Can someone help me interpret this painting by Francisco de Goya?

Question

Here is a link of the picture! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Francisco_de_Goya_y_Lucientes_054.jpg

What do you believe Goya was trying to say by painting this?
Any symbolism?

& does anyone know the backround of this painting and how it came to be?!

Answer 1

In 1789 Goya was made court painter to Charles IV. He painted the King and the Queen, royal family pictures and portraits, and other nobles. His portraits are noted for their disinclination to flatter, and in the case of Charles IV of Spain and His Family, the lack of visual diplomacy is remarkable. Modern interpreters have seen this portrait as satire; it is thought to reveal corruption present under Charles IV. Under his reign his wife Louisa was thought to have the real power, which is why she is placed at the centre of the group portrait. From the back left of the painting you can see the artist himself, and the painting behind the family depicts Lot and his daughters, thus once again echoing the underlying message of corruption and decay.

The painting was not meant to flatter but to paint them as they really were.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_G…

Answer 2

oya can be seen to the left looking outwards towards the viewer. In both, the artist is shown working on a canvas, of which only the rear is visible. However, the atmospheric and warm perspective of the palace interior of Velázquez's work is replaced in the Goya by a sense of, in the words of Gassier, "imminent suffocation" as the royal family are presented by Goya on a "stage facing the public, while in the shadow of the wings the painter, with a grim smile, points and says: 'Look at them and judge for yourself