Prison Interior

Prison Interior (Spanish: Interior de cárcel) is an oil on canvas painting completed by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya (1746–1828) between 1793-94. The painting is bathed in a dim, cold light which gives it look feeling of purgatory.

It is one of a number of works the artist made of scenes set in lunatic asylums, including Yard with Lunatics (1793–1794) and The Madhouse (1812-1813).^[1] These works were painted at a time when mad-houses were 'holes in the social surface, small dumps into which the psychotic could be thrown without the smallest attempt to discover, classify, or treat the nature of their illness."^[2] Goya often feared for his own sanity, a fact which underscores these works with feelings of dread.

Notes

^ Hughes, 140
^ Hughes, 139

Bibliography

Connell, Evan S. Francisco Goya: A Life. New York: Counterpoint, 2004. ISBN 1-5824-3307-0
Hughes, Robert. Goya. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. ISBN 0-3945-8028-1

Francisco Goya

List of works

Paintings

Blind Guitarist (1778) • Christ Crucified (1780) • Maria Teresa de Borbon y Vallabriga (1783) • Spring (or The Flower Girls) (1786–1787) • The Swing (1787) • St Francis Borja at the Deathbed of an Impenitent (1788) • Manuel Osorio de Zuniga (c. 1788) • Witches' Sabbath (1789) • Self-portrait (c. 1790–1795) • Little Giants (1791–1792) • Portrait of Mariana Waldstein (c. 1792) • Strolling Players (1793) • Yard with Lunatics (1793–1794) • Marquesa de la Solana (c. 1794–1795) • Duchess of Alba (1797) • Self-Portrait with Eyeglasses (1797) • The Bewitched Man (1797-1798) • The Devil's Lamp (1797-1798) • Witches' Flight (1797-98) • Charles IV in his Hunting Clothes (1799) • Countess of Chinchon (1800) • La maja desnuda • Charles IV of Spain and His Family (1800–1801) • La maja vestida • Bartolome Sureda y Miserol (c. 1803–1804) • Portrait of Doña Isabel de Porcel (1804–1805) • Portrait of Francisca Sabasa García (1804-1808) • Doña Teresa Sureda (c. 1805) • The Colossus (1808–1812; attribution debated) • Majas on a Balcony (c. 1808–1812) • Time (c. 1810–1812) • Prison Interior (c. 1810–1814) • The Second of May 1808 (1814) • The Third of May 1808 (1814) • The Junta of the Philippines (1815) • The Madhouse (1812-1819) • The Inquisition Tribunal (1812-1819) • The Burial of the Sardine (c. 1816) • A Procession of Flagellants (c. 1816) • The Forge (c. 1817) • The Giant (1818) • Self-portrait with Dr Arrieta (1820) • The Milkmaid of Bordeaux (1825–1827)

Tapestry cartoons	The Parasol (c. 1777) • Blind man's bluff (1789)

Black Paintings (Pinturas negras) (c. 1819-23)	Saturn Devouring His Son • Judith and Holofernes • Witches' Sabbath • A Pilgrimage to San Isidro • La Leocadia • Two Old Men • Men Reading • Man Mocked by Two Women • Fight with Cudgels • Procession of the Holy Office • Atropos • Asmodea • Two Old Men Eating Soup • The Dog

Etchings

Los Caprichos	The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1797–1798) • What a sacrifice! (1797–1798) • They say yes and give their hand to the first comer (1797–1798) • Que se la llevaron! (1797–1798) • You who cannot (1797–1798)

The Disasters of War (Los desastres de la guerra)	Contra el bien general (c. 1810) • This is worse (c. 1812–1813) • May the rope break! (c. 1815)

Tauromaquia	Unfortunate events in the front seats of the ring of Madrid, and the death of the Mayor of Torrejón (1815–1816)