Goya and Colossus - The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid - Essay Example

After Goya achieves his first successful movement, he became a portrait painter for the Spanish aristocracy. He finally enrolled in the Royal Academy of San Fernando in 1780 after having been rejected before. He was named painter to King Charles IV in 1786, and Court Painter in 1789. From 1775 to 1792 Goya painted cartoons (designs) for the royal tapestry factory in Madrid. This was the most important period in his artistic development. As a tapestry designer, Goya did his first genre paintings or scenes from everyday life.

The experience helped him become a keen observer of human behavior. He was also influenced by neoclassicism, which was gaining favor over the rococo style. Finally, his study of the works of Velazquez in the royal collection resulted in a looser, more spontaneous painting technique. In 1792 he suffered from a serious illness that left him permanently deaf. This began to make him feel alienated and separated from everyone else, provoking him to paint the darkness and weakness of mankind.

He began to paint his version of caricatures, showing the subjects as he saw them. Goya served as director of painting at the Royal Academy from 1795 to 1797 and was appointed the first Spanish court painter in 1799. During the Napoleonic invasion and the Spanish War of Independence from 1808 to 1814, Goya served as a court painter to the French. He expressed his horror of armed conflict in many of his paintings, along with starkly realistic etchings on the atrocities of war. Goya's most important and well-known painting is without a doubt 'The Third of May, 1808: The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid' which Goya created as a response to the killing by Napoleon of 5 000 Madrid civilians.

Goya's painting of Colossus is similar in that it expresses his feelings about what he has witnessed in this period of unrest. It embodies the feelings he had about war and the Spanish revolt against Napoleon. There are many interpretations of this piece: some see it as the whole of humanity and war; a portrait of a Spanish Rain God; and a giant power who is wielding a gesture of power and confidence. The most popular belief is that the man in the picture is Napoleon. Given the date of the painting-which could range from 1808 to 1812-it most likely depicts the Peninsula War era.

The period of those four years was filled with tumultuous events that shook the foundation of Spanish life. In the portrait, one can see where the land is covered with people fleeing with their livestock. They are running away from something and it is up to us to interpret what that something is. It appears that the colossal figure is rolling in like a whirling dervish, causing people to flee. Sure, it could be a person, a dominating figure who is terrorizing the people in this village.

However, this man could also be symbolic of something inanimate such as fate that has power over the earth. Lastly, this larger-than-life figure could be a God who is overseeing the people and animals of the land. The likelihood that Colossus is meant to be indicative of tumultuous war times is great. We can tell from other famous paintings of his that he has very strong feelings about the war with the French and the Spanish. If a person were to look at this painting and make a speculation as to the meaning there are many inferences one could make even if they did not know the historical aspect of war.

It is apparent that much unrest ensues and a gigantic figure is presiding over all living beings. While there have been assumptions that this man is Napoleon, I tend to doubt it. I believe this figure is meant to embody a much larger force that controls and protects-probably a God. This man is a strong force that intervenes in a time of crisis. The Peninsular War was a crisis for the Spanish. The nature of how he was painted-a very muscular build yet shaded in such a way that he does not appear to be a human being suggests that Colossus is a divine being.

This is a very difficult painting to interpret. There has been much speculation as to whether the figure is intended to be a personification of revolution, of mankind exploding with a vengeance, danger expressed in a visual form, or if this gigantic figure is supposed to be a protector of all human beings and animals. Whatever Colossus is meant to interpret, it certainly is an intriguing piece of artwork. If one does not know the era in which this painting was completed, it is capable of inspiring them to do some research on Spanish history!