Goya: Ideas about Art Education and Artistic Reflection on Human Conditions

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Goya: Ideas about Art Education and Artistic Reflection on Human Conditions
In Goya's address to the Royal Academy of San Fernando in regarding the method of teaching the visual art, he expressed his criticisms about the misleading teachings of visual arts in the academic institution. He focused on describing what should be the role of an art institution in teaching young talents and what are the important part of nature when creating freedom in the visual arts for the liberation of a true artist.
For the academic institutions, Goya heavily discourages the imprisonment of creativity inside the academe. In particular, he despises mechanical precepts, monthly prized, financial aid, and other trivialities from academic institutions that degrade the true nature of art. He pointed out that the Academe should only guide those who are willing to improve themselves towards the path of finding their student’s own artistic identity. However, he emphasized that art institutions became obsessed with perfecting the creation of a replica of another artist's masterpiece that limits the way on how new artists tackle art.
Goya believed that art institutions teach the meaning of art based on social constructs of popularity. If an artwork became popular, art institutions will force the students to recreate the themes, techniques, and styles of that art. The Academe made objective standards about the proper aptitude and talent in becoming an artist. As a result, many of their students made art as an imitation of an imitation that is monotonous and disgraceful. Their methods became detrimental to creativity because, for them, the only way to become an artist is to make your work in the likeness of the difficult drawings by that of previous masters. This limiting way of handling the teaching of visual art is painful for Goya because art institutions succumb to oppressive art teachings that harms the self-worth of a true artist.
For the importance of nature in liberating art, Goya explained the role of nature as the source of artistic freedom in the world. Art institutions should know the importance of working with nature rather than working with artificial or man-made art such as plaster models, paintings, and sculptures. He elaborated that the old master’s techniques were already been used and abused by many other artists, thus, saturating their works with common techniques that constantly decrease in value. Inspiration and perspective can only be given by the Divine Nature; therefore, in guiding the aspiring artist in...