Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...
Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...
Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...
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…Er [i.e. Goya] h<strong>at</strong>te<br />
Abgeschüttelt jene strenge Lehre von der Linie, die so<br />
Lange ihn beengt, er war jetzt<br />
Frei, er war jetzt glücklich, und in<br />
Seiner Romeria wurde<br />
Alles Licht und Farbe.<br />
Vorn das Volk, der Fluß, die weiße,<br />
Breite Stadt Madrid dahinter<br />
Wurden eines; Luft und Stadt und<br />
Menschen woben ineinander<br />
Farbig, locker, leicht und hell und<br />
Glücklich (Goya 163). 164<br />
In these verses, the narr<strong>at</strong>or emphasizes Goya’s achievement, initi<strong>at</strong>ed in<br />
this novel with the portrait <strong>of</strong> Doña Lucia Bermúdez, <strong>of</strong> letting go <strong>of</strong> the neo-<br />
classicist focus on the line, and instead focusing on color. A non-commissioned<br />
work cre<strong>at</strong>ed only because <strong>of</strong> the artist’s desire to paint it and to take up the<br />
cre<strong>at</strong>ive challenge it poses, the Romería in this novel is a result <strong>of</strong> Goya’s<br />
personal joy (due to his initially happy love affair with the Duchess Cayetana de<br />
Alba), transferred to artistic success. This ekphrasis, then, underscores the<br />
personal origin and meaning <strong>of</strong> Goya’s artistic achievement as well as its larger<br />
significance for his aesthetics. Ekphrasis is thus a fundamental means <strong>of</strong><br />
conveying the novel’s main theme.<br />
<strong>The</strong> use <strong>of</strong> ekphrasis in Wolf’s film, <strong>by</strong> contrast, points to the way in<br />
which the film shifts the novel’s focus on personal artistic growth in conjunction<br />
with socio-political awareness to one on Goya’s social commitment in the public<br />
164 This part has been cut in the English version. My own literal, un-poetic transl<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> this<br />
passage follows: “He had / Abandoned th<strong>at</strong> strict doctrine <strong>of</strong> the line, th<strong>at</strong> had / Constricted him<br />
for so long, he was now / Free, was happy, and in / his Pilgrimage everything / Became light and<br />
color. / In the foreground the people, the river, the white / Wide city Madrid behind / All became<br />
one; air and city and / People merged into each other / Colorful, weightless, light and / Happy.”<br />
132