User:Petropoxy (Lithoderm Proxy)/Fantastic Vision

Fantastic Vision (or Asmodea) are names given to a painting completed between 1820–1823 by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya. It is one of the 14 black Paintings that formed a part of the decoration of the walls of the house - called the House of the Deaf Man (Quinta del Sordo) - that Goya acquired in 1819. The work occupied a place close to the Procession of the Holy Office on a wall of the upper room, situated to the right of the door, opposite the wall where The Fates hung. The work, with the rest of the black Paintings, was transferred to canvas in 1873 for Salvador Martínez Cubells for Frédéric Émile's order d'Erlanger, a Belgian banker, who had intention of selling them in the Universal Exhibition of Paris of 1878. However the paintings did not attract buyers, and they were donated to the Prado in 1876, where they are displayed today.

In the picture two enigmatic flying figures, one of which is traditionally identified as the demon Asmodeus from the Book of Tobit, feature prominently to the left of the composition. The figure in dark clothes points to a large plateau to the right of the composition, on top of which a large circular building (interpreted as a temple or a bullring), several other buildings, and some towers are situated. In the lower half of the composition a warlike scene develops in front of a dark landscape. In the bottom right corner, two soldiers in French uniform aim at a group of riders in the bottom center.

Analysis[edit]

This is one of Goya's most enigmatic pictures. Antonio Brugada's 1828 inventory of Goya's works, it titled Asmodea, by what from this early date it has sought to interpret from the figure of Aschmedai or Asmodeo. It is this demon that comes from Aesma Daeva, genius of the ire in the Persian culture. He turns out to be developed in the Hebrew Literature, in Tobías's Book of the Former Testament and the Talmud. As the legend counts, Asmodeo is prendado of Sara, daughter of Raquel, whom his(her,your) marriage(couple) prevents consumar, killing every night of weddings one of his(her,your) seven husbands. When Sara is promised to the young man Tobías, the new claimant receives the help of the archangel Rafael, who frees him of Asmodeo burning the entrails of a fish. Asmodeo symbolizes with it the destruction caused by the lust.

There exists a preparatory sketch of this picture, in limited(small) size (20 x 48, cm), in that the feminine figure, of red mantle, is dragged clearer by the air by the one that indicates to the rock. Thereby it is probable that the demon Asmodeo was the dark figure, and that the title(degree) Asmodea is a consequence of an erroneous identification of the figures. In any case, the Spanish critique has affected in taking these two prominent figures suspended in the air as witches simply.

Asmodeo is the mythical figure that there would inspire The devil Cojuelo (1641), of Luis Vélez de Guevara, a satirical work in which the Cojuelo takes for the air don Cleofás and from there they are capable of getting in the intimacy of the persons and of contemplating his(her,your) vices. According to this key, Goya makes appear Asmodeo's feminine version or the Cojuelo, with red mantle, color associated with the devil, and it(he,she) would transport in his(her,your) flight don Cleofás. Nevertheless this interpretation does not explain the scene of war that we see in land.

Enrique Lafuente Ferrari tries to bring together both topics and indicates that Asmodeo, symbol of the ire, represents the imminent destruction associated with the War of the Spanish Independence or to the Invasion of the Duke of Angulema, the restoration of Fernando VII and the civil discords arisen after Rafael Riego's Pronouncement. The genius of the destruction indicates, on the raised rock, a typical Spanish pueblecito with church and bullring, over that the catastrophe hovers.

Valeriano Bozal indicates that in a version of the same Rembrandt's topic, which appears in the picture The angel moving away from Tobías's family, the iconographic treatment is very different, which it(he,she) makes doubt of the authentic topic of the work. Really there is no indication on whom they are both figures, though, of being one Asmodeo, it(he) would be the one that indicates towards the great rock. He might be even Asmodeo taking the own(proper) Sara to him(you,them), since the figure of the flesh-colored(incarnate) mantle is devoid of the characterization of an angel.

A different possibility appears from the title(degree) that the Prado Museum gives to the work: fantastic Vision. According to her(it) the alone picture proves to be two witches in flight, since it happens in wizards' Flight (1798). [3] The interpretation would be enigmatic as(like) in many of the Caprices or the Silly things of the author. A scene of realistic war conjugates with the oneiric or fantastic one, with a distant landscape that remembers(reminds) the picture Attack to a strength(fortress) on a rock.

Other varied interpretations have been proposed, between(among) that it is necessary to mention that of Diego Angulo Iñiguez, who postulates a relation with Ícaro's myth. John Moffit has related the work to Prometeo's myth, and describes " Here we see the goddess Minerva transporting Prometeo towards a great crag, the mount Caúsaco, while a couple of soldiers modern and dressed to the French they aim at her with his(her,your) guns ".

As for the technology(skill), the top part of the picture is painted by a very light(slight) application of painting in the zone of more doughy(mellower) and by highlights in his(her,your) low part. The palette, since it(he,she) is habitual in the black Paintings, is restricted to blacks, lands, ocres and red, with some shades of bluish grey to underline the effect of distance with the air perspective in the rocky mass of the bottom(fund) of the desolate landscape.

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

Buchholz, Elke Linda. Francisco de Goya. Cologne: Könemann, 1999. ISBN 3-8290-2930-6
Connell, Evan S. Francisco Goya: A Life. New York: Counterpoint, 2004. ISBN 1-5824-3307-0
Hagen, Rose-Marie & Hagen, Rainer. Francisco Goya, 1746–1828. Taschen, 2003. ISBN 3-8228-1823-2
Hughes, Robert. Goya. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. ISBN 0-3945-8028-1
Licht, Fred. Goya: The Origins of the Modern temper in Art. Universe Books, 1979. ISBN 0-87663-294-0
Francisco Goya. Kent: Grange Books, 2004. ISBN 1-8401-3662-6