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Goya, The Family of Charles IV

Francisco Goya, The Family of Charles IV, c. 1800, Prado Museum, 280 cm x 336 cm (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid) Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.

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  • spunky sam blue style avatar for user Brad Smith
    Is it just me or does anyone else think that Goya was making fun of this family by this type of representation?
    (11 votes)
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    • male robot hal style avatar for user kongpower007
      I don't believe the artists was making fun of the family but rather he painted them without idealizing them possibly because this was during a time that was not too far away from the Rococo styles, which of course was a factor of the indulgence that angered the people of France and eventually leading to the French Revolution, and the royal family of the Charles IV were most likely aware of these things and did not want to hide themselves behind a mask of idealism. They tried to portrayed themselves as they actually were. Although Francisco Goya himself is in the painting is a reference to Velasquez's painting of the royal family at that time, it could also show how honest and open the royal family are trying to make themselves as they are telling the viewer, we are hiding anything but simply being painted by a painter as you can see. However, one can say that the women who is looking away as mentioned in the previous comments by anika the gymnast, if she is an imaginary lover as Plamen Kovatchev ( in above comments), than they have not been completely honest with the viewers. But, in light of that, they could have used this to their advantage to seem more honest, but still lying, in an effort to make it look like prince is not indulging himself with multiple women but has settled down like the rest of the family's men. If you notice, all of the men from the royal family have a women that is their, and I'm not talking about the young boys, just the men. Basically, the family had to strike some sort of balance between looking honest enough by showing how extravagant their clothing was as if saying "Yes we are rich, but we are honest as well" as they don't hide their paintings either, which is a sign of riches, or the painter, which you had to be rich to hire. However, they tried to show modesty in their richness by having idealized bodies. Sorry for the long winded answer.
      (10 votes)
  • leaf green style avatar for user jamie
    It seemed that at the :17 mark, when they show a close up of the gentleman, that you can see the words "Prado" over his shoulder. Is this actually a part of the painting? Does it have a place on the painting behind the man? Is it meant to have some significance?
    (4 votes)
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  • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user The Q
    What is the big black mark on the right temple of the fourth figure from the left? It reminds me of what's found on some Hogarth characters...
    (3 votes)
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    • blobby green style avatar for user jacobi.kerry
      I remember reading that this is actually a purposeful cosmetic addition to the face. (I think it was called a "mouche"). It was customary by fashionable ladies back then to add a cosmetic mark to the face resembling a mole. Over time, the "moles" grew larger but then later, like all trends, the large cosmetic "moles" became unfashionable. The older lady is still living in the past and wearing a trend that was no longer fashionable at the time of the painting, hence her position in the very back of the portrait. I'm trying to find the reference...here is one on Wiki regarding popularity of large, false moles called "mouches" that were made of velvet or silk and glued to the skin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_mark
      (2 votes)
  • old spice man green style avatar for user Goob
    How is it that he was different from other portrait painters? They say that this painting was controversial at the time but I don't see anything wrong with it. . .
    (2 votes)
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  • leaf green style avatar for user Jon Dough
    Dr. Harris makes a comment about how the modern world looks at royal families as not seeing them have a divine right, royal lineage, and blood line that makes them different...what does the audience think about this comment?

    I'm hoping to hear from citizens whose country still has a royal family or constitutional monarchies ie Canada, Australia. I don't understand why some countries are constitutional monarchies and still have a royal family. I guess I wasn't too sold on what Dr. Harris said since even US news often mentions the, yawn, British monarchy.
    (0 votes)
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    • piceratops tree style avatar for user Angelika Morris
      Being from Canada I certainly have respect for the queen, and I like her, but I don't feel that she's somehow greater than us by divine right or lineage. She herself recognizes that rather than being lord over her citizen's she is a public servant, and looks at her monarchical position as servitude rather than control and kingship.
      (4 votes)
  • leaf red style avatar for user landrykai35
    what are the paintings in the background?
    (1 vote)
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  • leaf red style avatar for user landrykai35
    Why would he have made a less idealized painting? The gap between the king and the queen looks a little strange, and the way that they are holding their babies. I feel like it turned out the way a typical family picture turns out, nobody looks perfect.
    (1 vote)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Lizbeth Lopez Reyes
    What elements of art are used in work??
    (1 vote)
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  • hopper happy style avatar for user Roberto Madro
    If at the time that this painting was made, nd Spain was in a crisis, why was the look and atmosphere of the painting a happy feeling?
    (1 vote)
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Video transcript

(piano music playing) Steven: We're in the Prado in Madrid and we're looking at a large canvas by Francisco Goya. It's the The Family of Charles IV. There's a direct reference to Velázquez's Las Meninas. We can see the artist actually, a self-portrait, a bit more in shadow than Velázquez painted himself, behind a large canvas, pretty much at the same angle as one found in Las Meninas and of course, the royal family are right before us. Although in this case, the king and queen are here not as a reflection in a mirror, but directly before us. Beth: I think that strikes us today as unflattering. I think we're much more used to royal portraits that have a kind of idealism to it and here we have a range of that. Some of the figures look more ideal in their poses and their faces than others, but there's certainly a way that the queen, herself, looks very much I think the way that she really looked and even the king to some extent. Steven: As opposed to a more idealized, more youthful figure and I think that Goya is doing something quite extraordinary by in a sense pushing those boundaries and the royal family is allowing him to, but while there is a kind of particularity to the faces and that kind of psychological depth to each of the faces and a striking beauty in terms of the representation of the children. The costume across this freeze of bodies is spectacular, the sense of the ornament, the sense of the military medals. Beth: Of the gold and the silver sort of glittering in the light. You can catch the glistening jewelry if your eye just wanders across the canvas. Steven: And Goya has rendered it just brilliantly. Beth: Yeah, very, very loosely in a very ventrally way, that's also very reminiscent of Velázquez. Steven: Now, it's interesting that the royal family is looking in a sense back to Velázquez in this portrait, because this is the time that's really Beth: It is. Spain is in a kind of a crisis at this moment. You know, the French Revolution has taken place. The royal families across Europe are wondering whether or not they're going to be able to maintain order, maintain their rule and in fact, this family would not be able to. Beth: No, not at all. Fernando, who we see on the left in blue, actually, collude with Napolean and Napolean's invasion of Spain and Napolean would put his own brother on the throne of Spain very soon. So this is a royal family that doesn't have much longer to live in this way and it's hard not to read the enlightenment in a different way that in the modern world we look upon royal families. We don't see them as having that kind of divine right and kind of royal lineage and a bloodline that makes them different from us. In a way, they look very human and ... and many of them do and it's hard not to see that enlightenment thinking in Goya's mind. We know, in fact, that he was symphathetic with the enlightenment and the critique of the monarchy. Steven: There certainly is a kind of informality, that almost feels a bit like disarray in the composition of the figures, different from the informality that one finds in Velazquez. But again, I think it's interesting that Goya and the royal family are both looking back to that period of stability and in the sense trying to recapture that at a moment when everybody, I think, is cognizant that Spain is at the threshold of a moment when there may be significant change. (piano music playing)