a turbulent and complicated
period, which bears patient explanation. Goya's on/off relationship with the
court of the Bourbon rulers of Spain is explored. Hughes claims the famous
group portrait of the family of Carlos IV in the Prado (1800) has been con-
stantly misunderstood. He sees no satirical intent in Goya's unflatter- ingly
frank portrayal of the royal family, saying that satire requires an audience
and this painting was only intended for the court circle; and if in fact satire
had been detected, Goya's career as a court artist would have ended abruptly.
Goya made more than 10 preliminary studies for the group portrait, all of
which would have required the approval of their subjects. Another interesting
feature of the book is the comparisons Hughes makes with the present day.
He likens the guerrilla warfare carried out by the Spanish peasants against
Napoleon's invading army to that experienced by the American forces in Vietnam.
The effect of the banning of the wearing of the long cape and broad- brimmed
hat in 1759 by Carlos IV's Minister of Finance is likened to what would happen
if sunglasses and ski masks were banned in present day California. Goya's
financial success in 1785 enabled him
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to buy
a two-wheeled `English carriage', compared by Hughes to the equivalent of
today's Ferrari or Lamborghini. Hughes also plays the `what if' card, conjecturing
what would have happened if Spain had accepted the Bayonne Constitution and
the rule of Napoleon in 1809. Would it have brought Spain into a modern Europe
and avoided the legacy of the decades of chaos and tyranny that followed?
The principal paintings are well detailed and discussed, but where the book
excels for me is in Hughes's examination of the place of the series of etchings
and aquatints as a hugely important part of Goya's oeuvre. `Los Caprichos',
`The Disasters of War', `La tauromaquia' and `Los disparantes' are all examined
in detail and set against the turbulent times in which they were produced.
Goya portrays the horrors of war very convincingly in `The Disasters of War'.
He notes that Goya showed atrocities carried out by both sides of the conflict; the victims invariably being the innocent members of the peasant population.
The artist drives home the message that there is nothing noble about war.
Goya's implacable opposition as a passionate humanist towards the Inquisition
and its pursuit of supposed witch- craft and the corruption of the Catholic
Church is also discussed as it plays an important part in the content and
imagery of many of his etchings series. Hughes himself finds a synergy in
Goya's attitude towards the Church, saying that Goya helped turn him against
his own Catholic faith, `an essential step' in his `growth and enlighten-
ment'. Surprisingly, many of Goya's etchings did not reach the public during
his lifetime; his Disasters of War and Disparates series were not published
until well after his death. Goya's importance as a seminal artist is emphasized
throughout this thoughtful book. His influence on Manet, the Surrealists,
Picasso and Modernism are all explored. Goya is quoted in 1792 as emphasiz-
ing the importance of spontaneity and saying `There are no rules in painting',
and Hughes helps us understand the importance of the work of this artist as
an important influence on the art of subsequent generations.