William Hogarth (1697-1764) and Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) overlap well as artistic expressions about Europe, at least Western Europe, in political transition before and during the Enlightenment. Hogarth the Englishman and Goya the Spaniard contrast in a few ways such as nationality (obviously), political atmosphere (English Parliamentary system with monarchy and Spain with a monarchy), and culture wherein both societies favored foreign artists somewhat over the locals.
Parallels reveal themselves, however, upon closer look at the details of their lives. Both had parents who had some kind of professional, if not class, pull; Richard Hogarth was a schoolmaster and Latin scholar, Jose Goya was the son of a notary as well as skilled as a gilder with a wife, Dona Gracia, who was a bidalgo, a member of the aristocratic lower strata. Hogarth and Goya attended the primary and secondary levels of school after which both attended schools of trade either in engraving (Hogarth) or painting (Goya).
As artists, I see that they shared an outlook that included the common person without necessarily romanticizing or always satirizing their roles, similarly so with the aristocracy. They did this sometime objectively, sometime subjectively, brutally so, to show the degradation of humanity in its trudging along their lives. They displayed how hopes could become misfortunes, how a victory may backfire, and occasionally how humor may save the day.
Living during the Enlightenment era, they saw and surely knew about some of the high hopes this new way of thinking raised, that people could vote for representatives instead of taking it for granted that clergy and royalty always knew what was best for the population. Among its proponents, the faith was that humanity could employ Reason so as to find order in life and society, and figure out the next best step to take. The notion that it was not witchcraft that was a problem but religious bigotry or that tolerance was preferable to prejudice, and that justice was a matter of public and private concern, remain admirable aspects of the Enlightenment legacy down to this day.
Nonetheless, society dissolution, if not also wartime invasion, dispelled these grand feelings of optimism, forcing these artists to present the challenge of reality in either a sarcastic or savage way. Hogarth’s series Marriage a la Mode or “Marriage in the Current Fashion,” is one of many series of paintings and prints that offered severe criticism of urban life. The “Election” series is one that, unfortunately, may hold true in democracies everywhere.
Likewise, Goya, seeing the ruin of the promise of Charles IV and, later, the catastrophe of the Napoleonic invasion (1807-1814), offered many depictions about the tragedy of Spain. His print series’ title The Disasters of War sums it up economically, exhibiting gory details of combat and torture, apathy and cruelty.
These artists presented the beginnings of our outlook, one that encompasses the Industrial Revolution as well as the current Information Age. Sadly, it is an outlook that has inured us to scenes of malice and viciousness, accustomed as we are to seeing these on the television or internet news reports. The good news is these artists still may prick our conscience when we may be prone to nod off during times of state-sanctioned violence and social corruption.
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