Francisco Goya

Valerian von Loga's careful biography neglects to exhibit its subject in a proper frame. It is impossible to appreciate Goya, or to judge his actions, if we are ignorant of the age in which he lived._ English readers know little of Spain during the eighteenth century. The names of Philip II. Or Philip IV. Come pat to our lips when we talk about Velazquez and his forerunners, and it is comparatively easy to form some opinion upon the Spanish decadence of the seventeenth century. But the reigns of Philip V Ferdinand VI Charles III Charles IV., and Ferdinand VII., carry few associations. The social history of their Courts is an undiscovered continent. Yet, if we wish to understand Goya's position, we must learn something of the existence around him. We must at least attempt to breathe the atmosphere of Madrid during those days of transition, and to follow the tangled political situation which resulted in the Peninsula War. How can Hogarth's art be enjoyed if we refuse to glance at the London of the early Georgians French art of the eighteenth century cannot be disassociated from the history of Louis XV. Art, even more than literature, is the mirror of the life from which it springs.