Goya y la crisis del sujeto cultural en las postrimerías del Antiguo Régimen

Abstract

This article focuses on the significant structures of a 1792 manuscript and of two paintings — Christ on the Cross, 1780, and The Family of Charles IV, 1800 — patronized by two institutions — The academy of Fine arts and royal patronage — embodying the ideology of the enlightened monarchy. It then goes on to highlight the features of social formation in late 18th-century Spain and proposes an analysis of the representational consequences of the cultural subject in crisis at the time of the collapse of the ancien Régime. This study particularly emphasises  the  importance  of  the  crisis  of  the  classic  representation  of  royal power, soon to be followed by the emergence of the people as a driving force in history, as exemplified in the two famous paintings of 1814 The 2nd of May and The 3rd of May.