Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...

adopt Goya’s perspective, puts the viewer into Goya’s position, forcing him or her
almost to merge with the protagonist.
The flashbacks, although not completely chronological, trace Goya’s
development as an increasingly politically conscious painter, culminating in his
Desastres de la guerra (which were actually created prior to the Pinturas negras,
but the creation of which precedes them in this film). This process is paralleled by
an increasing autonomy of Goya’s work. While many paintings are shown and
briefly commented on throughout the film (including the Caprichos), only the two
series of the Pinturas negras and the Desastres are animated and come alive. The
animation of the Pinturas negras takes place within Goya’s imagination, and it is
in this scene that the dramatization of the Sueño de la razón occurs. The
Desastres de la guerra, by contrast, are transformed back into life, becoming real-
life events that are recognizable as inspirations for etchings such as Aun podrán
servir, También esos, Populacho, Lo merecía, ¡Grande hazaña! !Con muertos!,
and Al cementerio. The filmic representation of these two series, then, parallels
the circumstances of production: while the Pinturas negras are figments of the
artist’s imagination, the Desastres claim to be historical eye-witness accounts of
the War of Independence. 145 Saura’s filmic ekphrasis of these paintings thus
achieves a parallel to Goya’s original works.
It is during the animation of the Pinturas negras that the dramatization of
the Sueño de la razón takes place. Thus, as in Buero’s drama, the Capricho 43
and the Pinturas negras are closely connected. And similar to Kunert’s poem and
145 Of course, as Hughes has pointed out, “not everything, or even not much that is depicted in
[the Desastres] happened in front of Goya’s eyes. He was the artist who invented a kind of illusion
in the service of truth: the illusion of being there when dreadful things happen” (272).
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