The Tormented Soul of Francisco Goya | Biographical Documentary

[@bruceweber2361]

I have never been convinced that Goya went insane. I think he saw the raw truth about human nature, stared it down, and created great images as his revenge.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

I don't think he went insane either, but he did have periods of what sounds like delirium.

[@AnimosityIncarnate]

​@@professorgraemeyorston it's less the mental illness and again you gaining the lense of which you become an easy scapegoat. The way you see yourself treated and therefore other disenfranchised is what turns the knob. Dehumanization is not like you conceptualize or empathize with, the feeling is death of the self, and madness ensues from isolation. That's not self induced usually either. Just another notch on the post of a cold and determined world I guess...

[@MartiWilliams-r2z]

Agree.

[@Leslie12.66]

I always feel more informed after watching your videos. You make history fascinating!

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Awesome, thank you!

[@davidmayhew8083]

Excellent! My favorite old master. A man for our insane times!

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Very true.

[@cha5]

One of my favorite artists, Goya’s art could be the stuff of nightmares but it was always unforgettable.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

That it is!

[@drittenberry1]

Panic Disorder and probably more than just one diagnosis. I find your channel interesting and I keep coming back. Thank you for your hard work bringing great content

[@danko6582]

Fortune picked an already talented artist and tormented him, unleashing truly transformative art that affected geopolitics and influenced artists ever since. It gave him something meaningful to say. Were it not for the change, he would have been mere a footnote to art history.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Yes I think you're right.

[@TuckerSP2011]

A wonderful presentation as usual Professor. I'm sure that his early artistic disappointments, profound personal losses coupled with the wartime experiences and realization of his mortal fragility accounts for much of his darkness. His dark and satirical drawings seem to have a more authentic and free expression than his oil paintings, at least those of his commissioned works. His self portraits done with just a few strokes are master works. Thank you again for your beautiful presentation.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

My pleasure!

[@jimmyfortrue3741]

Great video. Thanks. I am a big fan of Goya's work. Especially the "Black" paintings. I still marvel that the Spanish court and the church let him get away with doing some of them. They certainly were not flattering. Another tormented artist you may be interested in researching is Ralph Albert Blakelock, an American painter of the late 19th century who was institutionalized (so there may be some documented medical history to peruse) His fame grew enormously during his confinement in a New York mental asylum and he became perhaps the most forged artist ever during this period. Like Goya, Blakelocks paintings turned decidedly darker and darker as he aged. His paintings are magnificent.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you for the suggestion, I'll look into him.

[@Sabrina_Serna]

Professor, wonderful thank you!

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Glad you liked it!

[@debbiereichelt4059]

I took him up in high school art class. I was one of the few students fascinated by his work ( I myself had a mental illness, so there.) As for the picture of the royals, Goya gave one person some dignity: the young lady holding the squalling infant; she was born with curvature of the spine and her portrayal with the baby was to disguise her physical handicap. Apparently, she was a kind, gentle soul.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you, interesting fact!

[@Orangesjesus]

One of my friends had muscular dystrophy, (still, a qualified mechanic, music shop owner, and early computer wizz), sharp minded chap.

[@LouIchioustheWerewolf]

I think it was lead posiong that did him in

[@MercedesCruz-qe1nj]

Some people have The blessing or the curse of seeing what others can't. Maybe is a mental desorder or a gift. One way or the other, Goya's art is magnificent.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Very true.

[@LisaRoy-qb7cv]

His work, even his darkest, is amazing

[@allisonhogg5131]

Thanks again, I always learn watching your videos.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Glad to hear that!

[@davidlee6720]

no modern art , Picasso or anybody without him. Even cartoonists.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

He really is the start of modernism.

[@davidmayhew8083]

Your comment makes no sense.

