"Goya's Lights" by Michel Gathier

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From an Iberian statuette from the 6th century BC to a painting by Picasso, a visit to the Goya Museum in Castres provides a fascinating appreciation of Spanish art through the centuries. Golden Century for Velázquez with the portrait of Philip IV or for Murillo with The Virgin with the Rosary. But also with Goya and the Age of Enlightenment in its broadest sense.

Indeed, the painter in "The Junta of the Philippines", the largest painting he executed, fully illustrates the philosophical and political criticism that developed during the 18th century as well as the impressive work done on light in this work. Its extreme modernity is striking. From a formal point of view, the imposing dimensions of the canvas and an austere geometric composition allow for plays of light and shadow that soberly underline the emptiness that Goya stages. What are we dealing with here? It is a speech that the king, back from exile, delivers to a meeting of notable shareholders of the Philippine Company. In the upper part of the painting, the horizontality of power with the monarch at its center. On the lower part and on the edges, the sleeping or agitated figures of an audience not at all concerned by these speeches unfold. The rupture between the monarchy and the Liberals is obvious. Yet it is in the structure of the canvas and the staging of its luminous games that Goya imposes his strength. To the right of the painting, a vast rectangular section of an external light illuminates the whole. Large areas of emptiness are impregnated by it and diffuse velvety shades of ochre and grey. Between the upper areas and those of the superb oriental carpet that extends towards us, the colour vibrates as on a Rothko canvas. The light then states as an "off-text" the emptiness of the scene that unfolds here. In fact, at its opposite, barely visible, in the shadows, three characters are tightly packed: One hides the other while the third looks at us and watches us. Goya paints this battle of light and shadow.

Painting is this narrative.

"The Philippine junta " To be (re)discovered at the Goya Museum in Castres

14 Jul 2020 #Peinture à l'huile

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