The Inquisition Tribunal

1819 painting by Francisco Goya

The Inquisition Tribunal

Spanish: Auto de fe de la Inquisición
Artist| Francisco Goya
Year| 1812–1819
Medium| Oil on panel
Dimensions| 46 cm × 73 cm (18 in × 29 in)
Location| Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid

The Inquisition Tribunal, also known as The Court of the Inquisition or The Inquisition Scene (Spanish: Escena de Inquisición), is a 46-by-73-centimetre (18 by 29 in) oil-on-panel painting produced by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya between 1812 and 1819.[1] The painting belongs to a series which also includes Bullfight, The Madhouse and A Procession of Flagellants, all reflecting customs which liberals (of whom Goya was then one) objected to and wished were abandoned, but their reform was opposed by the absolutist (autocratic) policy of Ferdinand VII of Spain.[2]

The work was owned by Manuel García de la Prada and is now in the collection of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid.[3]

## Description[edit]

The painting depicts an auto-da-fé (from Portuguese, meaning "act of faith") by a tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition,[1] being held inside a church.[4] The officials in the scene are predominantly monks with only a single secular judge present. The four accused people are wearing tall, pointed coroza or capirote (a white pointed hat) on their heads and clad in sanbenitos describing their offences.[5] Ringed around the accused are the clerics and Inquisitors and farther back a sea of invited guests fill the church interior, witnessing the drama. Every figure in the foreground is in the light, individualised and well-characterised, whereas the background is occupied by an anonymous mass of people shut in by darkness and a claustrophobic Gothic architecture.[citation needed]

## Background[edit]

Born in 1746, Goya moved from his home town Zaragoza to Madrid in 1775. He became a cartoon painter in the Royal Tapestry Factory and his work was brought to the attention of the Spanish royalty. He was appointed court painter in 1789. Long before he painted The Inquisition Tribunal, in 1783, he made a portrait of Don Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga aged six, who later became a cardinal at the age of twenty-three and ended the notorious Spanish Inquisition. By the time period in which this painting was most likely completed, Goya was long finished with painting sunny pictures in the rococo style. He had suffered a grave illness in 1792 that left him permanently deaf.[6] This crisis marked a turning point in his work; instead of light-hearted decorations he painted strong essays on the turmoil and raw emotion of man’s inhumanity to man. The Inquisition Tribunal is one of a series of paintings marked by an instance of cruelty—here in the Inquisition Tribunal, the threat of being burned at the stake, symbolised by the pointed hats worn by the accused. A Procession of Flagellants, another one of Goya's works in this series, shows the presence of cruelty and the use of symbolism, where blood is seen flowing out onto the white garment of figures. Its size is 46 cm x 73 cm (18 inches x 29 inches). It is an oil on panel.

The Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478 to keep Catholic orthodoxy. The first auto-da-fé took place in Seville in 1481, when six conversos (Jews forcibly converted to Christianity) were burnt at the stake. In Goya's lifetime he would have been quite aware of the history and strong influence that the church held on Spanish society. Though the Inquisition was winding down it was not until 1834 that it was officially ended. Goya sketched, painted and printed many scenes showing the barbarity and cruelty of the Spanish Inquisition and of the turbulent, warring times in which he lived.[7]

Goya was twice summoned by the Inquisition. The first time was in regard to his series of prints Los Caprichos, published in 1799. He was called by the Inquisition again in 1815, after ecclesiastical authorities discovered his paintings The Naked Maja and The Clothed Maja among the seized property of Manuel Godoy. In both instances he escaped serious punishment.[7]

## The auto-da-fé[edit]

The auto-da-fé, like the one shown in the Inquisition Tribunal, was used to publicly shame and break an accused heretic. The victim had often been tortured beforehand until they confessed to the crimes of which they had been accused. The accuser(s) and witnesses against the "heretic" were kept secret from the accused until the public shaming.