[@Benito-lr8mz]

Its true is puré avantgarde inclusively in a way is the first "War photographer of history" my " Holly Trinty " in painting is Velazquez-Goya-Picasso

[@MayaHiortPetersen]

I have studied Goya since I was a child (45 years later I'm still a nerd) and he is one of my favourite artists of all time. He was one of the first modernists, painting for himself, because he had to, as I do now. Your documentary here is really really good. I appreciate it so much. The only thing incorrect, is that he made etchings, not lithographs. This is important because he loved aquatint and his use of it, and tge way he used it, unbelievably modern at the time. It had been invented and only readily available in his lifetime. It was new and exciting and Goya mastered it's use as well as resin and without these etching techniques his prints would have been very different. They are what gives the light and dark, dramatic almost caravaggesque look his prints. You may find it interesting to see how aquatint techniques changed his style. Thanks again for a great video. Really enjoyed it. PS being a hypersensitive artist who struggles with bouts of mental illness, I think a lot of Goya's mental illnesses are what most artists suffer from... extreme hypersensitivity... most extreme creative poeple, like me, haven't enough of a filter for life... all we see and hear, we feel so very intensely, it sits deeply inside... we are at work with our brains and hearts and eyes ans ears and hands feeling, sensing... feeling... all too much.... seeing qll the time... shadows, sounds, moods... its beautiful and all too much... Many of us hypersensitive artists are magnets... (maybe a bit of Asperger's ) we haven't the ability to shield ourselves from the nastiness of society (and inside of ourselves). We have a hard time keeping a balance because the world is so very beautiful and so very cruel... when you take everything in so intensly, you also need to get it out again. I truly believe this is where Goya's art, not what he made for his partons, but the art inside his inner modern self, was his coping mechanism. His therapy and survival and it gave us some of the best art the any man had yet conceived. His massive losses at home, the things he saw, his deafness, what he lived through, what a rare thing to make it to 82! Thanks again.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@BreathWilliams]

Yes you are

[@MartiWilliams-r2z]

Horrifyingly brilliant "genius, revealing just enough to get away with it". Thank you for expressing so well what I always felt. Thank you!

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you.

[@DavidRomero-y6s]

That was awesome! Thank you so much. I must see more of your presentations on the great, immortal artists.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you, there are a few now with more coming.

[@theeaselrider4032]

The one thing that always came up in the 3 years of Art History study, is that very few great artists we happy and we'll adjusted. And often the more unbalanced they might seem, the brilliant there work was.

[@ZadenZane]

Have you read the book Touched with Fire by Kay Redfield Jamison. It focuses on writers more than artists. She ploughed through their biographies for evidence of serious mood disorders. The rates of depression and bipolar in poets especially were sky high.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

I think we like our creatives to have to suffer for their art!

[@professorgraemeyorston]

It's a good book, but I don't agree with all of her conclusions.

[@stephenkebbell7082]

I was in El Prado last week. The impact of those paintings in real life is phenomenal. I could spend hours in the Goya section!

[@professorgraemeyorston]

I haven't been for a long time, you've made me want to go back!

[@barbaravoss7014]

Thank you for this informative and sensitive presentation. The great power and magnificence of Goya's art makes the cause of his illness seem almost irrelevant. But it is interesting nonetheless. What an incredible artist!

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you, I agree, but he shows what people can achieve despite suffering ill health.

[@rayakhedker4003]

Dear Prof. GY, Thank you for your incredibly thought provoking videos! I LOVE them. What a treat it is to hear your reasonings… Raya

[@es9340]

Would be great if you put Sylvia Plath on your list. One of my favorite writers.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

I'll be moving onto her soon.

[@markholland5810]

Such a marvelous and informative video! Thank you once again

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@annerigby4400]

