A Procession Of Flagellants
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''A Procession of Flagellants'' (''Procesión de disciplinantes'', or ''Procesión de flagelantes'') is an oil-on-panel painting produced by
Francisco de Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, a ...
between 1812 and 1819. In the foreground is a procession of Roman Catholic men dressed in white, wearing pointed hats and whipping their bared backs in
penitence Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of contrition for sins committed, as well as an alternative name for the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. The word ''penance'' derives ...
. Their backs are bleeding and they pull over-life-size statues of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, the
Ecce Homo ''Ecce homo'' (, , ; "behold the man") are the Latin words used by Pontius Pilate in the Vulgate translation of the Gospel of John, when he presents a scourged Jesus, bound and crowned with thorns, to a hostile crowd shortly before his crucif ...
and the
Crucifixion of Christ The crucifixion of Jesus was the death of Jesus by being nailed to a cross.The instrument of crucifixion is taken to be an upright wooden beam to which was added a transverse wooden beam, thus forming a "cruciform" or T-shaped structure. ...
. Other devotees, who are kneeling and wearing black hoods, line the route. On the right a man is impaled and all are carrying banners, crosses and lamps. The painting belongs to a series which also includes '' The Inquisition Tribunal'', ''
The Madhouse ''The Madhouse'' (Spanish: ''Casa de locos'') or ''Asylum'' (Spanish: ''Manicomio'') is an oil on panel painting by Francisco Goya. He produced it between 1812 and 1819 based on a scene he had witnessed at the then-renowned Zaragoza mental asylu ...
'' and '' The Bullfight''. This series illustrates aspects of Spanish life which liberals (of whom Goya was then one) wished to reform but whose reform was opposed by
Ferdinand VII of Spain Ferdinand VII (; 14 October 1784 – 29 September 1833) was 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. Before 1813 he was known as ''el Deseado'' (t ...
's absolutist policy. A common feature of the series is the presence of cruelty, here shown by the blood flowing out onto the white garment of the central figure, and two contrasting zones of light and dark – here, all the figures in the foreground are in the light, well-characterised and individualised, but the background is left as an anonymous crowd of the faithful, dimly lit under a cloudy blue sky. The two zones are divided by a dark wall, possibly symbolising the heavy weight of religion. The series played an important part in creating the legend of 'Black Spain'. It does not go beyond the usual point of view on the Spanish mindset of its era among most other Europeans, interested in Spain as an exotic and picturesque land, an interest first aroused by the French contact with Spain that led to the
Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...
. Paintings such as these, with a terrible and romantic aura, inspired several later prints.


See also

*
List of works by Francisco Goya Francisco Goya, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828) was a Spanish artist, now viewed as one of the leaders of the artistic movement Romanticism. He produced around 700 paintings, 280 prints, and several thousand drawings. Goya's ea ...


References

* BOZAL, Valeriano: ''Francisco Goya, vida y obra'', Madrid, Tf, 2005, 2 vols. (Aficiones, 5–6), vol. 2, pages 169–170. .


External links

*
''Procesión de disciplinantes'' on «Artehistoria.com».
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Procession of Flagellants, A 1819 paintings Paintings by Francisco Goya Paintings in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando Black legend