The attire that the accused was forced to wear during the auto da fé more often than not signified the crime and punishment. The victim was made to wear a coroza, a tall conical hat.[8] If a victim was to be burnt at the stake, the sleeveless vest known as sanbenito had flames emblazoned on it against a black background.[9] Often these garments also noted the victim’s name, social status, supposed crime against the Church, and the date of conviction.

## See also[edit]

* List of works by Francisco Goya

## Notes[edit]

1. ^ a b Rose-Marie Hagen; Rainer Hagen (2003). What Great Paintings Say. Vol. 2\. Taschen. p. 328\. ISBN 9783822813720.
2. ^ Stoichita, Victor; Coderch, Anna Maria. "Goya: The Last Carnival". 25–30. ISBN 978-1-8618-9045-0
3. ^ Cruz, Jesus. "Gentlemen, Bourgeois, and Revolutionaries". University of Delaware. 37
4. ^ Enzo George (2016). The Reformation. Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC. p. 11\. ISBN 9781502620163.
5. ^ Alison Kinney (2016). Hood. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 47\. ISBN 9781501307423.
6. ^ Hagen 31.
7. ^ a b Loeb Stepanek et al., 294.
8. ^ Hagen 35.
9. ^ Roth, Cecil. 2010. The Spanish Inquisition. [Whitefish, MT]: Kessinger Publishing. 109.

## References[edit]

* Bozal, Valeriano, Francisco Goya, vida y obra, Madrid, Tf, 2005, 2 vols. (Aficiones, 5-6), vol. 2, pages 170–171. ISBN 978-84-96209-39-8. (in Spanish)
* Hagen, Rose-Marie, and Rainer Hagen. 2003. Francisco Goya, 1746–1928. Koln: Taschen. ISBN 3822818232.
* Hughes, Robert. "Goya". New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. Print. pages 335–336.
* Loeb Stepanek, Stephanie, Frederick Ilchman, and Janis A. Tomlinson. 2014. Goya. Order and Disorder. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts. ISBN 9780878468089.
* Stearns, Monroe, Goya and His Times, New York, Franklin Watts, Inc, 1966, pages 29 and 140.
* Tomlinson, Janis. From El Greco to Goya. New York. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1997. Print. Pages 14, 15, 18 and 19.
* Voorhies, James, "Francisco de Goya (1746-1828) and the Spanish enlightenment" The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Web. 22 March 2014.

## External links[edit]

* Auto de fe de la Inquisición on Artehistoria.com (in Spanish)
* Goya en el Museo de la Academia at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (in Spanish)
* Giles Tremlett. "Revealed: the unseen Goya painting of the boy who halted the Spanish Inquisition" The Guardian. December 19, 2006.
* Robert Hughes on Goya: Crazy like a Genius BBC Four. March 2002.
* Media related to Tribunal de la Inquisición (Goya) at Wikimedia Commons

* v
* t
* e

Francisco Goya

List of works

Paintings|

| Paintings|

* Consecration of Aloysius Gonzaga (c. 1763)
* The Holy Family with Saints Joachim and Anne (c. 1769)
* The Rape of Europa (1772)
* Christ Crucified (1780)
* The Family of the Infante Don Luis (1783–84)
* The Greasy Pole (1786–87)
* The Drunk Mason (1786–87)
* Paintings for the alameda of the Dukes of Osuna (1786–87)
* Saint Bernard of Clairvaux curing a cripple (1787)
* Yard with Lunatics (1793–94)
* Prison Interior (1793–94)
* Assault of Thieves (1793–94)
* The Duchess of Alba and la Beata (1795)
* Witches' Flight (1797–98)
* The Bewitched Man (1797–98)
* Witches' Sabbath (1798)
* La maja desnuda (c. 1797–1800)
* La maja vestida (1800–1805)
* Allegory of Industry (c. 1805)
* Majas on a Balcony (c. 1808–1812)
* The Water Bearer (1808–1812)
* The Knifegrinder (1808–1812)
* Still Life of a Lamb's Head and Flanks (1808–1812)
* The Colossus (after 1808)
* Truth, Time and History (1812–1814)
* The Madhouse (1812–1819)
* The Inquisition Tribunal (1812–1819)
* The Second of May 1808 (1814)
* The Third of May 1808 (1814)
* The Junta of the Philippines (1815)
* A Village Bullfight (1815–1819)
* The Burial of the Sardine (c. 1816)
* A Procession of Flagellants (c. 1816)
* The Victorious Hannibal Seeing Italy from the Alps for the First Time (1770–71)
* The Forge (c. 1817)
* Bullfight (1824)