Great video once again and once again, food for thought. Perhaps Goya was simply an artist and he absorbed all that he saw and felt the need to represent it, exteriorise it through paintings, etchings, etc. Sort of get it out of his being so he did not have to 'own' what he had seen and experienced. I tend to think that his portraits of royalty might have been so appreciated because they accurately resembled what the subjects saw in the mirror. Perhaps they wanted an accurate depiction of themselves and did not judge the portraits in terms of beauty. Goya represented what he saw, felt and thought, accurately. We know how he perceived his world through his paintings. Other artists living in the same era might have perceived it quite differently. Another possibility is that he wanted to attempt to render in a painting what he witnessed - the challenge of taking a photo without a camera. His choice of palette and his style of drawing all enhanced the drama of the scenes. His royal portraits are in the colours of the court. Different topics, different palettes - all welcome challenges to an artist. The portraits and the commissioned work were done for people, the other work was done for Goya, perhaps like a diary of things seen and needing to be chronicled. He produced artwork continually, even when he'd been ill and it was difficult. He needed to paint/create, to put on canvas what had to be represented, so naturally a lot of his work was personal as opposed to public. I have no idea what his illnesses could have been, but I'm not convinced they did anything other than frustrate him by preventing him to paint/create. The loss of all but one of his children would have been difficult, but he did live at a time when people were lucky if any of their children lived past the age of five. I'm not sure such tragedy would have been as traumatic as what we consider it to be in our age of modern medicine. Many babies died within moments of birth, so did many mothers. In research I have done in what is now Saone-et-Loire and Doubs departments of France (mid 1700's to early 1800's), I was horrified at death rates for mothers and babies. One of my ancestors lost two wives and two babies in the space of five years. His third wife and he had six children, of which three survived. It's amazing that the human race made it to the 20th century...

[@bobtaylor170]

Thank you for writing this. It was perceptive and extremely interesting.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Interesting question - would the death of your children have been less traumatising because it was so common - I think it would have been just as devastating, but people had to get on with life back then. Now people can be "traumatised" by watching something on TV - I think that says more about society than about how the brain functions.

[@annerigby4400]

@@professorgraemeyorston I agree that death of a child is always devastating, as you say, but nowadays we expect (take it for granted) our children to live while back then they could only hope they would live. There is an expectancy factor that I think makes a difference in the coping mechanism.

[@SusanneRamharter]

Thank you for these informative and wonderful videos. Even the texts in the " more" sections are worth reading and not simply self-promotion.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you - it's nice to know someone reads those bits!

[@raktoda707]

Nice indepth coverage of a man, his life,his art. Thank you professor

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you.

[@CarolR-hw6qr]

Thank you. A talented and very interesting man.❤

[@professorgraemeyorston]

He was indeed.

[@adagietto2523]

I liked your eloquent conclusion. It seems to me that there was a combination of the external shock of the terrible events in Spain during the French occupation, with the way in which Goya was forced to turn in on himself by serious bouts of incacapacitating illness and his lasting deafness; resulting in a potent reaction in view of sensitivities that were already in him (as shown for instance in the quite early etching of the garrotte man thta you showed).

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you.

[@chiefn0fun]

This is my favorite song from that movie and the 80's!! Thank you for posting

[@lonhodowal8779]

Wow, I love your talk, your essay, your thoughts…….bravo

[@francescaruby1150]

As an Art historian I am amazed by your research and as you suggested new videos …I would like to see Caravaggio and the film director Stanley Kubrick ….Kurbrick became a recluse and was obsessed with Napoleon and planned to make a film about him but his last movie was Eyes Wide Shut..

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you, Caravaggio is definitely on the list. I'll look into SK.

[@JoanKentBible]

Thank you for your wonderful videos.

[@cinven38]

This was so interesting! Thank you!

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@Antihamyt]

Great video, super interesting.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you! Love your name!

[@paulscottfilms]

Really great. As much as anything in the Professor Yorston series > I admire his ability as a diagnostician, and his care in analysis .

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you.

[@lilyofthevalley9819]

Wonderful: grew up well aware of Goya. But your video makes him... Even more thrilling🎉

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you.

[@tylermoulton7294]

Thanks!

[@tylermoulton7294]

like to give a little when I find something stellar. rock on

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thanks Tyler, much appreciated.

[@kirkbrown8189]

Fascinating analysis and I tend to agree with your conclusion. Goya’s work appears to document trauma and seems like an unflinching stare at the horror of the world around him... Hence, the contemporary appeal!?

[@professorgraemeyorston]

I agree - in troubled times he is very relevant.

[@evelyn762]

And it's clear that the veneer of civility he portrayed in court paintings, existed in contrast to the extreme ignorance in the lives of people outside the "charmed circle" , written and portrayed in the flesh every day, in their poverty and filth, that the combination of unmitigated conflicts, brutalities and living horror shows before his tormented eyes. This he witnessed faithfully and unavoidably, in the context of State and Civil wars in Spain, combined with the psychological torment of The Inquisition of society. An honest artist's work could not be pleasant and complimentary , surely, to the system that authored and reified such cruelty and misery?

