Poetry (La Poesía)

If it is true that these works were designed for Godoy's palace, they would probably have been hung in the library. This kind of allegorical work with strong propagandist elements would have been favourable to the Prime Minister's image, making him seem to be an enlightened protector of the arts and sciences.

As pointed out by Soria and Sánchez Cantón, this allegory follows the iconography laid down by Cesare Ripa, whose work was always taken into account by Goya when he depicted allegorical themes. According to Ripa, Poetry should be depicted as a beautiful woman baring her chest, crowned with laurel, and dressed in sky blue with many stars adorning her attire. She should be seated on Mount Parnassus and accompanied by the nine Muses. Three putti fly around her, carrying musical instruments (a horn, cymbals, and a flute) which symbolize the different branches of poetry. The confusion over the meaning of this painting is understandable, and it was considered for years to be the apotheosis of Music.

Goya has faithfully respected this description, and so we are presented this impressive woman, whose silhouette juts out, monumental, against the sky. The rocks upon which she sits trace a diagonal line which divides the composition into two parts. We can see three figures on the lower left-hand side of the picture which represent the three great poets of history: Homer (the blind man on the left) and two others, dressed in white and grey respectively, which may be Virgil and Dante, Ovid, or Horace. Goya even took into account the source of eternal poetic inspiration or Hippocrene, whose waters flowed down the mountain at Poetry's feet. On the summit of Mount Parnassus, a small figure of Pegasus prepares to take flight, symbol of the importance of the imagination.

Similarities have been noted between this work and the frescoes of the Chapel of San Antonio de la Florida in Madrid in terms of the atmospheric qualities, the blue of the surrounding sky, and the brushwork. In fact, Rita de Angelis claims (although not without caution), this work might well have been destined to be hung in the ceiling, and Gudiol agrees that its correct appreciation would indeed be best carried out from below. At the end of the 18th century, many allegorical compositions were hung high on ceilings, such as Bayeu's works for the Royal Palace in Madrid.