|

Portraits|

* Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga (or Red Boy) (c. 1788)
* La Tirana (1792)
* La Tirana (1794)
* Portrait of the Marquise de la Solana (1795)
* The White Duchess (1795)
* Portrait of Charles IV of Spain (c. 1795)
* The Black Duchess (1797)
* Bernardo de Iriarte (1797)
* Portrait of Ferdinand Guillemardet (1798–99)
* Charles IV in his Hunting Clothes (1799)
* Portrait of Maria Luisa of Parma
* The Countess of Chinchon (1800)
* Charles IV of Spain and His Family (1800–01)
* Portrait of Manuel Godoy (1801)
* Portrait of Doña Isabel de Porcel (1804–05)
* Portrait of the Marchioness of Santa Cruz (1805)
* Portrait of Doña Antonia Zárate (1805)
* Portrait of Doña Antonia Zárate (1810–11)
* Portrait of the Duke of Wellington (1812)
* Self-portrait at 69 years (1815)
* Self-portrait with Dr Arrieta (1820)
* Portrait of Don Ramón Satué (1823)
* The Milkmaid of Bordeaux (1825–1827)

Frescoes|

* Adoration of the Name of God (1772)
* Frescoes in the Cartuja de Aula Dei (1774)

Tapestry
cartoons
(list)|

* The Boar Hunt (1775)
* The Parasol (c. 1777)
* Boys playing soldiers (1778–79)
* Children in a Chariot (1779)
* The Swing (1779)
* La novillada (1780)
* The Grape Harvest (1786)
* Summer (1786–87)
* The Drunk Mason (1786–87)
* The Threshing Floor (1786–87)
* Blind Man's Bluff (1789)
* The Wedding (1791–92)

Black Paintings
(c. 1819–1823)|

* Saturn Devouring His Son
* Judith and Holofernes
* Witches' Sabbath
* A Pilgrimage to San Isidro
* La Leocadia
* Two Old Men
* Men Reading
* Man Mocked by Two Women
* Fight with Cudgels
* Pilgrimage to the Fountain of San Isidro
* Atropos
* Asmodea
* Two Old Ones Eating Soup
* The Dog

Print series|

| Los Caprichos (1797–98)|

* And so was his grandfather
* The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

|

The Prisoners (1810–1815)|

The Disasters of War (1810–1820)|

* This is worse (c. 1812–13)

La Tauromaquia (1815–16)|

* Unfortunate events in the front seats of the ring of Madrid, and the death of the mayor of Torrejón

Los Disparates (1815–1823)|

* A way of flying (c. 1815–16)

The Bulls of Bordeaux (1824–25)|

Depictions|

* The Naked Maja (1958 film)
* Goya, a Story of Solitude (1971 film)
* Goya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment (1971 film)
* Goya: A Life in Song (1989 album)
* Goya in Bordeaux (1999 film)
* Volavérunt (1999 film)
* Goya's Ghosts (2006 film)
* The Ministry of Time – Episode 25: Time of the Enlightened (2017)

Related|

* Josefa Bayeu (wife)
* Quinta del Sordo
* Leocadia Zorrilla
* Rosario Weiss Zorrilla
* Goya Museum
* Birthplace
* Goya Awards

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template
*[c.]: circa