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Very true.

[@AfghanApothecary]

I think some of Francis Bacon's work was definitely inspired by some of the black paintings. Edit: Thank you for a great video on Goya

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you, yes I suspect you're right.

[@1ACL]

Excellent. Amazingly well done. Wow.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you very much!

[@vidamariaixchel4962]

Well: we ALL have to face/explore our shadows. 😅 He was early: ahead of his time! ⏱️ Greatest painter of all times. Prefer him over any Dutch master. It’s all a matter of taste/resonance. Nice presentation, I enjoyed it a lot. 😻

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you.

[@MaureenDeVries-wd9mh]

Revolutionary and thought provoking--Goya's paintings "show like it is" --without apologies.

[@richardshiggins704]

Very interesting . I thought the acute visual disturbance and imbalance may have been Multiple Sclerosis (MS) but as you suggest the compendium of his symptoms over time makes it difficult to diagnose one disease entity .

[@professorgraemeyorston]

MS has been considered, but doesn't rally fit his ability to continue painting into his 80s.

[@verity-dx7es]

Genuine by thanks from Scotland. 🎨Superb!!

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thanks for watching.

[@bobtaylor170]

I enjoy these so much, I'm disappointed when a weekend passes without a new one. But they wouldn't be of as high quality as they are if you didn't take your time with them. I don't know the extent of your knowledge of the great American jazz musician, Artie Shaw, or your interest in him if there is any, but he would make a fine subject for one of these. The same is true of the marvelous and tragic Bix Beiderbecke, the sphinx - like Ravel ( I've always wondered just how drastic the effect of his traumatic brain injury was in hastening his death ), and the extraordinary George Gershwin, who wrote many of his best songs in the last couple of years of his life, when his brain was being encroached upon by cancer. Gershwin finished his last song, Our Love is Here to Stay, about thirty six hours before his death. An autopsy showed that half his brain had been consumed by cancer.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you, I'm trying to produce one a fortnight and there are some great suggestions there.

[@bobtaylor170]

​@@professorgraemeyorstonthank you, Doctor.

[@chilepombo255]

Goya might have had an acoustic neuroma on 8th cranial nerve (vestibular) which often causes hearing loss and certainly vertigo and other symptoms. NF2 is also on my list. Would be interesting to find out if any of his family members had any similar symptoms. love your lectures, professor. I have personal experience with NF2 and when I heard this I had to comment. Thank you for your time and focus.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

It could explain the deafness but not his other symptoms.

[@chilepombo255]

I humbly disagree. Vestibular nerve damage or irritation (which could affect other cranial nerves as well depending on the location and size of tumour) can cause a litany of symptoms including anxiety, balance disturbances, vertigo (incl nausea/abdominal issues), personality changes, fevers etc. Symptoms can flare and abate without causing too much permanent damage, or the symptoms could be permanent. @@professorgraemeyorston

[@nathanielmcmanus309]

I saw an exhibit of Goya in Boston like 10 years ago. A friend of mine who is MD noticed a few paintings where the children and adults had neonatal syphilis because of the shape of their nose. Terrifying.

[@mahkhardy8588]

That stroke was no joke.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

They never are - even the mild ones can happen again.

[@whiskeymonk4085]

Alirio Diaz if I can recall? A great classical guitarist.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

He was indeed.

[@danremenyi1179]

Another brilliant piece of work. Thank you very much. Have you done el Greco?

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Not yet! I'll look into him.

[@elinorregina]

The Dog is one of the most disturbing paintings I've ever seen. For me, it is much harder to look at than any of his "grotesques" however dark the subject matter may be.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

What makes you say that?

[@LisaRoy-qb7cv]

The helplessness of an animal that did not knowingly get into that predicament and not understanding what would happen...just fear in the moment. With no ability to change the inevitable.

[@charlynegezze8536]

Goya is my favorite artist of all times. I think the radical change could have been out of disgust. Carlos IV was one of Spain´s worst kings in stark contrast to his father. The family portrait probably did flatter them. The Infanta Elena is a dead ringer for María Luisa so imagine what they really looked and acted like.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

I agree, I think he had to have been trying to say something about them.

