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84-642: The Baldin Collection is a group of 364 masterpieces removed from Germany to the Soviet Union by Soviet Army officer Victor Baldin at the end of World War II . The ensemble consists of 362 drawings and two paintings by Dürer , van Gogh , Manet , Rembrandt , Rubens , Titian and other famous artists. Historically part of the collection at the Kunsthalle Bremen , the Baldin group came from

168-466: A n ˈ θ i s k o   x o ˈ s e   ð e   ˈ ɣ o ʝ a   i   l u ˈ θ j e n t e s ] ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker . He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and engravings reflected contemporary historical upheavals and influenced important 19th- and 20th-century painters. Goya

252-511: A beautiful young nun whom he plotted to abduct from her convent. It is possible that Goya completed two surviving mythological paintings during the visit, a Sacrifice to Vesta and a Sacrifice to Pan , both dated 1771. In 1771 he won second prize in a painting competition organized by the City of Parma . That year he returned to Zaragoza and painted elements of the cupolas of the Basilica of

336-477: A bleak outlook on personal, social, and political levels and contrast with his social climbing. He was appointed Director of the Royal Academy in 1795, the year Manuel Godoy made an unfavorable treaty with France. In 1799, Goya became Primer Pintor de Cámara (Prime Court Painter), the highest rank for a Spanish court painter . In the late 1790s, commissioned by Godoy, he completed his La maja desnuda ,

420-476: A canvas primer and as a primary colour. Other postmortem diagnostic assessments include Susac's syndrome 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. 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

504-767: A commission to commemorate the victory in the brief War of the Oranges against Portugal. The two were friends, even if Goya's 1801 portrait is usually seen as satire. Yet even after Godoy's fall from grace the politician referred to the artist in warm terms. Godoy saw himself as instrumental in the publication of the Caprichos and is widely believed to have commissioned La maja desnuda . 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. The identity of

588-542: A complicated relationship with the latter artist; while many of his contemporaries saw folly in Goya's attempts to copy and emulate him, he had access to a wide range of the long-dead painter's works that had been contained in the royal collection. Nonetheless, etching was a medium that the young artist was to master, a medium that was to reveal both the true depths of his imagination and his political beliefs. His c.  1779 etching of The Garrotted Man ("El agarrotado" )

672-509: A drawing of Christ's head by Albrecht Dürer from another officer. Baldin managed to coax the officer into exchanging it for his chrome boots. Of the thousands of works stored in the cellar, Baldin managed to save just 362 drawings and two paintings. Among them was the only known pen and ink study by van Gogh of his famous 1889 painting, The Starry Night . As the Soviet Army withdrew, the cellars were left open and what little remained of

756-422: A jeweler, Isidore Weiss, but was separated from him since 1811, after he had accused her of "illicit conduct". She had two children before that time, and bore a third, Rosario, in 1814 when she was 26. Isidore was not the father, and it has often been speculated—although with little firm evidence—that the child belonged to Goya. There has been much speculation that Goya and Weiss were romantically linked; however, it

840-694: A much larger cache of artworks stored by the Germans in a Brandenburg castle to protect it from air raids . In 1945 the castle was occupied by the Red Army and the storage vaults were looted, mainly by Russian soldiers but also by the local German population. The works Baldin took were then hidden at a Soviet Research Institute for many years. In 1991 the collection was moved to the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg where its existence

924-406: A number of his works from this period, working instead in private. He was tormented by a dread of old age and fear of madness. Goya had been a successful and royally placed artist, but withdrew from public life during his final years. From the late 1810s he lived in near-solitude outside Madrid in a farmhouse converted into a studio. The house had become known as "La Quinta del Sordo " (The House of

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1008-520: A number of other works. Following a stroke that left him paralyzed on his right side, Goya died and was buried on 16 April 1828 aged 82. Francisco de Goya was born in Fuendetodos , Aragón, Spain , on 30 March 1746 to José Benito de Goya y Franque and Gracia de Lucientes y Salvador. The family had moved that year from the city of Zaragoza , but there is no record of why; likely, José was commissioned to work there. They were lower middle-class. José

1092-513: A popular painter with Spanish royalty. He clashed with his master, and his examinations were unsatisfactory. Goya submitted entries for the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in 1763 and 1766 but was denied entrance into the academia. Rome was then the cultural capital of Europe and held all the prototypes of classical antiquity, while Spain lacked a coherent artistic direction, with all of its significant visual achievements in

