Francisco Goya: The Tapestry Cartoons and Early Career at the Court of Madrid - Hardcover

In 1775, Francisco Goya came from Saragossa to the court of Madrid, where he began his career as an unsalaried painter of cartoons for the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Barbara. For the next seventeen years, these works would provide the mainstay of his career in Madrid, paralleling the artist's professional ascent to the ranks of academician, Adjunct Director of Painting at the Royal Academy, painter to the king, and court painter. Janis Tomlinson offers a detailed examination of these paintings, formerly regarded as realistic depictions of everyday life. Their relevance to emblematic and literary traditions is examined, and the interpretation of the single image is considered within the context provided by Goya, here revealed to be thematic as well as decorative. The tapestry cartoons are integrated within the development of Goya's art to 1794 and are shown to be intrinsic to interpretation of the artist's subsequent works of caprice and invention.