献祭潘神

Francisco Goya painted this in 1771, in his mid-twenties, during the year he spent in Rome finishing his training. It is a long way from the Goya most people picture, the deaf and disillusioned old master of the black paintings. Here he is young and ambitious, working up a classical scene of two figures making an offering before a statue of Pan, the woodland god, exactly the sort of mythological set piece an aspiring painter used to prove he belonged. Back in Spain the following year he began the church frescoes and tapestry designs that launched his career. The dark ground and the pooled light already hint at the theatrical shadow he would put to far grimmer use decades later.