1176-791: A remarkably daring nude for the time and clearly indebted to Diego Velázquez . In 1800–01, he painted Charles IV of Spain and His Family , also influenced by Velázquez. In 1807, Napoleon led the French army into the Peninsular War against Spain. Goya remained in Madrid during the war, which seems to have affected him deeply. Although he did not speak his thoughts in public, they can be inferred from his Disasters of War series of prints (although published 35 years after his death) and his 1814 paintings The Second of May 1808 and The Third of May 1808 . Other works from his mid-period include

1260-451: A tightening of standards after the company became concerned that the level of skill of goldsmithing was being diluted. The wardens of the company had complained in 1607 that the "true practise of the Art & Mystery of Goldsmithry is not only grown into great decays but also dispersed into many parts, so as now very few workmen are able to finish & perfect a piece of plate singularly with all

1344-456: A work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. For example, the novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens is generally considered a literary masterpiece. The term is often used loosely, and some critics, such as Edward Douglas of The Tracking Board , feel it is overused in describing recent films. Francisco Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes ( / ˈ ɡ ɔɪ ə / ; Spanish:  [ f ɾ

1428-440: Is a subject that Goya assayed in later works that focused on the degradation of the human figure. It was one of the first of Goya's mid-1790s cabinet paintings , 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. He was undergoing a nervous breakdown and entering prolonged physical illness, and admitted that

1512-604: Is at the Hermitage or remains in Moscow. In legal proceedings and political debates during the following years it appeared that collection might return to its rightful owner. In 2000, a group of 101 pieces from another part of Baldin's brigade, including Albrecht Duerers' 1494 watercolor View of a Rock Castle by a River , were returned to the Kunsthalle by Russia. This was followed by the simultaneous return of two artifacts of

1596-473: Is devoid of the customary angels and instead treats the miracle as if it were a theatrical event performed by ordinary people. 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 aquatinted etchings , published in 1799 as the Caprichos —completed in parallel with

1680-497: Is marked by portraits of the Spanish aristocracy and royalty, and Rococo -style tapestry cartoons designed for the royal palace. Although Goya's letters and writings survive, little is known about his thoughts. He had a severe and undiagnosed illness in 1793 that left him deaf , after which his work became progressively darker and more pessimistic. His later easel and mural paintings, prints and drawings appear to reflect

1764-546: Is more likely the affection between them was sentimental. Goya died on 16 April 1828. Leocadia was left nothing in Goya's will; mistresses were often omitted in such circumstances, but it is also likely that he did not want to dwell on his mortality by thinking about or revising his will. She wrote to a number of Goya's friends to complain of her exclusion but many of her friends were Goya's also and by then were old men or had died, and did not reply. Largely destitute, she moved into rented accommodation, later passing on her copy of

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1848-524: Is much better and he is back in control of his balance." 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 imbalance and progressive deafness are typical of Ménière's disease . It is possible that Goya had cumulative lead poisoning , as he used massive amounts of lead white —which he ground himself —in his paintings, both as

1932-534: Is often referred to as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns . Goya was born in Fuendetodos , Aragon to a middle-class family in 1746. He studied painting from age 14 under José Luzán y Martinez and moved to Madrid to study with Anton Raphael Mengs . He married Josefa Bayeu in 1773. Goya became a court painter to the Spanish Crown in 1786 and this early portion of his career

2016-497: Is thought that Goya may have attended the Escuelas Pías de San Antón, which offered free schooling. His education seems to have been adequate but not enlightening; he had reading, writing and numeracy, and some knowledge of the classics. According to Robert Hughes the artist "seems to have taken no more interest than a carpenter in philosophical or theological matters, and his views on painting ... were very down to earth: Goya

2100-502: Is thought that he had hoped for political and religious reform, but like many liberals became disillusioned when the restored Bourbon monarchy and Catholic hierarchy rejected the Spanish Constitution of 1812. At the age of 75, alone and in mental and physical despair, he completed the work of his 14 Black Paintings , all of which were executed in oil directly onto the plaster walls of his house. Goya did not intend for

