Francisco de Goya

Today I had the chance to visit one of the finest exhibits of Renaissance art in Madrid's Museo del Prado. The most striking collection to me was that of Goya's "Black Paintings". The images are horrid, yet true to the time in his life.

The following is an excerpt from a website describing the "Black Paintings" and then following that is a link to the site which has more information and also a virtual tour of the paintings.

"Executed in oil directly on the plaster walls, these so-called "black paintings" represent the culmination of Goya's artistic efforts. They combine the freedom, or "Capricho", and eerie imagery of his etchings with the scale and decorative purpose of the tapestry cartoons he executed early in his career. After almost two hundred years, they retain their capacity to reduce the viewer to shocked silence."

-http://www.artchive.com/galleries/goya/notes.html