Spain's Identity Reflected in Goya in the Prado Museum

lesson for the spectator. To find the artist‟s mind freely at work, we must wind back down the stairs to
another wing of the museum that is tucked away from the regular traffic of daily
life. There is something fitting about where these works are placed in the museum.
Depiction from Goya‟s
Disasters of War
Unlike the commissioned works that celebrate Spain‟s history and way of life,
Goya‟s non-commissioned paintings wrestle with the nation‟s complicated and often tragic history.
Unlike the edifying paintings located in the Great Hall, these works, in their graphic and gruesome
detail, depict some of the most significant moments in the development of Spain‟s nationalism.
Spain is unique among the other nation-states of Europe. Typically, nationalism is formed
around a common culture or ethnicity. However, Spain is a nation that houses many different cultures
and, in many cases, the citizens don‟t even share a common language. Spain, also, does not have what
other modern enlightenment nations share: a successful revolutionary moment, where the residents were
suddenly united as one people in a common revolutionary cause again the feudal oppressors.
Nevertheless, there is something that still that unites Spain as a nation. Spain‟s tragic past has not been
led to its dissolution as so often happens in history, but rather these trials and tribulations are the very
material from which the country has cultivated its own solidarity.
In order to completely understand this political evolution and subsequently the concepts that are
seemingly depicted in works done by Goya, one must, like the guests of the Prado, meander their way
through the complicated history of Spain. Thus, when entering into the room
where these works are exhibited in the Prado, it is appropriate that only those
who understand the complexities behind these works are able to find and enjoy
Goya‟s 3 rd of May
1808
them. Goya‟s Black Paintings and his Disasters of War are no façade for outsiders but a witness to the
inner truth of Spanish nationalism. Here I will attempt to demonstrate how Goya‟s works in this room
are designed to illustrate the possibilities and limitations of modern politic for Spain.