The name appearing on his baptismal documents is Francisco Joseph Goya, but in 1783 he added the word “de” to his surname, and that is how he signed his self-portrait in the Caprichos when they were published in 1799: “Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Pintor.” At 53, he was at the height of his career and social standing, and in October he was appointed First Court Painter by the monarchs. From a young age Goya had wanted to find the documents certifying his nobility in the Zaragoza archives, but he never did. Success as an artist was slow in coming, despite the fact that he had begun studying painting at the age of 13. This was in José Luzán’s studio, although in 1762 he was already attempting to obtain a grant that the Royal Academy of San Fernando awarded to young men from the provinces so they could study in Madrid. The following year he attempted to obtain the firstclass Painting Prize, but neither of these efforts was successful. A few years later, in 1769 — probably after living between Zaragoza and Madrid, where he may have studied at Bayeu’s studio — he decided to pay his own way to Italy. And in 1771, he was equally unsuccessful in his attempts to obtain the prize of the Academy of Parma. From Italy, he returned to Zaragoza, where he must have had some kind of support, because that year he painted a fresco in the choir at the Basilica of El Pilar. In 1773, he married Francisco Bayeu’s sister, and this was decisive in his move to Madrid in 1775, where his brother-in-law had invited him to collaborate on a project to paint cartoons for tapestries to be hung in the royal palaces. This marked the beginning of his slow rise in courtly circles over the following years.

In 1780, at the age of 32, Goya was elected Academician of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, for which he presented Christ on the Cross (Museo del Prado, Madrid). At the same time, the chapter of the Basilica of El Pilar commissioned him to paint a fresco on the dome of the Regina Martyrum. The Count of Floridablanca’s support was also decisive for his career in the early 1780s. After painting his portrait in 1783, Goya was commissioned to make one of the paintings for the church of San Francisco el Grande. It seems very likely that Floridablanca also recommended his services to the Infante Don Luis and his family in 1783 and 1784, as well as to Banco de San Carlos for the portraits of its directors. In 1785, Goya was assistant director of painting at the Academy of San Fernando, and in 1786 he was finally appointed the King’s Painter. The following year, he obtained the patronage of the Duke and Duchess of Osuna and soon thereafter, that of the Count and Countess of Altamira. Goya was 43 years old when Charles IV came to the throne in 1789, and he was soon appointed court painter by the new monarch. By then, only one of his six children was still alive. Goya was still painting tapestry cartoons for the king at that time, but over the following ten years, his life and his approach to art were to change radically. This transformation may have begun with the grave illness that left him deaf in 1793. That is when be began to make independent works, such as the “diversiones nacionales” (“National Pastimes”) that he presented at the Academy in 1794, or the series of drawings and subsequent prints known as Los Caprichos. He also continued to respond to commissions for religious works, but the results were filled with such unprecedented innovations that they are considered even more revolutionary than his work in other genres. His canvases for La Santa Cueva in Cádiz (1796) and The Arrest of Christ, which Cardinal Lorenzana commissioned for the sacristy at Toledo Cathedral (1798), are fine examples. Goya’s fame is also due to his portraits of the Spanish elite from the monarchs to the leading aristocrats, including the Duke and Duchess of Alba, as well as outstanding cultural, military and political figures from that period, such as Jovellanos, Urrutia, Moratín and Godoy. This work culminated in 1800 with his portrait of the Countess of Chinchón and The Family of Charles IV (Museo del Prado, Madrid), as well as others that paved the way to modernity, such as his version of Venus as a nude model in the Majas (Museo del Prado, Madrid).

With the arrival of the new century, Goya and all his compatriots were affected by the war against Napoleon. His testimony is some of the most impressive of all — a deeply critical view marked by his reflections on violence in such works as Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War) or, in 1814, his Second and Third of May, 1808 (Museo del Prado, Madrid). His portraits offer a view of the new society, including its aristocratic patrons, such as the Marchioness of Santa Cruz, the Marchioness of Villafranca Painting her Husband and, from 1816, the Tenth Duke of Osuna (Musée Bonnat, Bayonne), as well as the new bourgeoisie, with likenesses of Teresa Sureda (National Gallery, Washington), his own son and daughterin- law, Javier Goya and Gumersinda Goicoechea (Noailles collection, France), and the actress Antonia Zárate. Before and after the war, Goya continued with his series of drawings and prints, including Tauromaquia and his Disparates, which dates from the years when the Constitution of 1812 was abolished. These culminate in the Black Paintings on the walls of his own house.

Goya’s portrait of Ferdinand VII is one of those that most clearly convey its model’s character, and this king’s repression was almost certainly the reason why the artist left for France in 1824, following the arrival of the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis in Madrid that May. After a stay in Paris in July and August, where he visited that year’s Salon, he settled definitively in Bordeaux. His work from the final years of his life contained many innovations, including the use of lithography for a new series of four prints called Bulls of Bordeaux, and the miniatures he painted on ivory, with subjects that also appear in his drawings from those years. There, he offers a broad view of contemporary society, mixed with his memories and experiences, all marked by his permanent desire to fully explore human nature.

