An etching from 1797, sheet no. 43 from the series Los Caprichos, carries the phrase: El sueño de la razòn produce mostruos. (The sleep of reason produces monsters).
It was written by Francisco Goya (1746-1828) a Spanish painter and etcher whose works will be exhibited from October 31st, 2023 at Palazzo Reale, Milan. An image, a feeling from which the exhibition entitled Goya takes its cue: The rebellion of reason.
Seven themed sections will lead visitors on a journey of extraordinary marvel, creating a reconstruction of the pictorial language of the Spanish maestro, who lived through a series of historical periods: from the end of the Ancien Régime, through the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution, up to the Napoleonic wars.
In his younger years, Goya mainly ffocused on portraiture, characterised by lighter tones and more frivolous themes and subjects, to then moved on to topics and content typical of Romanticism. These works bore the first signs of his most famous dreamlike and allegorical subjects, painted with sinister colours and traits, at times violent and terrifying.
Over time, above all due to historical events, the narration of the Spanish maestro shifted to episodes of war, reproducing subjects from a more documentary point of view, less interested in the elegance of figures.
A complex artist, in some senses versatile and autonomous, above all with respect to various artistic currents, capable of interpreting current situations by adapting his style, his brush strokes, analysing varied themes rather than choosing to focus on a single artistic movement.
The exhibition, curated by Victor Nieto Alcaide, in collaboration with the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and with the patronage of the Spanish Embassy in Italy and the Cervantes institute in Milan, will be open to the public until 3 March 2024.
