Goya: Or the Hard Way to Enlightenment 1971

The painter Goya Donatas Banionis has built a solid reputation and prosperity through his remarkable talent and creative power. His clients come from Madrid’s most influential households, and his growing renown gradually brings him into the royal circle at the court of King Charles IV Rolf Hoppe. He is deeply drawn to the enigmatic Duchess Alba Olivera Katarina, even as he recoils from the decadent aristocracy that surrounds her. He places trust in the king and the Church, savoring his secure position within this closed world.

His colleague and friend Esteve Fred Düren reveals to him the contradictions that underlie this society, guiding Goya toward the lives of ordinary people beyond the capital. In a Madrid tavern he encounters the singer Maria Rosario, a moment that later forces him to witness her condemnation by the Inquisition. The stark song she must recite as proof of guilt shatters him and deepens his sense of moral responsibility.

As Goya increasingly turns to the people for his art, drawing from their struggles and dreams, the weight of societal misery begins to haunt him. His relationship with the Duchess Alba intensifies his inner turmoil, triggering self-destructive impulses and a sudden onset of deafness. He leaves the countryside behind and, completely deaf, travels to his mother’s home in Aragon. Yet with Esteve’s support, he finds a path back to work, even as he grows more estranged from the prevailing values of society and the Church.

Haunted by the demons he reads in others’ deeds and their wielding of social influence, these visions seep into his canvases and etchings. He falls under the pressure of the Inquisition; the Grand Inquisitor urges him to renounce his beliefs. But Goya remains convinced that misery and horror arise from the very conditions of life, and he clings to the truth he sees in his art, choosing exile instead.

The year 1808 brings a brutal suppression of a Madrid uprising against the French occupation. Struck by the violence he witnesses, Goya channels his response into a powerful cycle of etchings, The Disasters of War, a stark, unflinching record of conflict, oppression, and resilience.