Editing Francisco Goya (section)

==Middle period (1793–1799)==
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''La Maja Desnuda'' (''La maja desnuda'') has been described as "the first totally profane life-size female nude in Western art" without pretense to allegorical or mythological meaning.<ref>Licht (1979), 83</ref> The identity of the ''Majas'' is uncertain. The most popularly cited models are the [[María Cayetana de Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba|Duchess of Alba]] and Pepita Tudó, mistress of [[Manuel de Godoy]]. The 19th-century Romantic legend of Goya claims that he had an affair with the Duchess of Alba, a notion that is not supported by historical or archival evidence. Neither theory about the models has been verified, and it remains as likely that the paintings represent an idealized composite.<ref>"[http://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/online-gallery/on-line-gallery/obra/the-nude-maja/ The Nude Maja, the Prado] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100103055501/http://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/online-gallery/on-line-gallery/obra/the-nude-maja/ |date=3 January 2010 }}". Retrieved 17 July 2010.</ref> The paintings were never publicly exhibited during Goya's lifetime and were owned by Godoy.<ref name="g">[https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2003/oct/04/art.biography The unflinching eye.]. ''The Guardian'', October 2003.</ref> In 1808 all Godoy's property was seized by [[Ferdinand VII]] after his fall from power and exile, and in 1813 the [[Spanish Inquisition|Inquisition]] confiscated both works as 'obscene', returning them in 1836 to the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.<ref>''Museo del Prado, Catálogo de las pinturas''. Ministerio de Educación y Cultura, Madrid, 1996. 138. {{ISBN|84-87317-53-7}}</ref>

In 1798 he painted luminous and airy scenes for the [[pendentive]]s and cupola of the [[Royal Chapel of St. Anthony of La Florida|Real Ermita (Chapel) of San Antonio de la Florida]] in Madrid. His depiction of a miracle of [[Saint Anthony of Padua]] is devoid of the customary angels and instead treats the miracle as if it were a theatrical event performed by ordinary people.<ref>Hagen & Hagen, 70–73</ref>

[[File:Museo del Prado - Goya - Caprichos - No. 43 - El sueño de la razon produce monstruos.jpg|upright|140px|thumb|''[[The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters]]'', {{circa|1797}}, {{cvt|21.5|×|15|cm|in|frac=8}}]]

At some time between late 1792 and early 1793, an undiagnosed illness left Goya deaf. He became withdrawn and introspective while the direction and tone of his work changed. He began the series of [[aquatint]]ed [[etching]]s, published in 1799 as the ''[[Caprichos]]''—completed in parallel with the more official commissions of portraits and religious paintings. In 1799 Goya published 80 ''Caprichos'' prints depicting what he described as "the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilized society, and from the common prejudices and deceitful practices which custom, ignorance, or self-interest have made usual".<ref>[http://cargocollective.com/jameswilentz/#Francisco-Goya-de-Lucientes-The-Sleep-of-Reason-Produces-Monsters The Sleep of Reason] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122182141/http://cargocollective.com/jameswilentz/#Francisco-Goya-de-Lucientes-The-Sleep-of-Reason-Produces-Monsters |date=22 November 2018 }} Linda Simon (www.worldandi.com). Retrieved 2 December 2006.</ref> The visions in these prints are partly explained by the caption "The sleep of reason produces monsters". Yet these are not solely bleak; they demonstrate the artist's sharp satirical wit, as in ''Capricho'' number 52, ''What a Tailor Can Do!''<ref>Hagen & Hagen, 35–36</ref>