Manuela Mena

Born in Elvetea, a locality in the Baztán Valley, in 1719. Since his family was not rich and he was not entitled to inherit under the local laws, he went to seek his fortune at court. There was a coterie of Navarrese courtiers and financiers in Madrid, among them his first cousin José Ignacio Goyeneche, who helped the welleducated young man to obtain his first job at the finance secretariat in 1738. In 1739 he joined the Congregation of Saint Fermin of the Navarrese, a pious institution that agglutinated the Navarrese living in Madrid. His personal qualities combined with growing experience to enable him to rise in the administration. He also ascended in social rank when he was admitted in 1749 to the Order of Calatrava under the auspices of Juan Francisco de Goyeneche, Marquis of Ugena, the business partner of the merchant Ignacio Clemente y Ugarte. In 1749, he married the latter’s daughter, Javiera Ignacia Clemente Leoz.

As he rose in the finance secretariat, he gradually distanced himself from the Navarrese circle and the court intrigues centred on Isabella Farnese. He had excellent masters and patrons, especially the Marquis of La Ensenada, and so took part in the reforms and economic recovery initiated by Philip V after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. By the time of the death of Ferdinand VI, he was a prestigious figure in the finance secretariat. In 1760 he was appointed as assistant to the Marquis of La Ensenada in the supreme finance secretariat, and in 1763 he became the assistant of the Marquis of Esquilache, who was implementing Campomanes’s reform programme. In 1765, he went to Parma and returned to Madrid with Maria Luisa of Parma, married by proxy to the Prince of Asturias, and he also accompanied the Infanta María Luisa to the court of Vienna for her marriage to the future Archduke Leopold II. It was for this service that the empress of Austria, Maria Theresa of Habsburg, awarded him the title of Marquis of Villar de Ladrón.

In 1766, after the Esquilache riots, a new team was needed to satisfy the demands that had sparked off the revolts while continuing the reforms already undertaken. Charles III surrounded himself with unconditional supporters. Esquilache was replaced by Múzquiz in the finance secretariat, and by Muniaín in that of war. The Count of Aranda replaced Floridablanca in the chair of the Council of Castile, and Floridablanca became his fiscal advocate. The new team upheld continuity, resulting in what were called the realizaciones (accomplishments) of Charles III.

As finance secretary, Múzquiz introduced the lottery to increase state revenue, and stimulated agriculture, trade (franchises and exemptions) and industry. He supported Pablo de Olavide in the settlement of Sierra Morena, a plan he had devised with Campomanes. The settlement of these lands was one of the largest projects in the agrarian policy of the eighteenth century. La Carolina named him its honorary mayor in 1767, and has maintained the custom to this day with every finance minister. He supported the creation of the economic societies, and took part personally in the financing of projects for economic development, like the promotion of mulberry production on the lands he owned in Sueca (Valencia), where what are known as the ‘Múzquiz’ irrigation canal and mill are still to be seen. Also worthy of mention, owing to its significance, was the part he played in the expulsion of the Jesuits by the Pragmatic Sanction of 29 January 1767, and his involvement in the purchase of new premises for the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts.

On 4 July 1776, the United States of America declared independence from Britain. France very quickly supported the revolutionaries, whereas Spain was more hesitant owing to the possible consequences for its own colonies. Finally, Spain went to war with England in 1779, but without forming an alliance with the American rebels or recognising the new state, despite some collaboration with them. In 1778, the reforms continued with the publication of the Decree of Freedom of Trade with America, which greatly boosted the development of Cádiz and Barcelona. Barcelona tripled its volume of trade and saw the arrival of the new textile industry.

In 1779, he argued in favour of the creation of the future Banco Nacional de San Carlos. He, Floridablanca and Gálvez drew up the Provisional ruling of His Majesty for the founding and direction of a national bank of Spain and America, citing financial support for the state as the principal justification for such a step, together with the possibility of satisfying the demand for liquidity by creating paper currency to compensate for interruptions in the arrival of American bullion amidst naval confrontations with England.

In 1780, he was appointed war secretary and State Councillor. The attempt to recover Gibraltar failed, and the growing needs of the Army and Navy led the government to issue a new type of debt, the vales reales (royal debentures), to back the loan of nine million pesos de vellón advanced by a consortium of bankers. The need to regulate and redeem them, combined with the intrinsic attractions of the project, led to the creation of Banco Nacional de San Carlos by a Royal Decree of 15 May 1782. Once more, Múzquiz showed a personal interest by buying shares. The war ended in 1783 with the Peace of Versailles. Spain recovered Minorca, but definitively lost Gibraltar and Florida.

Exhausted and aging, Múzquiz relinquished his posts as finance and war secretary at the age of 64. His services were acknowledged with the Grand Cross of Charles III (1781) and the concession of the title of Count of Gausa in 1783. The deaths of friends and relatives that year undermined his health. He died at the royal palace of El Pardo on 21 January 1785. His friend and protégé Cabarrús read the Eulogy to His Excellency the Count of Gausa at the General Assembly of Madrid’s Royal Society of Friends of the Country. In it, he praised the count’s solid expertise, prudence, honourability, neutrality, efficiency, industry and popularity. In 1825, Canga Argüelles rated him as one of the most important finance ministers alongside Ensenada, Colbert, Necker and Pitt.

Paloma Gómez Pastor