[@catherinepatterson4720]

Thank you. This was very interesting. I wonder, to add to your list of reasons for Goya’s change in subject matter (as I think they are all very likely, especially the lead poisoning), if he had an emotional breakdown triggered by over work, yet he kept working or was pressurised to keep working. I have a book titled, The Body Never Lies: The lingering effects of hurtful parenting by Alice Miller and I have another book called, Working With Monsters: How to identify and protect yourself from the workplace psychopath by John Clarke. I list these two books because one, it makes me think of how Goya was parented (as I’m interested in childhood emotional neglect and it’s negative impact in adulthood - Alice Miller looks at how a child’s humiliation, impotence, and bottled rage will manifest as adult illness - be it cancer, stroke, or other debilitating diseases) and two, what type of personalities Goya was working with in the establishment. The fact that he depicted the royals in an ‘ugly’ manner makes me think was Goya dealing with cunning, self-centred, ruthless and terrifying members of the establishment. Also, we only need to recall stories of (mostly) women (e.g., a governess, a servant girl) who were incarcerated into ‘mental asylums’ back in the day because of psychopathological behaviour inflicted on them by those in powerful positions (such as a Lord of a vast country estate), behaviours, such as gaslighting, making the person question their sanity and going insane in the process. It’s obvious Goya was in severe emotional pain. I too wonder about his diet. As we now know, their is a strong link between the gut and the brain, the gut being referred to as the ‘second brain’. I must say Goya was an amazing painter, even (as someone who does not like ‘dark’ subject matter) the ‘dark night of the soul’ paintings and evil looking ones. There’s a truth in these paintings. Evil certainly continues to be ever present in our world today. Though so is goodness/Love. I try to focus on the latter, being mindful of the former. It makes me think, how many ‘Goya’s’ are their in today’s society battling this dark night of the soul. As always, your videos are thought provoking. A thumbs up 👍

[@bobtaylor170]

This channel draws an unusually talented audience, some of whom leave extremely interesting comments. Yours is one of them. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

I'm sure you're right with all of these points, trauma seems to have the biggest impact on those already traumatised by something else in their lives and as for the impact of diet on health - I think medicine is only now starting to take this seriously - I am currently supervising a PhD student on some research in this area.

[@catherinepatterson4720]

@@bobtaylor170 Thank you Bob for your positive and, I must say, kind comment. The area of human behaviour isn’t my profession, but it’s certainly a fascinating one, though at times complex and confusing, leaving many unanswered questions. Interestingly, it’s in finding the answers to these many why’s that I enjoy. Then I can share my knowledge on KZbin videos, such as this one, when I see the need : )

[@catherinepatterson4720]

@@professorgraemeyorston Thank you for your acknowledgment of the information I shared and your positive reply. It sounds like your PhD student is focusing on an important topic, the connection between the gut and mental health. I was thinking, to add to this topic of discussion, a person can eat the healthiest diet, but if their body is continually pumping out the stress hormone cortisol and/or they’re holding onto angry emotions (even unconsciously), for example, towards their parents, then all their effort will most likely be counterproductive. I believe healing needs to include three areas - body (with diet, exercise, getting out in nature), mind (changing your thoughts, forgiveness, self love) and spirit (getting in touch with your feelings/emotions). This is a very simplistic overview of a complex area. To add to this, environmental factors need to also be considered. A person can go off and be ‘healed’ using this three way approach, but if they return to an environment where others, let’s say, toxic family members have not healed, that person can easily fall back to their ‘old’ self. Sometimes, going no contact, removing oneself from that toxic environment is key. Wishing your PhD student all the best and yourself too, as their supervisor. Look forward to your next video.

[@bobtaylor170]

@@catherinepatterson4720 you're welcome!

[@ultraali453]

14:15 The people of the Spanish royalty look like normal people. Instead of a conventional portrait, he was making natural portraits which is why the royal family liked him. I think it helped them remember what people actually looked like, like how we see old photographs today.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Fair enough.

[@Snakesnarl]

Probably my favorite artist. I have a ridiculous number of his prints in my house

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Los caprichos?