2184-471: The Caprichos and Los Disparates etching series, and a wide variety of paintings concerned with insanity , mental asylums , witches , fantastical creatures and religious and political corruption , all of which suggest that he feared for both his country's fate and his own mental and physical health. His late period culminates with the Black Paintings of 1819–1823, applied on oil on

2268-494: The Caprichos for free. Goya's body was later re-interred in the Real Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida in Madrid. Goya's skull was missing, a detail the Spanish consul immediately communicated to his superiors in Madrid, who wired back, "Send Goya, with or without head." Goya is often referred to as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns . Among the 20th-century painters influenced by Goya are

2352-617: The Amber Room , bought and financed by a Bremen businessman to speed up the process. Anatoly Vilkov, from the Russian ministry of culture, stated that "Russia has no right to keep the Baldin collection. We did not receive this right through a gift, since by law the collection did not belong to the donor Baldin." The potential return of the collection to Germany began to face increasing opposition from Russian nationalist leaders, including Communist legislator and former Minister of Culture of

2436-639: The Church of San Francisco El Grande in Madrid, which led to his appointment as a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Art. In 1783, the Count of Floridablanca , favorite of King Charles III , commissioned Goya to paint his portrait. He became friends with the King's half-brother Luis , and spent two summers working on portraits of both the Infante and his family. During the 1780s, his circle of patrons grew to include

2520-460: The Duke and Duchess of Osuna , the King and other notable people of the kingdom whom he painted. In 1786, Goya was given a salaried position as a painter to Charles III. Goya was appointed court painter to Charles IV in 1789. The following year he became First Court Painter, with a salary of 50,000 reales and an allowance of 500 ducats for a coach. He painted portraits of the king and the queen, and

2604-532: The Majas is uncertain. The most popularly cited models are the Duchess of Alba , with whom Goya was sometimes thought to have had an affair, and Pepita Tudó, mistress of Manuel de Godoy . Neither theory has been verified, and it remains as likely that the paintings represent an idealized composite. The paintings were never publicly exhibited during Goya's lifetime and were owned by Godoy. In 1808 all Godoy's property

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2688-618: The Soviet Union . In 1948 Baldin deposited his at the Shchusev Museum of Architecture in Moscow , where the masterpieces became a Soviet state secret. Baldin worked as an art restorer at the museum and eventually became its general director in 1963, a post he held for 25 years. Baldin then tried for decades to give the stolen art back to Germany. He took the courageous steps of writing to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1973, to

2772-477: The "prodigious flowering of rage". His works from 1814 to 1819 are mostly commissioned portraits, but also include the altarpiece of Santa Justa and Santa Rufina for the Cathedral of Seville , the print series of La Tauromaquia depicting scenes from bullfighting , and probably the etchings of Los Disparates . Records of Goya's later life are relatively scant, and ever politically aware, he suppressed

2856-461: The 38th Field Engineers' Brigade billeted at the Castle began looting it. Victor Baldin, an Army captain and combat engineer, found opened boxes in the cellar, saw documents trampled on the floor, and observed soldiers lighting their way by using burning papers. Baldin, an art restorer before the war, recognized these as drawings by the great masters. Baldin intervened and sealed the cellar. Scrutinizing

2940-541: The Deaf Man), after the nearest farmhouse that had coincidentally also belonged to a deaf man. Art historians assume Goya felt alienated from the social and political trends that followed the 1814 restoration of the Bourbon monarchy , and that he viewed these developments as reactionary means of social control. In his unpublished art he seems to have railed against what he saw as a tactical retreat into Medievalism . It

3024-408: The French. By the time of his wife Josefa's death in 1812, he was painting The Second of May 1808 and The Third of May 1808 , and preparing the series of etchings later known as The Disasters of War ( Los desastres de la guerra ). Ferdinand VII returned to Spain in 1814 but relations with Goya were not cordial. The artist completed portraits of the king for a variety of ministries, but not for

3108-584: The German Minister of Culture, Christina Weiss, even signed an agreement that 20 pieces of the Baldin ensemble could remain in Russia. Shvydkoy later received an official reprimand and was threatened by deputy prosecutor Vladimir Kolsenikov with criminal charges if he attempted to return the rest of the collection to Germany. In 2005 Aleksandr Sergeyevich Sokolov , Russia's new Minister of Culture, then contradicted previous promises and stated that he opposed

