Francisco Goya’s “The Dog”, is a painting from the artist’s Dark Period, which marked 14 artworks painted directly on the walls of his country house called Quinta del Sordo, but it can now be seen within Prado Museum, in Madrid (Miller 38). Like the other black paintings, “The Dog” seems to be extracted from a nightmare – like context, an innovative technique that the artist has been using since he turned deaf, as a way of expressing the frustrations of his disability. The examined artwork, with the dog trapped between two surfaces and a blurry shade, produced various interpretations regarding the symbolism of its meaning, but its artistic value, depicting a frustration, fear and submission, cannot be denied.
Goya painted “The Dog” between 1819 – 1823, using oil on mural painting, which was later transferred on canvas, reaching 134 cm X 80 cm in dimension (Miller 38). As the other paintings that Goya created during his Dark Period, “The Dog” also is based on dark colors that transmit an uncomfortable and inexplicable sensation of loneliness, fear and unavoidable suffocation. The expression of the inner fears and frustrations through dark and gloomy colors is representative for the surrealism in painting and it represents the artistic innovation of Francisco Goya in his Dark Period paintings, implicitly in “The Dog”. In addition, “The Dog” also benefits of another innovation, which is the minimalist artistic style reflected through the loosened brushstrokes, capable of creating existential symbols that anticipate the Expressionism style (Benford “Famous Painters: Francisco Goya”).
The largest part of the artwork is represented by a dirty ocher – like surface, delimiting the upper body of the painting. The inferior part of the design consists of a curbed, brownie surface, which benefits of a visibly less space compared with the upper side of the painting. In between these surfaces there lies the dog, with only his head visible in the drawing. With his ears clinging over his head, the dog looks diagonally up, towards an unclear form, which seems to be a blurred shade of a shape whose nature cannot be depicted. In defining this image the artist uses a simplistic art that suggests deep sensations of fear and submission. There are no clear lines, but a vague interdependence between all the shapes and elements included in the painting, which is a suggestion of the coexistence and imminence. The artist used heavy and loosen brushstrokes, combining nuances of yellow, ocher, brown and black, seemingly in a careless manner, which creates a gloomy image. The two main surfaces that surround the dog from above and below is head are thought to be the sky and the earth, while the third shape is often intentionally omitted in the artistic interpretations of “The Dog”, due to its unclear nature (Lubbock, “Goya, Francisco de: The Dog”).
The image of the dog, seemingly trapped between two threatening worlds, represented through the ocher and brownish backgrounds that surround him, has received various interpretations. The dog seems to be drowning, being swallowed into the brownie surface that simulates the shape of a wave or moving sand (Miller 38). Apparently ignoring the brownie surface that hides his body, the dog seems totally captivated by the unclear shape that reflects as a shadow on the ocher background. While some consider that “The Dog” suggests the imminence of the death that everybody experience in solitude (Lubbock “Goya, Francisco de: The Dog”), others consider that Goya’s painting speaks about submissiveness of individuals (Miller 38). The second interpretation positions the dog as a symbol of humans facing the traps, darkness and threats of the social order to which they willingly submit. Yet another interpretation of the painting indicates that the dog is swimming, ignoring to interpret the character’s expression that denotes fear and panic (Benford “Famous Painters”). What seems to be unquestionable clear is the minimalist positioning of the dog in relation with the other elements depicted in the painting, respectively the ocher shape above him, the brownie curbed shaped beyond him and the faded trace that signifies a presence. This intended representation of the dog as small, talks about the insignificance of individual existence in relation with its surrounding nature. The insignificance of the individuals in comparison with the nature has been a source of inspiration for artists before Goya. Caspar David Friedrich captured the same theme in “The Monk in the Sea”, wherein the human presence received infinitesimal consideration compared to his surroundings (Connell 207). An important aspect in this painting is the pale shade, which has often been ignored in analysis. As in a cause and effect situation, the pale shade seems to be the reason (the cause) that frightens the dog (effect). It can represent the oppressor, hence, a presence that has been previously attacked or mistreated the dog, determining the latter to react with fear and submissiveness. Symbolically, the painting can indicate that just as a dog begs Mersey from his cruel master, humans ask for help and understanding from a corrupt system that mistreats them.
Other artists have surprised before the dogs in solitude or their relationship with the nature. Franz Marc is one of them, creating a “Dog Lying in the Snow”. As a proponent of the realist movement in painting, Marc’s art is accurate, describing his elements clearly, as depicting an image from the immediate reality. The broken brushstrokes and the presence of clear shadows or reflections of light plus the rendering of the colors in a clear manner are indications of realism art, which has generated a loyal interpretation of a winter episode depicting a dog sleeping in the snow. Marc’s “Dog Lying in the Snow” has only two things in common with Goya’s “The Dog”: the main character and the representation of the nature. Unlike Goya’s dog, Marc’s dog is silent, calmly resting on the snow. The nature in this second painting can also seem threatening, as the snow is cold, which might generate an uncomfortable sensation for Marc’s dog, but it does not. While Goya’s dog fears the natural elements that surround him, Marc’s dog is in a deep communion with the nature.
While Marc’s “Dog Lying in the Snow” represents a reflection of the artist’s historical artistic period, Goya’s dog is an indication of an art revolution, entering the realm of the id and subconscious for announcing the surrealism (Benford “Famous Painters: Francisco Goya”). The specific artistic representation that Goya produced in “The Dog” reflects the artist’s own fears and frustrations in relation to his loss of hearing. The sensation of powerless that reveals from the painting can be interpreted as Goya’s own feeling of incapacity caused by his deficiency. In addition, the submissive dog is also the image of the society facing the abuses of the political system, led by the King Ferdinand VII, who reinstalled the Inquisition and ruled in terror, as an absolute monarch (Metmuseum “Francisco de Goya”). The dog that seems to be suffocating between two surfaces and a blurry shade reflects Goya’s existentialist fear of King Ferdinand VII, who provided no royal commissions for the artist as his predecessors did, leaving the painter trapped into misery (the ocher surface) and frustration (the brownish surface).
Works Cited
Benford, Susan. Famous painters: Francisco de Goya. Available at http://www.themasterpiececards.com/famous-paintings-reviewed/bid/101275/Famous-Painters-Francisco-de-Goya. N.d. Accessed 17 July 2015. Web.
Connell, Evan Francisco Goya: A Life. Counterpoint. 2004. Print.
Lubbock, Tom. Goya, Francisco de: The Dog. Available at http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/goya-francisco-de-the-dog-c1820-864391.html. Accessed 17 July 2015. N.d. Web.
Metmuseum. Francisco Goya (1746 - 1828) and the Spanish Enlightenment. Available at http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/goya/hd_goya.htm. Accessed 17 July 2015. N.d. Web.
Miller, Steven. Dogs in Australian Art. South Australia: Wakefield Press. 2012. Print.
