Masterpieces in colour

Goya

This personage, who has left no record in history, was one of those high functionaries, half civil and half military, whom the First Republic sent to its armies to supervise the commissary department and also to exercise an espionage over its generals. Goya has given a vigorous rendering of a head that bears the double stamp of energy and high breeding; and the prevailing gray tone of this portrait, relieved only by the one dash of brightness in the tricoloured scarf, forms altogether a work of perfect harmony. On a certain clear morning in the year 1760, a monk from the convent of Santa F, near Saragossa, was proceeding leisurely along the road which leads to that city, and reciting his breviary as he went. Raising his eyes from between two psalms, he perceived a young lad of some fifteen years of age deeply absorbed in drawing pictures with a bit of charcoal on one of the walls which bounded the way. The monk was a lover of the[Pg 12] arts and had himself some little skill in drawing. Becoming interested, he drew nearer, and was amazed at the aptitude shown by the boy. Upon questioning him, he was much pleased with his replies and was completely won by his engaging manners. Without further reflection, he inquired the way to the home of the lads parents, poor peasants of the immediate neighbourhood, and had no difficulty in persuading them to entrust their son to him, promising to make him a painter of whom they would some day be proud. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 42425
Author: Crastre, François
Release Date: Mar 28, 2013
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Translator: Cooper, Frederic Taber, 1864-1937