The great painting by Francisco Goya in Milan

We all know him for his “dark” and unmistakable paintings that not only speak of the cruelty of war but also express a feeling of pietas towards the poor, the marginalized and the mentally ill; However, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes during his career also dedicated himself -in parallel to painting- to engraving. Today, the production of the Spanish master finds space in the Palazzo Reale in Milan, thanks to the Goya exhibition. The rebellion of reason, scheduled until March 3, 2024, includes not only the artist’s most famous pictorial works, but also a series of engravings that have made him an absolute master of this art.THE ART OF FRANCISCO GOYA ON EXHIBITION IN MILAN A A series of seventy works, presented at the Milanese institution, explore Goya’s very particular language, characterized by a harsh criticism of war and a clear ethical and moral interpretation of the Spanish society of his time. The protagonist of the exhibition is a collection of paintings by the Aragonese painter, among which the famous Caprichos, The Asylum Scene and the Inquisition stand out, dedicated to the ugliness that war marks on the bodies and minds of the weakest. Accompanying the paintings on display are some of the most significant engravings that, for the occasion, will be accompanied by their original copper matrices. Thanks to a meticulous recovery operation carried out by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, the copper plates have recovered their original splendor and, for the first time, have found space in an Italian exhibition.THE EXHIBITION IN THE ROYAL PALACE Curated by Víctor Nieto Alcaide, the exhibition itinerary also documents the evolution of Goya’s artistic language, which, from the conventional and “luminous” painting of his first works, began to embrace a more radical and revolutionary style, characterized by dark and dark tones capable of reflecting his disillusioned soul after the French Revolution. Through the engravings, however, the master expressed his most intimate and free thoughts, and a rational criticism of the barbarity of war. “Goya’s rationalism is ideological and he projects it in his works using expression as a modality that connects, on the one hand, social criticism through themes and, on the other, the criticism of painting itself, dissolving the conventional forms of Guapo . In Goya, the ideal of beauty is transformed into the plastic value of expression,” said curator Víctor Nieto Alcaide.
[Immagine in apertura: Goya. La ribellione della ragione. Credits: Carlotta Coppo]