Focus on The Madhouse and analyze the Related works.
Goya had already touched on the issues of mental illnesses and suffering his 1794 painting Yard with Lunatics. Yard with Lunatics depicts the manic patients being let out into the asylum yard, where the central figures wrestle while the guard attempts to restrain them. This work would have been composed around the time that Goya was recovering from his illness. Yard with Lunatics is unique for its time due to its depiction of the inhabitants, straying from the stereotypical depictions of the insane and instead portraying more realistic behaviors and actions.The Madhouse differs from Yard with Lunatics by placing the subjects in a dingy room, while portraying them as people who are suffering, as opposed to people who need to be restrained for their own good. These two works depicting asylums were not Goya's only exploration of suffering. Over the period of 1810-1820, he created eighty-three etchings that became a series named The Disasters of War (Spanish: Los Desastres de la Guerra). Not published until 1863, thirty-five years after his death, the series shows the atrocities committed by Napoleon's forces during both the Dos de Mayo Uprising and the Peninsular War. In these works, Goya strips the surrounding elements to force the audience to focus on the shocking nature of the subject. The etchings don't appear to have a narrative, as each one depicts a scene independent of others. Goya has become known for his depictions of these subjects of violence and suffering due to his willingness to leave out the beauty of art and instead create pieces that shock and disturb the viewer.
Yard with Lunatics Dos de Mayo Uprising The Disasters of War etching Peninsular War