- Cronología
- Ca. 1820 - 1823
- Ubicación
- Stanley Moss & Company, New York, United States
- Dimensiones
- 112 x 67 cm
- Técnica y soporte
- Oil on canvas
- Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
- Documented work
- Titular
- Stanley Moss & Company
- Ficha: realización/revisión
- 26 Oct 2010 / 15 Jun 2023
- Otros títulos:
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Grupo de cabezas
Caprice with Five Heads (Capricho con cinco cabezas)
In 1846 Vicente López made a record of this work in an inventory of the artworks housed in the Vista Alegre Palace (Carabanchel de Abajo, Madrid) while it belonged to María Cristina de Borbón. It was inherited by her daughter, the Infanta María Luisa Fernanda, who decided to sell the painting in 1859 to José de Salamanca y Mayol, ordering the transfer of many objects from the palace to the Palace of San Telmo in Seville to form part of the collection of the Duke and Duchess of Montpensier. The painting was inherited by their son, Antonio de Orléans y Borbón, the Duke of Galliera, in 1892. It must have travelled to Paris when still in the possession of the Duke, but was later sold by the Countess of Paris, consort to the merchant and collector Contini Bonacossi, from whom it was purchased by its current North American owner, Stanley Moss & Company.
It has been suggested that this painting was hung with the Black Paintings on the first floor of the house known as the Quinta del Sordo, on the left of the door to the room.
In the lower right-hand corner of the painting there is a set of human heads in a group looking directly at the viewer with an intense gaze. In this case, the faces of the characters are not distorted, seeming more realistic than the others in the series. The asymmetrical composition is strongly reinforced by the distribution of the figures in a corner of the work, while in the upper part of the painting above the figures there is a light focus that illuminates the scene. The background is a landscape featuring a large mountain with the faint outline of trees before it, all rendered in diffuse patches of colour. The possible meaning of this work is unknown, and some authors have questioned its authenticity.
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Goya, sa vie, son œuvreParísHenri Plon1867p. 146
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BarcelonaPolígrafa1970vol. I, p. 381, cat. 717
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Goya's Black Paintings: Truth and Reason in Light and LibertyNew YorkHispanic Society of America1984
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Goya. Las pinturas negrasMadridEdiciones Antiquaria, S.A.1996p. 96