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TTBOOK GEMS Evan S. Connell (GEMS - from program #04-03-07 -B PAINTING LIFE) The following is from an interview Evan S. Connell did with Anne Strainchamps on the Public Radio International program "To the Best of Our Knowledge." Connell's latest book is "Francisco Goya: A Life." this except, they are discussing Goya's famous painting "Maja Desnuda."
Evan S. Connell: It is a painting of a particular Spanish woman. Up until that time, nudes had been allegories, mythological goddesses. And Goya seems to have been the first who painted a particular Spanish woman and I think that this was shocking and outrageous. Anne Strainchamps: Is it true that Edgar Degas complained that after Goya, he was condemned to painting a housewife in her bathtub? Evan S. Connell: That is what he said. I think it's a marvelous comment. Anne Strainchamps: What did he mean? Evan S. Connell: Well, that Goya had simply annihilated this centuries-old tradition of mythological women. He had painted this particular woman, whoever she may have been. It may have been just a generic face. There are rumors that she was any number of different people. We don't know. We will never know. Anne Strainchamps: But the idea was, instead of painting an idealized, beautiful image of a woman, he painted a real woman, warts and all? Evan S. Connell: Yes. Yes. A Spanish woman that you might see on the streets of Madrid. And this was a great departure from the past. Evan S. Connell (GEMS - from
program #04-03-07 -B PAINTING
LIFE) |
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