While convalescing between 1793 and 1794, Goya completed a set of eleven small pictures painted on tin that marked a significant change in the tone and subject matter of his art, and drew from the dark and dramatic realms of fantasy nightmare. ''[[Yard with Lunatics]]'' is a vision of loneliness, fear and social alienation. The condemnation of brutality towards prisoners (whether criminal or insane) is a subject that Goya assayed in later works<ref name="Eisenman2007">{{cite book|last=Crow|first=Thomas|editor=Stephen Eisenman|title=Nineteenth Century Art.: A Critical History|url=https://www.msu.edu/course/ha/445/crowgoya.pdf|access-date=12 October 2013|edition=3rd |year=2007|publisher=Thames and Hudson|location= New York|chapter=3: Tensions of the Enlightenment, Goya}}</ref> that focused on the degradation of the human figure.<ref>Licht (1979), 156</ref> It was one of the first of Goya's mid-1790s [[cabinet painting]]s, in which his earlier search for ideal beauty gave way to an examination of the relationship between naturalism and fantasy that would preoccupy him for the rest of his career.<ref>Schulz, Andrew. "The Expressive Body in Goya's Saint Francis Borgia at the Deathbed of an Impenitent". ''The Art Bulletin'', 80.4 1998.</ref> He was undergoing a nervous breakdown and entering prolonged physical illness,<ref>It is not known why Goya became sick, the many theories range from [[polio]] or [[syphilis]], to lead poisoning. Yet he survived until eighty-two years.</ref> and admitted that the series was created to reflect his own self-doubt, anxiety and fear that he was losing his mind.<ref>Hughes, Robert. "[https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2003/oct/04/art.biography The unflinching eye]". ''[[The Guardian]]'', 4 October 2003. Retrieved 30 January 2010.</ref> Goya wrote that the works served "to occupy my imagination, tormented as it is by contemplation of my sufferings."<ref>"Para occupar la imaginacion mortificada en la consideración de mis males" 4 January 1794. ''''' MS''. Egerton 585, folio 74. Department of Manuscripts, British Museum. Reproduced in Gassier, Wilson, Appendix IV, p. 382.'''</ref> The series, he said, consisted of pictures which "normally find no place in commissioned works".{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

Goya's physical and mental breakdown seems to have happened a few weeks after the French declaration of war on Spain. A contemporary reported, "The noises in his head and deafness aren't improving, yet his vision is much better and he is back in control of his balance."<ref name="Hustvedt2006">{{cite book|last=Hustvedt|first=Siri|title=Mysteries of the Rectangle: Essays on Painting|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vBOmcfgBzswC&pg=PA63|date=10 August 2006|publisher=Princeton Architectural Press|isbn=978-1-56898-618-0|page=63}}</ref> These symptoms may indicate a prolonged viral encephalitis, or possibly a series of miniature strokes resulting from high blood pressure and which affected the hearing and balance centres of the brain. Symptoms of [[tinnitus]], episodes of [[balance disorder|imbalance]] and progressive [[deafness]] are typical of [[Ménière's disease]].<ref name="Gedo1985">{{cite book|author=Mary Mathews Gedo|title=Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Art: PPA|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nbDpAAAAMAAJ|year=1985|publisher=Analytic Press|isbn=978-0-88163-030-5|page=82}}</ref> It is possible that Goya had cumulative [[lead poisoning]], as he used massive amounts of [[lead white]]—which he ground himself<ref name="HCC">[http://medicalalumni.org/historicalcpc/home/ Historical Clinicopathological Conference (2017)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811070812/http://medicalalumni.org/historicalcpc/home/ |date=11 August 2020 }} University of Maryland School of Medicine, Retrieved 27 January 2017.</ref>—in his paintings, both as a canvas primer and as a primary colour.<ref name="Hollandsworth1990">{{cite book|author=James G. Hollandsworth|title=The Physiology of Psychological Disorders: Schizophrenia, Depression, Anxiety and Substance Abuse|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FuFjEEwspusC&pg=PA3|date=31 January 1990|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-306-43353-5|pages=3–4}}</ref><ref name="Connell2004">Connell (2004), 78–79</ref>

Other postmortem diagnostic assessments include [[Susac's syndrome]]<ref>[https://www.livescience.com/58890-goya-mystery-illness-diagnosis.html Goya's Mystery Illness: Nearly 200 Years Later, Docs Have a Diagnosis]</ref> or may point toward paranoid dementia, possibly due to brain trauma, as evidenced by marked changes in his work after his recovery, culminating in the "black" paintings.<ref name="ChuDixon2008">{{cite book|author1=Petra ten-Doesschate Chu|author2=Laurinda S. Dixon|title=Twenty-first-century Perspectives on Nineteenth-century Art: Essays in Honor of Gabriel P. Weisberg|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wGPPe8l-HmwC&pg=PA127|year=2008|publisher=Associated University Presse|isbn=978-0-87413-011-9|page=127}}</ref> Art historians have noted Goya's singular ability to express his personal demons as horrific and fantastic imagery that speaks universally, and allows his audience to find its own catharsis in the images.<ref name="Williams2011">{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Paul|title=The Psychoanalytic Therapy of Severe Disturbance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=evXyjSkj22QC&pg=PA238|date=3 February 2011|publisher=Karnac Books|isbn=978-1-78049-298-8|page=238}}</ref>