More on Goya's Portrait of Alberto Foraster

• Autores: Isadora Rose de Viejo
• Localización: Burlington magazine, ISSN 0007-6287, Vol. 145, Nº 1199, 2003, págs. 82-87
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Forty years ago Eunice Smith Beyersdorf published an article in this Magazine on the early portrait of Manuel Godoy by a virtually unknown Portuguese artist, newly visible thanks to X-rays beneath Goya's portrait of Alberto Foraster (Figs. 21 and 22). At the time, there had as yet been no other studies - although they have since proliferated - of Goya's use of re-cycled canvases, whether of his own works or those by others, at different moments and for diverse reasons throughout his career. Among the subsequent X-ray revelations of underlying paintings have been those of Godoy by Goya beneath the artist's huge equestrian portrait of the Duke of Wellington (1812; GW 896), as well as his small El garrochista (c.1794/1808; GW 255), initially an oil sketch for a large- scale work. In these instances the original paintings had become worthless in the artist's studio following the disgrace and expatriation of the royal favourite in 1808, but Goya managed to put the supports to good use. Yet another case of Goya's re-use ofa canvas on which Godoy's portrait had been painted came to light in 2000 when at the Museo del Prado X-rays were carried out on the newly acquired Condesa de Chinchon (1800; GW 793). The films disclosed not one but two standing male portraits: an earlier and less finished one of the Duke of Alba, who died in 1796, and a somewhat later, more finished figure of the countess's husband, Manuel Godoy (c.1798).