Deafness and mentality in Francisco Goya’s paintings

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Deafness and mentality in Francisco Goya’s paintings

Journal Title: Otolaryngologia Polska - Year 2009, Vol 63, Issue 2

Abstract

The famous painter Francisco Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) suffered during his life one or several diseases, the nature of which has not been determined with certainty. At age of 46, Goya suffered from severe illness that lasted a few months. It caused loss of vision and hearing, tinnitus, dizziness, a right-sides paralysis, weakness and general malaise. Although he recovered from a cerebral stroke which accompanied it, the deafness remained unaltered. The illness divies Goya’s artistic life into two great different periods. After in the painter produces his greatest works. The visual experience after the illness was heightened by the exclusion of acoustics stimuli and the artist’s talent rose to the highest level. His character became more withdrawn and introspective and his entire vitality was direscted to his painting. Goya’s painting became progressively more gloom and satirical during his long convalescence. The artist suffered a stroke at age 73 that again rendered him paralysed on the right side. The precise cause of his illness has long been debated. Ome medical writers have favored the diagnosis of syphilis, some consider the possibility of an exogenous psychosis, and other suggests that the symptoms of the illness are more congruent with heavy metal poisoning, particulary lead. It is interesting to speculate how the Goya’s deafness infl uenced the artist’s mentality and the changes of his painting. Interesting is also the problem of the sensory compensation in fact of disturbance of physiological function of one of the senses.

Authors and Affiliations

Stanisław Betlejewski, Roman Ossowski

Keywords

Deafness painting Psychology compensation Francisco Goya głuchota malarstwo psychika

EP ID EP51718
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