listening page10 - AEF 5 - Proficiency

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In the spring of 1800, the court painter, Francisco de Goya was commissioned by the Spanish King Carlos IV , direct ancestor of King Juan Carlos, to paint a portrait of the royal family.
At the time, the royal family was all staying at the Summer Palace of Aranjuez, near Madrid. First on the left is Prince Carlos, the King's Second son, and next to him is his older brother Prince Fernando, who was the heir to the throne. Fernando grew up hating his parents, especially his mother, but in fact, he took after his mother and that he was very vain and authoritarian, and when he eventually became king he was extremely unpopular.
The old woman just behind Prince Fernando is Maria Josefa, the King's sister. Single and childless, she died shortly after the painting was finished. Next to Maria Josefa is a young woman whose face we cannot see because she is looking away, and she is the “mystery person” in this painting. There are two theories about her identity. One theory is that she is Princess Maria Amalia, one of the King's daughters, who died in childbirth 3 years before the picture was painted. The fact that she's looking away would be to show the she was, in fact, dead. However, the other more popular theory is that she represents the woman that Crown Prince Fernando would one day marry. It would have been important to put her in the picture to show that the prince would marry one day, and have a son to carry on the dynasty. If this theory is true the woman would be looking away because she didn't actually exist at the time. In fact, Fernando did marry, not once but four times. That young girl next to the mystery woman is Princess Maria Isabel, the King's youngest daughter. She went on to marry and had 12 children. Next to her is to Queen Maria Luisa. Goya made her the central figure in the painting because she had a very strong personality and she completely dominated her husband the king. As a young woman she had been very beautiful. In middle age, and she's here, she was still very vain. she tried to compensate for the fact that her beauty was fading by wearing exquisite dresses and Jewelry, as as we can see in the picture. The little boy with the queen is her youngest son, Prince Francisco. He was a very sensitive boy and he suffered all his life, due to the fact that he looked incredibly like one of his mother's lovers. As a result, people assumed that he was not the King's son. The King who is standing next to him was a weak man . although he came to the throne full of ideas and dreams, his wife and his advisors made sure that he never managed to achieve any of them and he died frustrated and disappointed. The King's brother is standing behind him, on his right, although you can only actually see part of her head, is the King's eldest daughter Carlota. Her parents arranged a marriage for her when she was very young. She was an ambitious girl and eventually became queen of Portugal. The final group of 3 figures shows the Queen's brother, Don Luis de Parmat, his wife, Maria Luisa and their first child, a baby boy. In fact, Maria Luisa was not only Don Luis's wife she was also his knees, as she was the King's second daughter. In fact Don Luis was supposed to have married the king's eldest daughter, Carlotta, but he fell in love with Princess Maria Luisa, who was lively and intelligent, and he insisted on marrying her. The royal family didn't all pose together for the painting, it would have taken too long. Instead Goya made individual studies of each family member and later use them to create this work. The painting took him 2 years to complete, and it was the last Royal portrait he ever painted. Incidentally, he included himself in the painting he's standing in the background on the Left Behind the two princess. Carlos IV call this painting “The family all together picture”, and it was originally hung in the Royal Palace in Madrid.