Deux scènes de cannibalisme dans la peinture de Francisco de Goya y Lucientes : essai pictural sur la nature humaine
The present research project aims to broaden the interpretations of two paintings of Francisco de Goya, whose titles were attributed to them a posteriori: "Cannibals Gazing at their Victims" (1800-1008?) and "Cannibals Preparing their Victims" (1800-1008?). The analysis begins with a description of the materiality of the paintings. This section represents the first reading of the works’ structural connections, and suggests that the two images are in fact two parts of a diptych. We will then delve into a critical exploration of their reception. Since these images are the two first examples of cannibal figures inspired by colonial imagery to appear in the Western art historical tradition of painting, we explore the iconographical horizon of cannibalism in order to find comparable images, the likes of which are divided into three categories: colonial images, caricature, and mythological paintings. Afterwards, considering the widespread and romantic interpretation of these paintings as representations of human nature, we will attempt to reinscribe them within the historical and philosophical spheres from which this notion derives. We focus on the ideas of Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose conceptions of human nature are contradictory towards each other. While Hobbes suggests that the nature of humanity is cruel, Rousseau deems it fundamentally good. This notion is one that Goya probably encountered himself while frequenting the Ilustrados – or, the more prominent figures of the Spanish Enlightenment. As a result, we will be able to situate the two paintings with respect to their specific context of emergence. Through the examination of these horizons, we aim to demonstrate the ways in which these two paintings think, and how, through their own resources, they deviate from – or even surpass – the iconographical and philosophical situations from which they hail, and to which they respond.
Thomas Hobbes Jean-Jacques Rousseau 19th Century -- Spain Cannibalism