Elusive Facts and Persuasive Fictions: Goya's Allegories in the Nationalmuseum of Stockholm

Abstract

There are reasons to believe that Goya was associated with the circle of ilustrados working under the influence of the 'philosophical history' imported from France and Great Britain into late eighteenth-century Spain. His connections with this intellectual milieu prompt a revaluation of the interpretation of his allegorical paintings in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm that Folke Nordström proposed in 1962. Manuel Godoy, who probably owned them, favoured some authors pertaining to this historiographic trend, while also fostering projects aimed at preserving the Spanish national heritage, such as Laborde's Voyage pittoresque. The notions of history and of its relationship with poetry depicted by Goya must therefore be considered in connection with contemporary debates on the meaning and on the writing of history.

There are reasons to believe that Goya was associated with the circle of ilustrados working under the influence of the 'philosophical history' imported from France and Great Britain into late eighteenth-century Spain. His connections with this intellectual milieu prompt a revaluation of the interpretation of his allegorical paintings in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm that Folke Nordström proposed in 1962. Manuel Godoy, who probably owned them, favoured some authors pertaining to this historiographic trend, while also fostering projects aimed at preserving the Spanish national heritage, such as Laborde's Voyage pittoresque. The notions of history and of its relationship with poetry depicted by Goya must therefore be considered in connection with contemporary debates on the meaning and on the writing of history.

El estudio de la relación de Goya con el círculo de ilustrados sujetos a la influencia de la 'historia filosófica' importada de Francia y Gran Bretaña a finales del siglo xviii ofrece la posibilidad de recuperar la interpretación de sus alegorías en el Nationalmuseum de Estocolmo propuesta por Folke Nordström en 1962. Manuel Godoy, a quien posiblemente pertenecieron, dispensó su protección no sólo a autores vinculados a esta corriente historiográfica, sino también a proyectos afines destinados a preservar el patrimonio histórico español, como el Voyage pittoresque de Laborde. Estas conexiones sugieren que la noción de historia y de su relación con la poesía a la que las pinturas de Goya aluden se encuentra firmemente anclada en los debates historiográficos gestados en el seno de la ilustración europea, cuya complejidad registran.

Keywords:

• GOYA
• ALLEGORY
• PHILOSOPHICAL HISTORY
• PAINTING
• POETRY