Spain‟s Identity Reflected in Goya in the Prado Museum
Kensey Wheeler „11
Inside the Prado Museum, visitors make their way among some of the greatest painters from all
over Europe and eventually arrive in the middle of the Great Hall. This room is much like the atria of
other flagship museums of Europe where each host prominently exhibits the
nation‟s most prestigious and representative pieces for its guests. In the Great
Hall, the Prado proudly displays some of the most recognized Spanish
painters. Richard Schickel neatly captures the intent of the museum‟s curators when he surveys the
contents of the room and remarks that here we have “El Greco was the painter of Spanish spirituality
and Velazquez the painter of her pride, then Goya is the painter of her … individualism”1
All of the works located here were commissioned pieces by the aristocracy of Spanish society.
While commissioned works of art are no less worthy of our careful study than those done at the pleasure
of the artist himself, they often tend to simply mirror the popular taste of the time.
Though these paintings are no doubt enticing to the Prado‟s visitors, they rarely provide
us with much immediate insight into the inner mind of the artist. In the case of
Velazquez or El Greco, it is unclear what kind of work they might have produced if they
were granted more artistic freedom. Goya, however, is unique among the artists of his
Goya‟s Saturn
time because he did in fact create a number of un-commissioned works. Black Paintings, the Disasters
of War, and the 2nd and 3rd of May were painted without the restrictions or limitations typically imposed
by a patron. Yet, these are not among the works showcased in the Great Hall but are instead displayed in
a less prominent location as if to suggest that one must look deeper into the museum to acquire its real
1
Richard Schickel: The World of Goya – pg. 8
lesson for the spectator. To find the artist‟s mind freely at work, we must wind back down the stairs to
another wing of the museum that is tucked away from the regular traffic of daily
life. There is something fitting about where these works are placed in the museum.
Depiction from Goya‟s
Disasters of War
Unlike the commissioned works that celebrate Spain‟s history and way of life,
Goya‟s non-commissioned paintings wrestle with the nation‟s complicated and often tragic history.
Unlike the edifying paintings located in the Great Hall, these works, in their graphic and gruesome
detail, depict some of the most significant moments in the development of Spain‟s nationalism.
Spain is unique among the other nation-states of Europe. Typically, nationalism is formed
around a common culture or ethnicity. However, Spain is a nation that houses many different cultures
and, in many cases, the citizens don‟t even share a common language. Spain, also, does not have what
other modern enlightenment nations share: a successful revolutionary moment, where the residents were
suddenly united as one people in a common revolutionary cause again the feudal oppressors.
Nevertheless, there is something that still that unites Spain as a nation. Spain‟s tragic past has not been
led to its dissolution as so often happens in history, but rather these trials and tribulations are the very
material from which the country has cultivated its own solidarity.
In order to completely understand this political evolution and subsequently the concepts that are
seemingly depicted in works done by Goya, one must, like the guests of the Prado, meander their way
through the complicated history of Spain. Thus, when entering into the room
where these works are exhibited in the Prado, it is appropriate that only those
who understand the complexities behind these works are able to find and enjoy
Goya‟s 3rd of May
1808
them. Goya‟s Black Paintings and his Disasters of War are no façade for outsiders but a witness to the
inner truth of Spanish nationalism. Here I will attempt to demonstrate how Goya‟s works in this room
are designed to illustrate the possibilities and limitations of modern politic for Spain.