Goya | Sermon of Saint Bernardino of Siena
The Sermon of Saint Bernadino of Siena
1784 Oil on canvas
480 cm x 300 cm, 189 inches x 118 inches
Church of San Francisco el Grande, Madrid, Spain
This painting was commissioned by King Carlos III. Goya painted himself into the crowd, his self-portrait is the figure looking at the viewer on the right-side of the painting.
There are three Goya oil sketches for the painting "St. Bernardino of Siena"
1. Condesa de Villagonzalo Collection, Madrid Spain 62cm x 31cm
2. Bergua Olivan Collection, Saragossa, Spain, 140cm x 80cm
3. Condesa de Villagonzalo Collection (version #2), Madrid Spain 62cm x 33cm
The title of the final finished painting varies.
Writer Jose Gudiol calls it "The Sermon of Saint Bernard of Siena before the King of Aragon, Alfonso V" from "Goya", 1985, Abrams books, Page 19
Xavier de Salas calls it "St. Bernardino of Siena", page 176, "Goya" Mayflower Books, 1978
Frank Milner calls it "The Sermon of Saint Bernardino of Siena," page 36, "Goya" Bison Books 1995
The typical Spanish language title is: "San Bernardino de Siena predicando ante el rey Alonso V de Aragon"
[Below] The Real Basilica de San Francisco el Grande (Church of San Francisco el Grande) Photograph by Per Thorsen. Used by Permission. Per Thorsen photo site here.
AMAZON
Goya The Terrible Sublime - Graphic Novel - (Spanish Edition) - Amazon
"From this headlong seizure of life we should not expect a calm and refined art, nor a reflective one. Yet Goya was more than a Nietzschean egoist riding roughshod over the world to assert his supermanhood. He was receptive to all shades of feeling, and it was his extreme sensitivity as well as his muscular temerity that actuated his assaults on the outrageous society of Spain." From Thomas Craven's essay on Goya from MEN OF ART (1931).
"...Loneliness has its limits, for Goya was not a prophet but a painter. If he had not been a painter his attitude to life would have found expression only in preaching or suicide." From Andre Malroux's essay in SATURN: AN ESSAY ON GOYA (1957).
"Goya is always a great artist, often a frightening one...light and shade play upon atrocious horrors." From Charles Baudelaire's essay on Goya from CURIOSITES ESTRANGERS (1842).
"[An] extraordinary mingling of hatred and compassion, despair and sardonic humour, realism and fantasy." From the foreword by Aldous Huxley to THE COMPLETE ETCHINGS OF GOYA (1962).
"His analysis in paint, chalk and ink of mass disaster and human frailty pointed to someone obsessed with the chaos of existence..." From the book on Goya by Sarah Symmons (1998).
"I cannot forgive you for admiring Goya...I find nothing in the least pleasing about his paintings or his etchings..." From a letter to (spanish) Duchess Colonna from the French writer Prosper Merimee (1869).
GOYA : Los Caprichos - Dover Edition - Amazon