[@AdrienneReneau-ky4sc]

MASSIVE ART COLLECTION

[@margaritaroa8826]

Very good story of Goyas life

[@emerginglobster2075]

Please can anyone tell me the name of the painting at 21:09? I love the way that skeleton is drawn!

[@AdrienneReneau-ky4sc]

GREAT DOCUMENTATION

[@S9s9s934]

Goya’s mystery illness that caused him to have ringing ears, difficulty standing/walking, and eventual deafness sounds more like some kind of middle or inner ear infection to me.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

That would not explain all of his symptoms.

[@noussiblm2158]

Hello professor, I really love how you explain in your videos , thank you so mush ♥️

[@professorgraemeyorston]

You are very welcome

[@happytrouble5561]

I hate that saturn painting with vengence. Just foul. Great documentary. Thank you.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

It is a dark painting, but I love his darkest works.

[@JoyArt33]

I have a ‘Yo Lo Vi’ tattoo, as it’s my motto as an artist. He painted what he saw, whatever that was, good or bad, beautiful or hideous.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Great motto.

[@nledaig]

Could it have been a form of Meniere's disease? I found this very interesting. Goya is a fascinating artist. "Goya's Geister" is an entertaining version of the life and times and is a much better film than the critics said at the time of its release.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Some people have suggested that, but Meniere's disease doesn't have all the other symptoms he presented with.

[@AdrienneReneau-ky4sc]

SO LITTLE IS KNOWN ABOUT HISPANIC ARTISTS TY

[@DeborahT-c2s]

You are my favorite ❤

[@prototropo]

I agree that his portraits are often quizzical, almost primitive, childlike faces. I am utterly baffled why Goya would shortchange interesting faces.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

I wonder if it it was his subtle rebellion.

[@kevin-parratt-artist]

It was not a fearless life, .. rather a life full of fear, because he knew he was pushing his luck.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

I agree he was brave to paint the royals how he did.

[@Foxiepawstotti]

I love Goya and lots of other painters who paint darker subjects, Francis Bacon, Bosch, I just love thinking what could have inspired subjects like this. I don't know why he painted horses with such small heads though. Funny you should say that about that portrait of the Queen, she looked really odd but so did the previous King, its like hyper realistic sometimes but totally weird at other times, I much prefer the darker stuff. The nude Maja has the line of pigmentation up her belly that you get when pregnant lol!

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Me too. I hadn't noticed the linea nigra, but the painting is apparently one of the first to show pubic hair!

[@richbarnard4524]

Very fine work! Thank you for the lesson.😊

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Glad you liked it!

[@evelyn762]

He painted the truth of his times as a witness.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

He did indeed.

[@cw4608]

If he had a bone tumor in his leg, isn’t it possible he had a bony tumor within his cranium? No skull to study, but was there something interesting about it causing it to be pilfered as a curiosity?

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Tumour just means swelling - it is often taken as synonymous with cancer, but it wasn't in the 19th century. As you say with no skull to examine, we are just guessing.

[@Magda-sv4fg]

Thank you, very interesting! I don’t understand when you say Civil War. It really was the French invasion and fight against the French cruel troops! Goya was always an “afrancesado” , he was a follower of the French new culture, he believed that compared with the superstitious old conservative SPain, the progressive French new ideas, would help Spain. But when the French troops arrived with all their brutality against unarmed locals…I think that was a shock, that produced depression.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

As I understand it, the fighting ins Spain wasn't just against the French but against competing factions.

[@dtr_cpg]

He might also have taken Artemisia for malaria treatment. It has some neurotoxic, ototoxic compounds, which can lead to severe permanent tinnitus and permanent deafness in some individuals. Especially when vaporized. Some antimalarial quinolines can have high neurotoxicity. They also cause vestibular problems. Artemisia derivatives can also cause dream-like experiences and psychoses in susceptible individuals. Another, but linked, explanation - he might have had high cortisol levels due to chronic stress and have glucocorticoid-induced altered consciousness states, which then flared up periodically, when his cortisol elevated. Glucocorticoids can induce uprise of dopamine. It can induce manic and depressive states, and delerious states when not habituated.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Although Artemisia was used for malaria in China, I'm not sure it was used in Europe.

