I really enjoyed the dialogues Goya had with his younger self in Goya in Bourdeux. Since reading Los Caprichos, I always wondered how the artist reconciled his high status as a painter for the royal court with his criticism of the Spanish government. The two scenes in the film, first with Goya looking at Los Caprichos and at (what I assume were his) portraits, shed some light on this contradictory situation. Although I’m not sure what Goya’s relationship with the court was or how they received Los Caprichos, based on the film it seemed like Goya struggled a lot internally with his thoughts and opinions on Spain’s future. Thus, I appreciated the film in that offered a biographical lens through which I could further understand Goya’s work.
Young/old Goya’s commentary on Los Caprichos brought to life what was going through the artist’s mind when he created these prints, or how he intended them to be interpreted. In the later scene, his ambivalence about who has chosen to paint (“to think once I was proud to be there [in the] […] ‘court of puppets'”) makes me think about the role of art and its consequences — after all, portraits last. His conflict with his conscience and eventual reconciliation with it (“But I had no choice. I did paint people I admired,” “In my defense I must say that I have worked a great deal […],” “I have sacrificed and persevered to overcome the hostility and envy of my colleagues, the criticisms of some, and the dangers of the Inquisition”) helps me piece together the dialectical relationship between the artist and his art.
Overall, I liked the technique of learning about Goya’s earlier life through the perspective of old Goya. The inclusion of his self-reflection in those two scenes (and in others as well) indicates the significance of art in his life, especially in relation to the social and political climates in Spain at the time. I realize that an artist’s career can’t only be summed up with an evaluation of all of his/her works from an aesthetic perspective, but might also include the biographical stories and contexts that have affected these works.
