Remember a while back, when the Prado culled Goya’s El Coloso (above) from their current Goya show, Goya in Times of War, claiming that it is not a Goya, but giving no explanation more satisfying that a “because we say so.” Well, they’ve finally proffered an explanation, via Manuela Mena, their senior Goya specialist, that the work was painted by one of his students, largely because of stylistic differences and some anatomical errors on the bulls in the painting. I’m still not satisfied, and if this isn’t an example of how not to bring an issue like this to light, I don’t know what is. Isn’t there some kind of peer review that should come into play, behind the scenes, before an announcement like this.
Anyways, Elizabeth Nash of The Independent has the story, following up on her earlier piece. Seen over at C-Monster, who also mentions that you can eyeball Goya’s print series, Los Desastres de la Guerra, which is on display at the Hammer right now.
Technorati Tags: Goya, Francisco de Goya, Prado, art, Spanish art, painting, El Coloso, The Independent, Elizabeth Nash, C-Monster, Hammer Museum, Goya in Times of War, Los Desastres de la Guerra, art
June 28th, 2008 at
Isn’t there some kind of peer review that should come into play, behind the scenes, before an announcement like this
Yes this is why I’ve refrained from ever discussing what might be termed “the Watt hypothesis” in public. I’m waiting on feedback from the peer review.
June 29th, 2008 at
I’m not even going to go there. I had a crazy dream last night that he was in, briefly. I ran into him in a parking garage, where he was putting a flannel (as in patterned flannel) car cover over his car and super enthused to say hi.