''Charles IV of Spain and His Family'' is an oil-on-canvas group portrait painting by the Spanish artist

Francisco Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish Romanticism, romantic painter and Printmaking, printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His p ...

. He began work on the painting in 1800, shortly after he became First Chamber Painter to the royal family, and completed it in the summer of 1801. The portrait features life-sized depictions of

Charles IV of Spain , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles III of Spain , mother = Maria Amalia of Saxony , birth_date =11 November 1748 , birth_place =Palace of Portici, Portici, Naples , death_date = , death_place ...

and his family, ostentatiously dressed in fine costume and jewelry. Foremost in the painting are Charles IV and his wife,

Maria Luisa of Parma Maria Luisa of Parma (Luisa Maria Teresa Anna; 9 December 1751 – 2 January 1819) was, by marriage to King Charles IV of Spain, Queen of Spain from 1788 to 1808 leading up to the Peninsular War. Her relationship with Manuel Godoy and influence ...

, who are surrounded by their children and relatives. The family are dressed in the height of contemporary fashionable clothing and lavishly adorned with jewelry and the sashes of the

order of Charles III The Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III, originally Royal and Much Distinguished Order of Charles III ( es, Real y Distinguida Orden Española de Carlos III, originally es, Real y Muy Distinguida Orden de Carlos III) was establ ...

. The painting was modeled after

Louis-Michel van Loo Louis-Michel van Loo (2 March 1707, Toulon – 20 March 1771, Paris) was a French Painting, painter. Biography He studied under his father, the painter Jean-Baptiste van Loo, at Turin and Rome, and he won a prize at the ''Académie Royale de ...

's 1743 '' Portrait of Felipe V and his Family'' and Velázquez's ''

Las Meninas ''Las Meninas'' (; ) is a 1656 painting in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age. It has become one of the most widely analyzed works in Western painting, due to the way its complex an ...

'', setting the royal subjects in a similarly naturalistic settingGassier (1995), 69–73 as they pose for the artist who is visible at his easel at the left of the canvas.

Description

The group portrait was completed the year after Goya became first court painter, the highest position available to a Spanish artist, and one previously occupied by

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptized June 6, 1599August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of th ...

. Goya did not say why he chose to model the work after the older master, though the notion of a tradition of Spanish painting did not exist at the time. Perhaps Goya was motivated by the troubled times; after eleven years Spain was still dealing with the implications and aftermath of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

, which ultimately led to

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

's invasion of Spain and his installation of his brother,

Joseph Bonaparte it, Giuseppe-Napoleone Buonaparte es, José Napoleón Bonaparte , house = Bonaparte , father = Carlo Buonaparte , mother = Letizia Ramolino , birth_date = 7 January 1768 , birth_place = Corte, Corsica, Republic ...

, on the Spanish throne in 1808.Tomlinson, p. 150 The royal family is apparently paying a visit to the artist's studio: Goya can be seen to the left looking outwards towards the viewer. Goya seems to focus his attention on three figures: the

Prince of Asturias Prince or Princess of Asturias ( es, link=no, Príncipe/Princesa de Asturias; ast, Príncipe d'Asturies) is the main substantive title used by the heir apparent or heir presumptive to the throne of Spain. According to the Spanish Constitution ...

, i.e. the future

Fernando VII Ferdinand VII ( es, Fernando VII; 14 October 1784 – 29 September 1833) was a Monarchy of Spain, King of Spain during the early 19th century. He reigned briefly in 1808 and then again from 1813 to his death in 1833. He was known to his supporter ...