[@Grace.allovertheplace]

0:03 that was quite the surprise

[@professorgraemeyorston]

His work is very dark.

[@Ai-he1dp]

Are not the horrors of the day enough?...what he saw and heard effected his heart and mind that hurt his health, life can do that to someone so astute as he.,...ps i believe your analysis to be correct.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you.

[@vergeofnervousbreakdown2605]

How did people lose that many children and not lose their minds?

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Tough times, but I think they still felt the pain and loss as much as we would nowadays.

[@rnkim2564]

it depends on how he painted... his workman that prepared paint may not have had same habits, like licking brush to retain point, or using hands or fingers... and heavy metals could be in conjunction with other illness or mental malady

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Fair point.

[@Benito-lr8mz]

Prado Museum in Madrid is the Mecca of Goya' s in the world here conserved more of half of this works the frescoes in the dome of church of " San Francisco el Grande" in Madrid are a magnificents and curioulsly he worked in Casa Botin the oldest restaurant in the world founded in 1.725 was a dishwasher

[@professorgraemeyorston]

I haven't been in Madrid for many years, but doing this video made me want to visit Madrid and Zaragoza.

[@laetitiavisagie-gg6kk]

I would also have gone mad if I had to live during the times of the Spanish Inquisition....

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Difficult times, so easy to offend someone powerful.

[@AdrienneReneau-ky4sc]

PTSD IS HUGELY UNDIAGNOSED

[@HollyCarlson-m7p]

Demons-🎯💯👍 It is the outlet or mood of energy of the soul. Art is what is in the mind's eye put down to material.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

I agree demons are of own making.

[@AdrienneReneau-ky4sc]

TY HISPANIC HISTORY AND PTSD

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@ZadenZane]

Goya's early stuff looks blurry to me, like a pastiche of oil painting by someone who could barely be bothered. The nightmarish stuff is way better. If the change in his art needs a medical explanation then I'd go with what we today might call depression and back then would probably have been called oppression of spirits (rather than full-blown melancholia)

[@professorgraemeyorston]

The cartoons are deliberately simple as they were going to be made into tapestries but I know what you mean.

[@verity-dx7es]

Reality kicked in.

[@AdrienneReneau-ky4sc]

RELIGIOUS ART SOUNDS RIGHT

[@slowfie4328]

What you said at the end is most likely his truth.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Glad you agree.

[@evelyn762]

Slipped back into, that is.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

He did.

[@LindaMortimore-f8p]

Never heard of him cool

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Glad you liked it.

[@LaurieValdez-zk3dy]

Time.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Waits for no man.

[@AdrienneReneau-ky4sc]

THOSE DOCUMENTS WITH QUIL PENS IN SPANISH MUST BE DIFFICULT

[@AdrienneReneau-ky4sc]

GLAD YOU HAVE DR MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE

[@josron6088]

I've always admired his artwork. But his portraits of royals are absolutely hideous. Maybe he just painted them as they really were.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

I think he was showing their corruption.

[@josron6088]

@@professorgraemeyorston Great presentation. Yeah, I think I remember you mentioning that. 👍

[@marioguelbenzu2348]

War and deafness!!

[@Twoandtwoarefour]

MCAS?

[@professorgraemeyorston]

I know MCAS can cause a lot of different symptoms, but he didn't have the core ones.

[@nickyvideladorna1135]

Velaskwes 🌠

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Another great artist.

[@Orangesjesus]

The good ol' days..(where, if you could draw, you had a job?)..

[@peppylady6426]

I feel most artist has different periods though there lives. I looked at many artist work in chronological order. Example if one looks Pablo Picasso start of his cubism, quite few of his subject are looking down. In the early 1900's he also did his blue period about sickness and death. Sorry I got off the Goya work. I have wonder what is going on in the artist work. I know artist said they say they aren't political but I just don't buy this. I find most artist is leans to liberal side. Once again great work.

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you. I guess we all change over the course of our working lives - but for artists their early work remains on show. I wonder what some of my early reports look like!

[@AdrienneReneau-ky4sc]

AYSLUM YES I BELIEVE

[@MBRMrblueroads]

👍👍

[@professorgraemeyorston]

Thank you.

[@Orangesjesus]

Thats what "scary good" means?..