- Charles IV of Spain and His Family
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Carlos IV of Spain and His Family, 1800, Museo del Prado
Carlos IV of Spain and His Family is an oil on canvas painting by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya completed in the summer of 1800. It features life sized depictions of Charles IV of Spain and his family, ostentatiously dressed in fine costume and jewellery. The painting was modeled after Velázquez's Las Meninas when setting the royal subjects in a naturalistic and plausible setting.[1]
As in Las Meninas, the royal family is apparently paying a visit to the artist's studio, while Goya can be seen to the left looking outwards towards the viewer. In both, the artist is shown working on a canvas, of which only the rear is visible. However, the atmospheric and warm perspective of the palace interior of Velázquez's work is replaced in the Goya by a sense of, in the words of Gassier, "imminent suffocation" as the royal family are presented by Goya on a "stage facing the public, while in the shadow of the wings the painter, with a grim smile, points and says: 'Look at them and judge for yourself!'"[2]
Sitters
The barely visible man in the background shadows at the left is Goya. Others, left to right, are Carlos Maria Isidro (1788-1855); the future Fernando VII (1784-1833); Maria Josefa (1744-1801), sister of Carlos IV; an unknown woman; María Isabel (1789-1848); Maria Luisa of Parma (1751-1819); Francisco de Paula (1794-1848); Charles IV (1748-1819); Don Antonio Pascual, brother of the King (1755-1817); Carlota Joaquina (1775-1830, only part of head visible); Don Luis de Parma (1773-1803) and his wife Maria Luisa (1782-1824), holding baby Carlos Luis (1799-1883), the future Duke of Parma.[3]
Notes
- ^ Gassier (1995), 69–73
- ^ Gassier (1989), 66
- ^ Carlos IV de España con su familia at arteHistoria.com
Sources
- Buchholz, Elke Linda. Francisco de Goya. Cologne: Könemann, 1999. ISBN 3-8290-2930-6
- Gassier, Pierre. Goya. Rizzoli International Publications, 1989. ISBN 0-8478-1108-5
- Gassier, Pierre. Goya: Biographical and Critical Study. New York: Skira, 1995. 69–73
Francisco Goya Paintings Blind Guitarist (1778) • Christ Crucified (1780) • Maria Teresa de Borbon y Vallabriga (1783) • Spring (or The Flower Girls) (1786–1787) • The Swing (1787) • St Francis Borja at the Deathbed of an Impenitent (1788) • Manuel Osorio de Zuniga (c. 1788) • Witches' Sabbath (1789) • Self-portrait (c. 1790–1795) • Little Giants (1791–1792) • Portrait of Mariana Waldstein (c. 1792) • Strolling Players (1793) • Yard with Lunatics (1793–1794) • Marquesa de la Solana (c. 1794–1795) • Duchess of Alba (1797) • Self-Portrait with Eyeglasses (1797) • The Bewitched Man (1797-1798) • The Devil's Lamp (1797-1798) • Witches' Flight (1797-98) • Charles IV in his Hunting Clothes (1799) • Countess of Chinchon (1800) • La maja desnuda • Charles IV of Spain and His Family (1800–1801) • La maja vestida • Bartolome Sureda y Miserol (c. 1803–1804) • Portrait of Doña Isabel de Porcel (1804–1805) • Portrait of Francisca Sabasa García (1804-1808) • Doña Teresa Sureda (c. 1805) • The Colossus (1808–1812; attribution debated) • Majas on a Balcony (c. 1808–1812) • Time (c. 1810–1812) • Prison Interior (c. 1810–1814) • The Second of May 1808 (1814) • The Third of May 1808 (1814) • The Junta of the Philippines (1815) • The Madhouse (1812-1819) • The Inquisition Tribunal (1812-1819) • The Burial of the Sardine (c. 1816) • A Procession of Flagellants (c. 1816) • The Forge (c. 1817) • The Giant (1818) • Self-portrait with Dr Arrieta (1820) • The Milkmaid of Bordeaux (1825–1827)
Tapestry cartoonsThe Parasol (c. 1777) • Blind man's bluff (1789)Saturn Devouring His Son • Judith and Holofernes • Witches' Sabbath • A Pilgrimage to San Isidro • La Leocadia • Two Old Men • Men Reading • Man Mocked by Two Women • Fight with Cudgels • Procession of the Holy Office • Atropos • Asmodea • Two Old Men Eating Soup • The Dog
Etchings The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1797–1798) • What a sacrifice! (1797–1798) • They say yes and give their hand to the first comer (1797–1798) • Que se la llevaron! (1797–1798) • You who cannot (1797–1798)The Disasters of War
(Los desastres de la guerra)TauromaquiaUnfortunate events in the front seats of the ring of Madrid, and the death of the Mayor of Torrejón (1815–1816)Categories:- 1801 paintings
- Francisco Goya portraits
- Collections of the Museo del Prado
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