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

The eldest son of Ventura Osorio de Moscoso y Fernández de Córdoba, Count of Altamira, and Concepción de Guzmán Guevara y Fernández de Córdoba, the daughter of the Count and Countess of Oñate, he inherited all his parents’ titles, manors and entailed estates. He married twice. He was first married in 1774 to María Ignacia Álvarez de Toledo, the daughter of the Marquis and Marchioness of Villafranca, with whom he had six children, and again in 1806 to María Magdalena Fernández de Córdoba, the daughter of the Marquis and Marchioness of La Puebla de los Infantes, with whom he had no descent. He died in Madrid in 1816 at the age of 60. All authors have emphasised his short stature. Goya’s portrait of him as director of Banco de San Carlos shows him seated in a chair, but this does not succeed in disguising his height.

With a doctorate in civil and canonical law from the University of Granada, he had cultural leanings and would attend the discussions that took place at the home of the Count of Campomanes, where he met certain leading figures of the Enlightenment like Cabarrús, Jovellanos and Floridablanca. He decided to catalogue his rich family library, entrusting the task to his librarian Pablo Recio. He was also a member of the Academy of Fine Arts. He collaborated actively with Cabarrús on the creation of Banco de San Carlos, of which he became one of the biennial directors in 1783.

He was one of the richest and most powerful men of his time. Before the Peninsular War, he made a great effort to manage his landed property well. In the 1770s, he applied for royal permission to return the ‘principals’ on the leaseholds of the estates of Astorga and Baena, paying the creditors with royal debentures. The operation was carried out in 1801. However, the financial restructuring of his estate was hindered by two circumstances: the construction of his palace by Ventura Rodríguez in 1771, and above all the expenses occasioned by the wars. When he died, his estate was practically bankrupt.

Through his entailed estates, he held a number of titles and posts whose duties were often performed by delegates. These included the positions of adelantado mayor (governor) of the Kingdom of Granada and alguacil mayor (head bailiff) of the Court and House of Trade. He was moreover a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, a holder of the Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III, a gentleman of the King’s Chamber and the monarch’s chief equerry, and a member of the State Council.

He played an important role in the Peninsular War. He was the only grandee of Spain who refused to take part in the Assembly at Bayonne, and neither did he accept the designation of Joseph I as king of Spain. He did not participate directly in the events of 2 May 1808, but his household did. Under the orders of his major-domo, they managed to halt the French advance along Calle de Alcalá. The popular uprising led to the establishment of the Provincial Juntas, which were coordinated by the Supreme and Governmental Central Junta formed in Aranjuez in 1808. As a civic entity, Madrid was represented on the Central Junta by Floridablanca, whom Altamira succeeded upon his death. The goals were not only to restore Ferdinand VII to the throne, but also to lay solid and permanent foundations for good government in a spirit of reform. He was a convinced patriot and a faithful servant to the Supreme Junta, though he did not align himself with its most conservative members. Like other members of the Central Junta, the “worthy and respectable Count of Altamira”, as Jovellanos called him, had problems with an accusation of misappropriation of public funds. When the Junta moved from Seville to the Isle of León in Cádiz, its members were arrested and imprisoned. Condemned to death by Napoleon, Altamira was banished from court by Ferdinand VII.

Paloma Gómez Pastor