3192-561: The Kunsthalle Bremen, it must be returned to this place." The history of Victor Baldin, the stolen paintings and their odyssey is featured in the 2007 book Victor Baldin – The Man with the Suitcase/Victor Baldin ;– Der Mann mit dem Koffer . Masterpiece Historically, a "masterpiece" was a work of a very high standard produced to obtain membership of a guild or academy in various areas of

3276-776: The Pillar (including Adoration of the Name of God ), a cycle of frescoes for the monastic church of the Charterhouse of Aula Dei , and the frescoes of the Sobradiel Palace. He studied with the Aragonese artist Francisco Bayeu y Subías and his painting began to show signs of the delicate tonalities for which he became famous. He befriended Francisco Bayeu and married his sister Josefa (he nicknamed her "Pepa") on 25 July 1773. Their first child, Antonio Juan Ramon Carlos,

3360-495: The Spanish Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy and many other nobles. These portraits are notable for their disinclination to flatter; his Charles IV of Spain and His Family is an especially brutal assessment of a royal family. Modern interpreters view the portrait as satirical; it is thought to reveal the corruption behind the rule of Charles IV. Under his reign his wife Louisa was thought to have had

3444-493: The Spanish masters Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí who drew influence from Los caprichos and the Black Paintings of Goya. In the 21st century, American postmodern painters such as Michael Zansky and Bradley Rubenstein draw inspiration from "The Dream of Reason Produces Monsters" (1796–98) and Goya's Black Paintings . Zanksy's "Giants and Dwarf Series" (1990–2002) of large-scale paintings and wood carvings use imagery from Goya. Goya's influence has extended beyond

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3528-592: The USSR, Nikolai Gubenko . Gubenko had been one of those involved in the 1991 transfer of the art to the Hermitage to hide it. The State Duma , which included Gubenko as a member, passed a non-binding resolution on 12 March 2003 asking President Vladimir Putin to prevent the Ministry of Culture from returning the Baldin Collection. Russian Minister of Culture, Mikhail Shvydkoy , opposed these moves to keep

3612-542: The artist's sharp satirical wit, as in Capricho number 52, What a Tailor Can Do! 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)

3696-493: The chief ideologist of the Communist Party Yegor Ligachev in 1987, and many other Soviet political and cultural officials including Mikhail Suslov , Mikhail Gorbachev , and Raisa Gorbachev  – all to no avail. In 1989, during the period of increased transparency in the Soviet Union known as perestroika , Baldin took another unprecedented step. He traveled to Bremen, West Germany , and met with

3780-578: The collection could be handled more securely, but none were available, and his request was denied. As a result, it is generally agreed that Baldin's efforts rescued priceless masterpieces from outright destruction. In addition, because of his specialized art knowledge, what would become known as the "Baldin Collection" became the most important part of the Kunsthalle collection remaining from Schloss Karnzow. In contrast to Baldin's efforts, works looted by Baldin's comrades from Karnzow have been found as far afield as Azerbaijan and in varying states of decay. In

3864-639: The collection in Russia; he regarded it as illegal loot based on a 1998 law that protected only those artworks from World War II taken by official Soviet trophy brigades and not private citizens. In 2003 he confirmed an order by the Russian General Prosecutor confirming a resolution of the Hanse Supreme court, which had decided the entire 364 remaining items were the official property of the Bremen Kunsthalle. Shvydkoy and

3948-540: The collection was lost to local looters and the weather. Baldin's actions and motives are still debated today. He did indeed cut the drawings from their mounts, put them into a suitcase, carried them to the Soviet Union, and hid them in his apartment. However, while at the castle, Baldin also wrote down descriptions of every work he saw, copied the German signatures and labels, and later carefully documented their provenance . He also begged for an official military transport so

4032-488: The director of the Kunsthalle, Dr Siegfried Salzmann. The director was shocked to learn that important parts of the long lost collection had survived. With hands shaking, he read the list of the missing masterpieces that Baldin had prepared years before. Baldin had put pencil marks next to those works he had personally rescued. He has since been called the "hero of the story." In 1991, Baldin wrote to Russian President Boris Yeltsin and finally received his first reply, in which

