The Inquisition Tribunal

The Inquisition Tribunal ( Escena de Inquisición ), 1812–1819. Oil on panel, 46cm x 73cm. Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid

The Inquisition Tribunal, also known as The Court of the Inquisition or The Inquisition Scene (Spanish: Escena de Inquisición ), is an 18x29 inch oil-on-panel painting produced by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya between 1812 and 1819. The painting belongs to a series which also includes The Bullfight, The Madhouse and A Procession of Flagellants, all showing some of the most terrible aspects of 19th-century Spanish life and reflecting customs which liberals (of whom Goya was then one) wished to reform but whose reform was opposed by the absolutist policy of Ferdinand VII of Spain.

The work was owned by Manuel García de la Prada and is now in the collection of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid.

Description

The painting depicts an auto-da-fé (Spanish, "act of faith") by a tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition, being held inside a church. The four accused people are wearing tall, pointed coroza (a three-foot tall pointed dunce cap) on their heads and clad in sambenitos describing their offences. Ringed around the accused are the clerics and Inquisitors and farther back a sea of invited guests fill the church interior, witnessing the drama. Every figure in the foreground is in the light, individualised and well-characterised, whereas the background is occupied by an anonymous mass of people shut in by darkness and a claustrophobic Gothic architecture.

Historical background

The Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478 to keep Catholic orthodoxy. The first auto da fé took place in Seville in 1481, when six conversos (Jews forcibly converted to Christianity) were burnt at the stake. In Goya's lifetime he would have been quite aware of the history and strong influence that the church held on Spanish society. Though the Inquisition was winding down it was not until 1834 that it was officially ended. Goya sketched, painted and printed many scenes showing the barbarity and cruelty of the Spanish Inquisition and of the turbulent, warring times in which he lived.

The auto da fé

The auto da fé, like the one shown in the Inquisition Tribunal, was used to publicly shame and break an accused heretic.The victim had often been tortured beforehand until they confessed to the crimes of which they had been accused. The accuser(s) and witnesses against the "heretic" were kept secret from the accused until the public shaming.

The attire that the accused was forced to wear during the auto da fé more often than not signified the crime and punishment. For instance, if a victim was to be burnt at the stake, the sleeveless vest known as sambenito had flames emblazoned on it against a black background. Often these garments also noted the victim’s name, social status, supposed crime against the Church, and the date of conviction. The victim was made to wear a coroza, which was also decorated with details of the alleged crime or sins, as well an inscription of the punishment that was to be meted out to the accused.

Goya

Born in 1746, Goya moved from his home town Saragossa to Madrid in 1775. He became a cartoon painter in the royal tapestry factory and his work was brought to the attention of the Spanish royalty. He was appointed court painter in 1789. Goya went deaf in 1792 because of the poisonous component in the paints he was using. Long before he painted The Inquisition Tribunal, in 1783, he made a portrait of Don Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga aged six, who later became a cardinal at the age of twenty three and ended the notorious Spanish Inquisition.

Summary

By the time period in which this painting was most likely completed, Goya was long finished with painting pretty pictures in the rococo style. No longer were his artworks decorations but strong essays on the turmoil and raw emotion of man’s inhumanity to man. Each of the paintings in this series is marked by an instance of cruelty; here in the Inquisition Tribunal, the threat of being burned at the stake, symbolised by the pointed hats worn by the accused. A Procession of Flagellants another one of Goya's art works in this series shows the presence of cruelty and the use of symbolism, where blood is seen flowing out onto the white garment of figures. Its size is 46cm x 73cm (18Inches x 29Inches). It is an oil on panel. One of the most famous of Goya's paintings, The Clothed Maja, shows the titillating gaze and seductive attire of a young woman, which "upset the ecclesiastical authorities", the Spanish Church.

References


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