Later in his life, Goya’s black paintings come from a man in a dark time, having lived through the peninsular wars, Spain’s continued decline, and illness and deafness. He was still a man, though, who used his talent to the end.
There’s something transcendant about that figure, at first I thought it was just a man, standing honorably against our condition, ready to confront the unknown….. with fists clenched…
But then I saw the blank eyes, more like a man abstracted into a godlike force, into which human fear and ignorance can be projected.
Here is a link to a good Goya page.
Addition: More here on the painting…and here on the dispute as to whether or not it’s his.