4116-572: The effects of the famine that hit Madrid in 1811–12, before the city was liberated from the French. The final 17 reflect the bitter disappointment of liberals when the restored Bourbon monarchy, encouraged by the Catholic hierarchy, rejected the Spanish Constitution of 1812 and opposed both state and religious reform. Since their first publication, Goya's scenes of atrocities, starvation, degradation and humiliation have been described as

4200-469: The existence of the secret collection to the Kunsthalle. In the 1990s the government of Boris Yeltsin finally agreed to return the works, but subsequent Russian governments have blocked such plans. Today the Collection has been called "of singular importance to the entire issue of trophy art" by the Russians and a " cause célèbre of German-Russian Restitution Politics" by those who support its return. At

4284-440: The face of death and destruction. They were not published until 1863, 35 years after his death. It is likely that only then was it considered politically safe to distribute a sequence of artworks criticising both the French and restored Bourbons. The first 47 plates in the series focus on incidents from the war and show the consequences of the conflict on individual soldiers and civilians. The middle series (plates 48 to 64) record

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4368-456: The garnishings & parts thereof without the help of many & several hands...". The same goldsmithing organization still requires the production of a masterpiece but it is no longer produced under supervision. In Nuremberg , Germany, between 1531 and 1572, apprentices who wished to become master goldsmith were required to produce columbine cups , dies for a steel seal, and gold rings set with precious stones before they could be admitted to

4452-457: The general term for such works is now reception piece . The Royal Academy in London uses the term " diploma work " and it has acquired a fine collection of diploma works received as a condition of membership. In modern use, a masterpiece is a creation in any area of the arts that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to

4536-410: The goldsmiths' guild. If they failed to be admitted, then they could continue to work for other goldsmiths but not as a master themselves. In some guilds, apprentices were not allowed to marry until they had obtained full membership. In its original meaning, the term was generally restricted to tangible objects, but in some cases, where guilds covered the creators of intangible products, the same system

4620-562: The guild. Great care was therefore taken to produce a fine piece in whatever the craft was, whether confectionery, painting, goldsmithing , knifemaking , leatherworking, or many other trades. In London, in the 17th century, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths , for instance, required an apprentice to produce a masterpiece under their supervision at a "workhouse" in Goldsmiths' Hall . The workhouse had been set up as part of

4704-506: The images. The French army invaded Spain in 1808, leading to the Peninsular War of 1808–1814. The extent of Goya's involvement with the court of the "intruder king", Joseph I , the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte , is not known; he painted works for French patrons and sympathisers, but kept neutral during the fighting. After the restoration of the Spanish King Ferdinand VII in 1814, Goya denied any involvement with

4788-410: The insight to produce works that were more personal and informal. However, he found the format limiting, as it did not allow him to capture complex color shifts or texture, and was unsuited to the impasto and glazing techniques he was by then applying to his painted works. The tapestries seem as comments on human types, fashion and fads. Other works from the period include a canvas for the altar of

4872-477: The king himself. Although Goya did not make his intention known when creating The Disasters of War , art historians view them as a visual protest against the violence of the 1808 Dos de Mayo Uprising , the subsequent Peninsular War and the move against liberalism in the aftermath of the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1814. The scenes are singularly disturbing, sometimes macabre in their depiction of battlefield horror, and represent an outraged conscience in

4956-433: The late 1990s, eight disputed drawings, including the world-famous Frauenbad ("Women's Bathhouse") by Albrecht Dürer, were seized by United States Customs in an incident of black market trading. Today over 1,500 items from the Kunsthalle collection that were stored at Karnzow remain missing. After their return home, some of the officers who had participated in the looting at Karnzow donated their pieces to museums around

5040-488: 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". 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

5124-589: The murals, coupled with the inevitable damage caused by the delicate operation of mounting the crumbling plaster on canvas, meant that most of the murals suffered extensive damage and loss of paint. Today, they are on permanent display at the Museo del Prado , Madrid. Leocadia Weiss (née Zorrilla, 1790–1856), the artist's maid, younger by 35 years, and a distant relative, lived with and cared for Goya after Bayeu's death. She stayed with him in his Quinta del Sordo villa until 1824 with her daughter Rosario . Leocadia

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5208-458: The original version of Emanuel Leutze 's famous painting Washington Crossing the Delaware , which because of its size could not be moved. After this damage, the Kunsthalle collections were moved to more secure storage in various bank vaults underneath Bremen. In 1943, as bombing intensified, Bremen's mayor decreed that the museum's collections be moved to safety outside the city. The collection

