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18th Century Art in Spain

Code: 100572
Credits: 6
2026/2027
Degree programme Type Course
Art History OP 3
Art History OP 4

Contact lecturer

Name :
Rafael Cornudella Carre
Email :
rafael.cornudella@uab.cat

Group languages

You can consult this information at the end of the document.

Prerequisites

No prerequisite

Objectives

The main purpose of the course is to provide some basic keys to interpret the Spanish art of the Eighteenth Century and its connections with a particularly conflictive and dynamic historical process, which begins with the War of Succession in the Crown of Spain and ends with the crisis of the old regime and the War of Independence. Likewise, artistic manifestations will be studied within a cultural context in which traditional forms of thought, heirs of the counter-reformist spirit and of a languishing “Golden Age”, will have to confront the critical weight of the Enlightenment. Without neglecting other regional realities, the program will prioritize art, especially painting, which developed at the court, and in particular the work of Francisco de Goya, the most powerful personality among Spanish artists, also because of the genuinely intellectual dimension of his work, will be studied. The aim of this program is to foster the student's intellectual autonomy, and particularly his critical attitude towards bibliographic sources.

Learning outcomes

  1. Applying the iconographic knowledge to the reading of artistic imagery.
  2. Analysing ideas about an artistic phenomenon in a given cultural context.
  3. Analysing the creators of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  4. Analysing the recipients of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  5. Connecting an artistic imagery with other cultural phenomena within its period.
  6. Reconstructing the artistic outlook of a particular cultural context.
  7. Identifying the artistic imagery, placing it into its cultural context.
  8. Accurately defining and explaining an artistic object with the specific language of art criticism.
  9. Examining an artistic imagery and distinguishing its formal, iconographic and symbolic values.
  10. Distinguishing the elaboration techniques and processes of an artistic object.
  11. Explaining the reception mechanisms of a work of art.
  12. Engaging in debates about historical facts respecting the other participants' opinions.
  13. Autonomously searching, selecting and processing information both from structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialized magazines) and from across the network.
  14. Coordinating working teams, developing conflict resolution and decision making abilities.

Contents

The subject consists of two parts: the first offers a global overview of 18th century Spanish painting, while the second part is dedicated entirely to Francisco de Goya. If for unforeseen reasons the first part becomes too long, some of the points in this part will be eliminated or synthesized to dedicate several sessions to Goya. The individual work will also be about Goya.


First part : Painting in Spain in the 18th century


  1. Continuity of the baroque tendencies of the Golden Age. The mark of Luca Giordano. Claudio Coello and other painters in Madrid.The personality of Acisclo Antonio Palomino, painter and writer.
  2. French and Italian painters at the court of Philip V. The painters of the court in times of Fernando VI. From the preparatory boards to the creation of the Royal Academy of San Fernando (1752). Beginning of the stays of formation in Rome (the leadeship of Sebastiano Conca and Corrado Giaquinto). Giaquinto in Madrid and his influence.
  3. Painting in the time of Charles III. Anton Raphael Mengs and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo at the court of Madrid.
  4. Court painters between the heritage of Giaquinto and the ascendancy of Mengs. José del Castillo. Antonio González Velázquez (and his brothers). Francisco Bayeu (and his brother Ramon). Mariano Salvador Maella.
  5. Other expressions of stylistic pluralism at the end of the century. Luis Meléndez and the still lifes. Luis Paret and Alcázar.


Segona part: Francisco de Goya


  1. Formación (Zaragoza, Roma, Madrid)
  2. La primera etapa en la corte. Los cartones para tapices, 1774-1792
  3. La época de los Caprichos, 1793-1799
  4. From the first years of the new century to the Napoleonic invasion. The Distasters of the War (Desastres de la Guerra)
  5. The Restoration, the liberal triennium, the last years in Bordeaux


Learning activities and methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Master classes 120 4.8 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Seminars, discussions 10 0.4 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13
Reading assignments 20 0.8 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13

Presential classes in the classroom

Development of the program by the teacher

Possible seminars on topics and materials proposed by the teacher (depending on the number of students attending).