, who is dressed in blue, his mother the Queen

, standing in the center, and the King Charles IV. Although a formal portrait, there are indications of intimacy between the family members; Queen Maria Luisa holds the hand of the youngest child. In contrast to Velázquez's ''Las Meninas'', the painting does not show any of the royal family's servants or attendants. More importantly, Goya omits narrative structure: it is simply a painting of people posing for a painting. As in ''Las Meninas'', the artist is shown working on a canvas, of which only the rear is visible; however, the atmospheric and warm perspective of the palace interior of Velázquez's work is replaced here by a sense of, in the words of Gassier, "imminent suffocation" as the royal family are presented on a "stage facing the public, while in the shadow of the wings the painter, with a grim smile, points and says: 'Look at them and judge for yourself!Gassier (1989), 66

Sitters

Goya - Charles IV of Spain and His Family (with numbers)

The barely visible man in the background shadows at the left is Goya himself (2). Others are, left to right: * (1) Carlos Maria Isidro (1788–1855) – King's 2nd son * (3) the future

(1784–1833) – King's 1st son * (4) Maria Josefa (1744–1801) – King's sister * (5) Maria Antonia of Naples – by the time the work was created, she was yet to marry Fernando VII (but was expected to do so in the near future; that may explain the deliberate concealment of her face) * (6) María Isabel (1789–1848) – King's daughter * (7)

(1751–1819) – King's wife * (8) Francisco de Paula (1794–1865) – King's youngest son * (9) Charles IV (1748–1819) – King * (10) Don Antonio Pascual (1755–1817) – King's brother * (11)

Carlota Joaquina Doña Carlota Joaquina Teresa Cayetana of Spain (25 April 1775 – 7 January 1830) was Queen of Portugal and Brazil as the wife of King Dom John VI. She was the daughter of King Don Charles IV of Spain and Maria Luisa of Parma. ...

(1775–1830, only part of head visible) – King's eldest daughter * (12) Don Luis de Parma (1773–1803) – King's son-in-law * (13) their baby Carlos Luis (1799–1883), the future Duke of Parma * (14) his wife Maria Luisa (1782–1824) – King's daughter, holding

Interpretation

The French writer Theophile Gautier called it a 'picture of the corner grocer who has just won the lottery' and it has sometimes been suggested that Goya was in some way satirising his subjects. The idea has been dismissed by the art critic Robert Hughes: "This is nonsense. You didn't manage to keep your job as an official court portraitist if you were satirising the people you were painting. No, this is not a send up. If anything it is an act of flattery. For instance on the left, in the blue suit, is one of the most odious little toads in the entire history of Spanish politics, the future King Ferdinand VII, whom Goya actually manages to make quite regal. God knows how he did it, but he has. This is very much an act of respect, almost verging on an act of flattery." Prominent in Goya's portrait are the domestic intimacy of the royal family and the central role of the queen as matriarch. She exudes fecundity as she is flanked by her family. Far from a cruel satire, Goya's depiction of the royal family is actually idealized and disregards what the forty-eight-year-old Queen Maria Luisa actually looked like. A Russian ambassador described her eleven years prior to this painting: "Repeated births, illnesses, and perhaps a touch of hereditary illness had taken their toll--the yellow pallor of her skin and the loss of her teeth dealt a final blow to her beauty." Granted, the queen's inane smile (formed by crude dentures), her sagging, pallid skin contrasted with sumptuous gown and jewels, and her overall appearance of doddering senescence, provide satirical fodder. But this subjective valuation is not only contrary to Goya's public presentation of his skills as an artist but to the artist's ''own'' apparent estimation of his consistent royal patron. John J. Ciofalo writes that, "while Velázquez sought to bridge the gap between art and the reality of the natural world, Goya sought to bridge the gap between art and the reality of his own mind," a byproduct of the Romantic era. One only has to look at the paintings in ''Las Meninas'' that have been identified as real. The paintings in Goya's ''The Family of Carlos IV'' have never been identified. One could assume they are indeed products of Goya's mind, of his imagination.

Notes

Sources

* Buchholz, Elke Linda. ''Francisco de Goya''. Cologne: Könemann, 1999. * Davies, Denny, Hofrichter, Jacobs, Roberts, Simon. ''Janson's History of Art''. Prentice Hall, London, 2011. 824–825. * Gassier, Pierre. ''Goya''. Rizzoli International Publications, 1989. * Gassier, Pierre. ''Goya: Biographical and Critical Study''. New York: Skira, 1995. 69–73 * Tomlinson, Janis. ''From El Greco to Goya: Painting in Spain from 1561-1828''. Laurence King, 2012.

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