The idea of the sacred and the profound intrinsically relates to the nature of being; the way in which one lives: the way a human being chooses to exist. For this reason, artists often explore and develop their understanding of the nature of being through the what is considered sacred and profound to either themselves, or their community. This exploration not only inspires their own profoundness, but also further inspires and challenges these notions within both the populace and the artistic community, providing insight and inspiration for other artists. Prominently, artists and their respective works such as Francisco Goya with The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters and Edvard Munch’s The Scream both explore the idea of the intrinsic nature
…show more content…
Goya’s The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters provides an unusual insight into the nature of being through his particular exploration of the profound. The 1798 print was featured in Goya’s eighty-piece collection, Los Caprichos: a series of prints which blended satire, fantasy, hypocrisy and irrationality as a response to both the human condition and society in which he lived in (Art gallery of New South Wales, 2016). The Sleep of Reason is an etching completed with the use of a burin; painted with a mixture of aquatint and ink. On the bottom left of the image is a small copper plate which has been engraved with a drypoint, reading: 'El sueño, de la razon produce monstruos’ which is the title of the piece (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016). Goya’s use of aquatint and ink provides further depth and tone to the grey-scaled piece, whilst the utilisation of short, sharp lines provide further texture and depth to the work. The etching portrays Goya slumped over a tool-laden desk, hiding his head in his arms, whilst menacing creatures- most notably cats, owls, bats and a lynx- loom around his …show more content…
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters represents the sacred-ground on which human thought is held: Goya responds to the philosophical understanding of human nature as the focus of the work. In response to the work, Goya wrote: “Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters: united with her, she is the mother of the arts and the source of her wonders,” (White, 2009). The monsters to which the statement alludes to, in the artistic sense, are the owls and bats flying around the slumbering subject. Whilst owls typically represent reason and intelligence in most Western societies, in Spanish folklore- Goya himself was Spanish- owls represent mindless stupidity and evil spirits. Furthermore, bats in Spain were considered also to be creatures of ignorance, but were also associated with the devil due to their perceived parasitic behaviour (Tal, 2010). In this piece, Goya proposes that the absence of creativity, and the presence of logic only, produces nightmares and unimaginable chaos. He believes that whilst reflection can lead to knowledge, equally in excess, it can also lead to misery and self-loathing. To Goya, imagination should never be completely renounced in favor of the strictly rational: art is the child of reason, in combination with imagination. For
Goya’s The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters provides an unusual insight into the nature of being through his particular exploration of the profound. The 1798 print was featured in Goya’s eighty-piece collection, Los Caprichos: a series of prints which blended satire, fantasy, hypocrisy and irrationality as a response to both the human condition and society in which he lived in (Art gallery of New South Wales, 2016). The Sleep of Reason is an etching completed with the use of a burin; painted with a mixture of aquatint and ink. On the bottom left of the image is a small copper plate which has been engraved with a drypoint, reading: 'El sueño, de la razon produce monstruos’ which is the title of the piece (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016). Goya’s use of aquatint and ink provides further depth and tone to the grey-scaled piece, whilst the utilisation of short, sharp lines provide further texture and depth to the work. The etching portrays Goya slumped over a tool-laden desk, hiding his head in his arms, whilst menacing creatures- most notably cats, owls, bats and a lynx- loom around his …show more content…
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters represents the sacred-ground on which human thought is held: Goya responds to the philosophical understanding of human nature as the focus of the work. In response to the work, Goya wrote: “Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters: united with her, she is the mother of the arts and the source of her wonders,” (White, 2009). The monsters to which the statement alludes to, in the artistic sense, are the owls and bats flying around the slumbering subject. Whilst owls typically represent reason and intelligence in most Western societies, in Spanish folklore- Goya himself was Spanish- owls represent mindless stupidity and evil spirits. Furthermore, bats in Spain were considered also to be creatures of ignorance, but were also associated with the devil due to their perceived parasitic behaviour (Tal, 2010). In this piece, Goya proposes that the absence of creativity, and the presence of logic only, produces nightmares and unimaginable chaos. He believes that whilst reflection can lead to knowledge, equally in excess, it can also lead to misery and self-loathing. To Goya, imagination should never be completely renounced in favor of the strictly rational: art is the child of reason, in combination with imagination. For