Tutorials, methodological and bibliographical orientation, supervised activities.

Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Assessment

Continuous assessment activities

Title Weight Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Exam on required readings 20% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Exam 1 40% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Exam 2 40% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

First written test (partial exam) 40%.

Second written test (partial exam) 40%.

exam on required lectures 420%.

In order to pass the course it will be necessary that the sum of the grades of the three evidences is at least a 5 (out of 10). If an evidence has been failed, it will be necessary to attend the recovery.

Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items.

Other details about the format of the evidences will be communicated at the beginning or during the course with sufficient advance notice.


Single assessment:

The single assessment will consist of the same three evidences foreseen in the continuous assessment, with the same percentages. The date of the exam (first and second written exams) and the delivery of the individual work will be at the end of the course.


On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place

Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items.

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.


Bibliography

A)Painting of the XVIII century in Spain :

Aterido, Ángel, El final del Siglo de Oro. La pintura en Madrid en el cambio dinástico, 1685-1726, Madrid, 2015

Bottineau, Yves, El arte cortesano en la España de Felipe V (1700-1746), Madrid, 1986

Kasl, Ronda ; Stratton, Suzanne L. (eds.), Painting in Spain in the Age of Enlightenment. Goya and his Contemporaries, catàleg de l’exposició, Indianapolis-New York, 1997

Morales y Marín, José Luís, Pintura en España, 1750-1808, Madrid, 1994

Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E. ; Pita Andrade, José Manuel ; Bottineau, Yves, El arte europeo en la corte de España durante el siglo XVIII, catàleg de l’exposició, Paris-Madrid, 1979

Perez Sánchez, Alfonso E., Pintura barroca en España 1600-1750, Madrid, 1992

Perez Sánchez, Alfonso E. (ed.), Luca Giordano y España, cat. exposició, Madrid, Palacio Real, 2002

Rodríguez G. de Ceballos, Alfonso, El siglo XVIII entre tradición y Academia, Madrid, 1992

Sánchez Cantón, F. J., Escultura y pintura del siglo XVIII. Francisco Goya [Ars Hispaniae, XVII], Madrid, 1965

B) Francisco de Goya :

Arnaiz, José Manuel, Francisco de Goya, cartones y tapices, Madrid, 1987

Gassier, Pierre ; Wilson, Juliet, Vie et oeuvre de Francisco Goya, Paris, 1978 [primera ed. : Fribourg, 1970]

Glendinning, Nigel, Goya and his Critics, New Haven and London, 1977

Helman, Edith, Trasmundo de Goya, Madrid, 1963, 1983

Klingender, F. D., Goya and the Democratic Tradition, London, 1948, 1968

Light, Fred, Goya : The Origins of the Modern Temper in Art, New York, 1979

Mena, Manuela B. (ed.), Goya en tiempos de guerra, catàleg de l’exposició, Madrid, 2008

Muller, Priscilla E., Goya’s ‘Black’ Paintings. Truth and Reason in Light and Liberty, New York, 1984

Todorov, Tzvetan, Goya . A la sombra de las Luces, Barcelona, 2011 [ed. original : Goya à l’ombre des Lumières, ]

Tomlinson, Janis A., Francisco de Goya, los cartones para tapices y los comienzos de su carrera en la corte de Madrid, 1993 [ed. original : Francisco Goya: The Tapestry Cartoons and Early Career at the Court of Madrid, Cambridge, 1989]

Tomlinson, Janis A., Goya en el crepúsculo del siglo de las luces, Madrid, 1993 [ed. original : Goya in the Twilicht of the Enlightenment, New Haven and London, 1992]

Tomlinson, Janis A., Goya. Retrato de un artista, Madrid, 2022 [ed. original: Goya: A Portrait of the Artist, 2020]

Wilson-Bareau, Juliet ; Mena, Manuela B. (eds.), Goya : el capricho y la invención. Cuadros de gabinete, bocetos y miniaturas, catàleg de l’exposició, Madrid, 1993

Software

Nothing

Course groups and languages

The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE

Type of teaching Group Language Semester Shift
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed