Francisco de Goya

Pieces of Lamb (Trozos de carnero)

Pieces of Lamb (Trozos de carnero)
Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1806 - 1812
Ubicación
Musée du Louvre, París, France
Dimensiones
45 x 62 cm
Técnica y soporte
Oil on canvas
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Documented work
Titular
Musée du Louvre
Ficha: realización/revisión
20 Apr 2010 / 15 Jun 2023
Inventario
(1937-120)
Otros títulos:
Still Life with Ribs, Loin and Head of a Lamb
Lamb’s Head and Ribs
Head and Loin of a Sheep
Inscripciones

Goya (in small red letters, below the sheep's head).

Traces of the letter X in the lower-left hand corner.

Historia

Javier Goya inherited this series of still lifes from his father, and in turn left them to his own son, Mariano. When he was unable to repay a loan made to him by the Count of Yumuri, Carabanchel, Mariano gave this set of paintings as security, and in the end the works became the property of the count. When the Count of Yumuri died in 1865 the series of still lifes was sold. Today these works are scattered between different museums and institutions around the world, and some of the paintings have now been lost.

This particular canvas was acquired by the Louvre in 1937.

Análisis artístico

According to many scholars of Goya's work, the elements which appear in this series of still lifes, which was possibly made during the Spanish War of Independence (1808-1814), are evocations of the many episodes of death and violence that Spain witnessed during those years. The flesh of the animals - inert, discarded material, depicted with a surprising crudeness - could therefore be a reference to the human remains left behind by the violent conflict. Goya perhaps considered the dead bodies of these animals in the same way as he did the human bodies, chopped up and deprived of all dignity, which appear in some of the images in his Disasters of War series of etchings (for example, no. 37, This is worse (Esto es peor), and no. 39, Great deeds! With dead bodies! (Grande hazaña! Con muertos!)).

All of the paintings that make up the series share various formal characteristics which give the set an important sense of unity. In each of them, the animals are isolated from their surroundings, shown in front of a neutral background but drawn out from it by the way the scene is lit.

This series of still lifes represents an important reinvention of the genre, refusing as it did to comply with the way in which themes of this kind had traditionally been treated. We are not, therefore, looking at foodstuffs arranged to decorate and brighten a table; rather, these are dead animals, heaped before us with little care. In these pictures, Goya distanced himself from traditional still lifes such as those by Luis Egidio Meléndez (Naples, 1716-Madrid, 1780) and from the sensuality and opulence of the still lifes of the Dutch painters. In response to the painstaking study of materials and shapes that Meléndez undertook for his works, Goya sets out to capture the whole, which is, in most cases, a mass of lifeless corpses. The only other work to which Goya's series could be linked is The Flayed Ox (1655, Musée du Louvre, Paris) by Rembrandt (Leiden, 1606-Amsterdam, 1669), in which the Dutch artist, just like Goya, has concentrated on the expressive force of the dead matter, later echoed by Chaïm Soutine (Smilovich, 1893-Paris, 1943) in Carcass of Beef (1925, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota).

Although we do not know exactly where they were hung, it is believed that these still lifes could have decorated the dining room of Goya's home in Madrid, although they also could have been kept in another room or even in his studio.

In Pieces of Lamb, Goya has painted, on top of a table and in front of a black background, a decapitated lamb's head, turned to face the two crossed slabs of ribs in the centre of the composition, as if looking at them, with an absorbed, impassive, almost resigned expression on its face. The dulled colours and the purplish red help to emphasize the idea of dead meat.

Goya's still lifes heralded the treatment that this genre was to receive at the hands of the naturalist movements of the 19th century. Gudrun Maurer suggests that this painting could have inspired some of the still lifes by Pablo Picasso (Málaga, 1881-Moulins, 1973), particularly the one entitled Still Life with Sheep's Skull (Naturaleza muerta con cráneo de carnero) (1939, Collection of Vicky and Marco Micha, Mexico).

 

 

Exposiciones
  • Goya
    Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis
    The Hauge
    1970
    organized by Ministerio de Estado y Asuntos Culturales and Réunion des Musées Nationaux, July 4th to September 13th 1970. Exhibited also at the Musée de l’Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, October 25th to December 7th 1970, consultant editors Jeannine Baticle and A. B. de Vries
  • Goya
    Nationalmuseum
    Stockholm
    1994
    consultant editors Juan J. Luna and Görel Cavalli-Björkman. From October 7th 1994 to January 8th 1995
  • El bodegón español de Velázquez a Goya
    The National Gallery
    London
    1995
    exhibition celebrated from February 22nd to May 21st 1995, curated by Peter Cherry
  • Goya, un regard libre
    Palais de Beaux Arts
    Lille
    1998
    from December 12th 1998 to March 14th 1999. Exhibited also at The Philadelphia Museum, Philadelphia, April 17th 1999 to July 11th 1999, consultant editor Arnauld Brejon de Lavergnée and Joseph J. Rishel in collaboration with Manuela B. Mena Marqués
  • Goya en tiempos de guerra
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    2008
    consultant editor Manuela B. Mena Marqués, from April 14th to July 13th 2008
  • Goya: Order and disorder
    Museum of Fine Arts
    Boston
    2014
  • Goya
    Basle
    2021
Bibliografía
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    Bibliography']['number
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    p. 262, cat. 903
  • GUDIOL RICART, José
    Bibliography']['number
    BarcelonaPolígrafa
    1970
    vol. I, p. 353, cat. 596
  • ANGELIS, Rita de
    L’opera pittorica completa di Goya
    Bibliography']['number
    MilanRizzoli
    1974
    p. 123, cat. 499
  • CAMÓN AZNAR, José
    Francisco de Goya, 4 vols.
    Bibliography']['number
    ZaragozaCaja de Ahorros de Zaragoza, Aragón y Rioja
    1980-1982
    vol. III, p. 187
  • PAZ, Alfredo de
    Goya. Arte e condizione umana
    Bibliography']['number
    NaplesLiguori editore
    1990
    pp. 158-160, il. 139
  • JORDAN, William B. and CHERRY, Peter
    El bodegón español de Velázquez a Goya
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridEdiciones El Viso
    1995
    pp. 175, 176, 177, 180, 183 (il.) y 184,
  • MENA MARQUÉS, Manuela B.
    Goya en tiempos de guerra
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridMuseo Nacional del Prado
    2008
    pp. 240, 241 y 247 (il.), cat. 62
  • SUREDA PONS, Joan
    Los mundos de Goya (1746-1828)
    Bibliography']['number
    BarcelonaLunwerg
    2008
    pp.159-160, il. 91
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