5292-492: The outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Bremen Art Museum (German: Kunsthalle Bremen ) was closed and its priceless paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture were stored in the basement. Bremen , an important manufacturing center, became an early target for Allied strategic bombing . On the night of 5 September 1942, a fire bomb destroyed the central staircase and six gallery rooms of the museum. It also burned

5376-421: The paintings to be exhibited, did not write of them, and likely never spoke of them. Around 1874, 50 years after his death, they were taken down and transferred to a canvas support by owner Baron Frédéric Émile d'Erlanger . Many of the works were significantly altered during the restoration, and in the words of Arthur Lubow what remain are "at best a crude facsimile of what Goya painted." The effects of time on

5460-412: The past. Having failed to earn a scholarship, Goya relocated at his own expense to Rome in the old tradition of European artists stretching back at least to Albrecht Dürer . He was an unknown at the time and so the records are scant and uncertain. Early biographers have him travelling to Rome with a gang of bullfighters, where he worked as a street acrobat , or for a Russian diplomat, or fell in love with

5544-571: The plaster walls of his house the Quinta del Sordo ( House of the Deaf Man ) where, disillusioned by political and social developments in Spain, he lived in near isolation. Goya eventually abandoned Spain in 1824 to retire to the French city of Bordeaux , accompanied by his much younger maid and companion, Leocadia Weiss , who may have been his lover. There he completed his La Tauromaquia series and

5628-581: The president agreed it would be politically correct to return the works to Germany. However, that same year nationalist elements in the Russian government hurriedly transferred the collection to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg in a cover-up attempt. As of 2012 it is still unclear if one of the most famous works in the collection, Cypresses in Starry Night (1889) by Van Gogh,

5712-738: The real power, and thus Goya placed her at the center of the group portrait. From the back left of the painting one can see the artist himself looking out at the viewer, and the painting behind the family depicts Lot and his daughters, thus once again echoing the underlying message of corruption and decay. Goya earned commissions from the highest ranks of the Spanish nobility , including Pedro Téllez-Girón, 9th Duke of Osuna and his wife María Josefa Pimentel, 12th Countess-Duchess of Benavente , José Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba and his wife María del Pilar de Silva , and María Ana de Pontejos y Sandoval, Marchioness of Pontejos . In 1801 he painted Godoy in

5796-402: The return of the Baldin collection to Germany. As of 2010, it appeared that the collection would not be returning to Germany any time soon. According to a 2005 interview with Baldin's widow Julia Siwakowa, it was always his wish that the looted art be returned to the Kunsthalle. Baldin's last will stated: "The collection belongs to humankind, not only Germany, and as the collection was located at

5880-529: The series was created to reflect his own self-doubt, anxiety and fear that he was losing his mind. Goya wrote that the works served "to occupy my imagination, tormented as it is by contemplation of my sufferings." The series, he said, consisted of pictures which "normally find no place in commissioned works". 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

5964-530: The stone walls of El Escorial and the Palacio Real del Pardo , the residences of the Spanish monarchs. While designing tapestries was neither prestigious nor well paid, his cartoons are mostly popular in a rococo style, and Goya used them to bring himself to wider attention. The cartoons were not his only royal commissions and were accompanied by a series of engravings, mostly copies after old masters such as Marcantonio Raimondi and Velázquez . Goya had

6048-480: The treasures lying about, he found works by Corot , Delacroix , Degas , Dürer , Van Dyke , Van Gogh , Goya , Manet , Raphael , Rembrandt , Rodin , Rubens , Toulouse-Lautrec , and Titian . Baldin became determined to save what he could. He later said "I started in on the beautiful things, then I saw it was all beautiful." He took drawings away from soldiers by force, by deception and in exchange for personal items. In one case, it took him three days to obtain

6132-476: The visual arts and crafts. The form masterstik is recorded in English or Scots in a set of Aberdeen guild regulations dated to 1579, whereas masterpiece is first found in 1605, already outside a guild context, in a Ben Jonson play. Masterprize was another early variant in English. In English, the term rapidly became used in a variety of contexts for an exceptionally good piece of creative work, and

