The Bridge Issue_1812 | Page 33

A WAR PAINTED BY GOYA By EVA MORENO ESCRIBANO The first of all I’m an old friend of Goya . The people think that Goya and me are only friends but Goya and me are lover in secret. Now I tell about Goya and what‘s happening in Spain. Author: Eva Moreno Escribano Today, May 3, 1808, we are living a tragedy in Spain. I want independence, I am in one of the rooms of the house of Goya, he has told me to talk, he has just arrived, he is very nervous because he has just had a long conversation with King Fernado VII. At the moment Spain is being occupied by the Napoleonic troops. Yesterday May 2, Goya was all day in his room creating a new square that he has called May 2, in which he wanted to reflect the horrors of war. I just talked with Goya and he told me a bit about his conversation with the King, he decided to go into his room to draw what he saw when he was living the executions of May 3 which is his new painting. He decides to call it the May 3 executions. Goya is very nervous because he is afraid that Napoleon can occupy all the Spanish territory. I these pictures Goya is reflecting the drama and protest of the war. Before, Goya has told me a phrase “I feel ardent desires to perpetuate by means of the brush the most remarkable and heroic actions or scenes of our glorious insurrection against the tyrant of Europe". I am sure that this phrase will go down in the history of Spain. Since Goya could not sleep, he decided to tell me why he creates some of his works. As when in 1789 he was named painter of the court by Carlos IV at that stage he drew one of his masterpieces called The Family of Carlos IV in which he enhances realism and irony. He has also told me about his illness with which he was more than two years in bed and with which he ended up being half deaf that was what made him change the new air of his paintings and that they are darker but just as bright. I think Goya will be a one of the painters more important in the history of Spain and too I hope it is because his art has to be recognized.