painting of the day---the dog, by Goya

Here is one of the greatest paintings ever made. This was made by the artist goya as part of his late series of "black paintings" paintings in which he tore apart humanity and showed his general disgust with the cruelty of humans. This painting is (in my opinion) so far ahead of its time that it was the first true "modern" painting. the composition is so strange and the subjetc of a dogs head just creeping out from "the dirt?" here goya gives in to the dark imagination that fueled his spanish brain. One must look at art in the context of the time it was painted, if you think about what was going on when in art he painted this (1820) then you can begin to understand the genius of it. I thin kthe dog my be a symbol of him sinking into the dark- sand of his final days and he is doing all he can to reach for the light and keep his head above the shadows. These paintings done at this time were all painted directly onto the walls of his home. This is why, in my opinion, Sargent is not fit to kneel at the feet of Goya. Art is about passion and emotion and not slick brushful renderings of aristocrats. When goya did his court portraits, at least he made them look like the de-natured pigs they were. In fact, I am surprised Goya was not jailed for his paintings of the courts and that they accepted his renderings of the inbred hemophiliacs with frog skin.