Goya's deafness  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters is a 1799 print by Goya from the Caprichos series. It is the image the sleeping artist surrounded by the winged ghoulies and beasties unleashed by unreason.

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In late 1792, when Francisco Goya was 46, the Spanish painter became deaf .

At some time between late 1792 and early 1793, a serious illness (the exact nature of which is not known) which broke out while visiting his patron Sebastian Martinez left Goya deaf, and he became withdrawn and introspective. During his recuperation, he undertook a series of experimental paintings. His experimental art would encompass paintings and drawings as well as a bitterly expressive series of aquatinted etchings, published in 1799 under the title Caprichos.

As he completed Yard with Lunatics (c. 1794), Goya was himself undergoing a physical and mental breakdown. It happened a few weeks after the French declaration of war on Spain, and Goya’s illness was developing. A contemporary reported, "The noises in his head and deafness aren’t improving, yet his vision is much better and he is back in control of his balance."

These symptoms may indicate a prolonged viral encephalitis, or possibly a series of miniature strokes resulting from high blood pressure and affecting the hearing and balance centers of the brain. The triad of tinnitus, episodes of imbalance, and progressive deafness are also typical of Ménière's disease.

It is even possible that Goya suffered from cumulative lead poisoning, as he used massive amounts of lead white in his paintings, both as a canvas primer and as a primary color. Other postmortem diagnostic assessments point toward paranoid dementia due to an unknown brain trauma (perhaps resulting from the unknown illness which he reported). If this is the case, from here on we see an insidious assault on his faculties manifesting as paranoid features in his paintings, and culminating in his black paintings, especially Saturn Devouring His Sons. Yet through his artistry Goya could transform his personal demons into horrific and fantastic imagery that speaks universally, and allows his audience to find its own catharsis in these images.