PREMIO FRANCISCO GOYA PARA IDA DE VINCENZO-May 6th, 2017 at the “Mirrors room” at the Gran Teatre del Liceu - BARCELONA

PREMIO FRANCISCO GOYA , PARA IDA DE VINCENZO-

Dear Artist,

I am very proud to award you with the International Award Francisco Goya.

The Prize is for the Artists that are worth for their artistic merit.

You will be awarded on May 6th, 2017 at the “Mirrors room” at the Gran Teatre del Liceu - BARCELONA (the award ceremony will take place at 12 am), to the presence of collectors, journalists, politicians and art lovers.

If the artist will not be present at the awards ceremony, the prize will be sent home.

It is one of the most prestigious art awards awarded in the heart of Barcelona.

In the May/June number of the magazine “Art International Contemporary Magazine”, you’ll find a piece dedicated to the artistic talent of Francisco Goya; moreover will follow the publication of the artworks by the artists who took part to the event.

The Gran Teatre del Liceu has been opened on April 4th, 1847, its starting seating capacity was of 4,000 people and its style has been inspired by Italian one. On April 9th, 1861 a blaze destroyed the hall and the stage, but the restoration, organized by Josep Oriol Mestres, lasted a very few time. On January 31st, 1994 another fire destroyed the whole theatre. The central part of the facade of La Rambla, the main hall with its staircase and the hall of mirrors, have been saved without changing their aspect. The restoration followed the original project: the hall, inspired to the “La Scala” thatre of Milan, is horseshoe- shaped with parterre and five floors. Its seating capacity of 2292 spectators, turns i tinto one of the most important theatre in Europe. The decoration of the main hall is the same of the 1909, realized with many-coloured and gilded palsters and the overlapping of different styles from different age, mantain the typical sumptuousness of the theatre of XIX century. Dragon-shaped brass lamps and crystal tulips, wrought-iron and red velvet armchairs, complete this perfect image.

Francisco José De Goya y Lucientes was born in Fuendetodos, a small village of Aragon, near Zaragoza, on March 30th, 1746. Fascinated by the art of Tiepolo to which he approached in Spain, in 1769 he decided to leave for Italy. Once he came back home, he settled in Zaragoza where he is called to realize some frescos for the Basilica of Our Lady the Pillar.  In 1780 Goya became a member of the Royal Academy of San Fernando and in the following years he realizes a series of oil paintings whose subjects are toys and children portraits, and in 1784 he also painted one of his most famous work, for King’s brother: “ Don Luis’ infant of Bourbon family”. He soon gets sick and becomes deaf, but he carries on his painting activity realizing portraits as “The black duchess” (1795 and 1797), or every day life scenes “The death of picador” (1793), but also the first paintings about insanity, spells and tortures. In 1797 he started working on “Los caprichos”, a series of etchings symbol of his rebellion against oppression and superstition. Some of his most intense feminine character as “Marìas Tomasa Palafox, Marchioness of Villafranca” (1804), “Isabel de Porcel” (1804-1805), “La Maya vestida” (1800 – 1805), “ La Maya desnuda” and “Charles’ IV family”. The Napoleonic invasion of 1808, the cruel reprisals and the tortures of Spanish people, scar the life of Goya, who expressed his pain through the etchings “ War Disasters” (1810 – 1820) and through two paintings of 1814: “The second of May 1808” and “The third of May 1808”. Fell in misfortune at court, Goya isolate himself in his country house, “The fifth of deaf”, covering the walls with the so called “black paintings”, distressing and visionary pictures, among which we can remember “Saturn devouring his sons”. In 1824 he reaches France to settle in Bordeaux, the place in which he dies on April 16th, 1828.

Curators of the Prize are Dr. Francesco Saverio Russo and Salvatore Russo.