6216-399: Was "in early use, often applied to man as the 'masterpiece' of God or Nature". Originally, the term masterpiece referred to a piece of work produced by an apprentice or journeyman aspiring to become a master craftsman in the old European guild system. His fitness to qualify for guild membership was judged partly by the masterpiece, and if he was successful, the piece was retained by

6300-604: Was born on 29 August 1774. Of their seven children only one, a son named Javier, survived into adulthood. Francisco Bayeu (Josefa Bayeu's brother), 1765 membership of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, and directorship of the tapestry works from 1777 helped Goya earn a commission for a series of tapestry cartoons for the Royal Tapestry Factory. Over five years he designed some 42 patterns, many of which were used to decorate and insulate

6384-529: Was divided up between four castles in Germany. A set of 50 paintings, 1715 drawings and 3000 prints were moved to Schloss Karnzow, the hunting lodge of Count von Königsmarck, near the small town of Kyritz north of Berlin in the Province of Brandenburg . After Germany's defeat, Brandenburg and specifically the area around Karnzow Castle was occupied by the Red Army . On 29 May 1945 soldiers and officers of

6468-491: Was no theoretician." At school he formed a close and lifelong friendship with fellow pupil Martín Zapater ; the 131 letters Goya wrote to him from 1775 until Zapater's death in 1803 give valuable insight into Goya's early years at the court in Madrid. At age 14 Goya studied under the painter José Luzán , where he copied stamps for 4 years until he decided to work on his own, as he wrote later on "paint from my invention". He moved to Madrid to study with Anton Raphael Mengs ,

6552-473: Was probably similar in features to Goya's first wife Josefa Bayeu, to the point that one of his well-known portraits bears the cautious title of Josefa Bayeu (or Leocadia Weiss) . Not much is known about her beyond her fiery temperament. She was likely related to the Goicoechea family, a wealthy dynasty into which the artist's son, Javier, had married. It is known that Leocadia had an unhappy marriage with

6636-570: Was revealed to the world in 1992. It remains there today. Since then the Baldin Collection has been regarded as looted art and is the subject of fierce debate among experts, between Germany and Russia , and among politicians inside Russia itself. While Victor Baldin did steal the works, he is also credited with having saved them from destruction. For decades he appealed to senior officials, including Soviet leaders Leonid Brezhnev and Mikhail Gorbachev , to get them returned to Germany. In 1989 Baldin even traveled to Bremen , West Germany , to reveal

6720-519: Was seized by Ferdinand VII after his fall from power and exile, and in 1813 the Inquisition confiscated both works as 'obscene', returning them in 1836 to the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. In 1798 he painted luminous and airy scenes for the pendentives and cupola of the Real Ermita (Chapel) of San Antonio de la Florida in Madrid. His depiction of a miracle of Saint Anthony of Padua

6804-490: Was the largest work he had produced to date, and an obvious foreboding of his later " Disasters of War " series. Goya was beset by illness, and his condition was used against him by his rivals, who looked jealously upon any artist seen to be rising in stature. Some of the larger cartoons, such as The Wedding , were more than 8 by 10 feet, and had proved a drain on his physical strength. Ever resourceful, Goya turned this misfortune around, claiming that his illness had allowed him

6888-455: Was the son of a notary and of Basque origin, his ancestors being from Zerain , earning his living as a gilder , specialising in religious and decorative craftwork. He oversaw the gilding and most of the ornamentation during the rebuilding of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar ( Santa Maria del Pilar ), the principal cathedral of Zaragoza. Francisco was their fourth child, following his sister Rita (b. 1737), brother Tomás (b. 1739) (who

6972-500: Was to follow in his father's trade) and second sister Jacinta (b. 1743). There were two younger sons, Mariano (b. 1750) and Camilo (b. 1753). His mother's family had pretensions of nobility and the house, a modest brick cottage, was owned by her family and, perhaps fancifully, bore their crest . About 1749 José and Gracia bought a home in Zaragoza and were able to return to live in the city. Although there are no surviving records, it

7056-444: Was used. The best-known example today is Richard Wagner 's opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868), where much of the plot is concerned with the hero's composition and performance of a "masterpiece" song, to allow him to become a meistersinger in the (non-commercial) Nuremberg guild. This follows the surviving rulebook of the guild. The practice of producing a masterpiece has continued in some modern academies of art, where

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