Zaragoza (EFE) Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF) and of those that are already done, a little less than two thirds of the total.
Of the 228 plates that are the property of the Royal Academy, the restoration of 101 has already finished. Of these, 17 belong to Los Disparates, 60 are from Los Caprichos and 20 from Los Desastres. In addition, there are four other lesser-known series such as Los Cuadros de Velázquez. The only series that is not planned to be restored, which consists of 40 plates, is that of La Tauromaquia.
At the Goya Museum in Zaragoza, José Luis Rodrigo, General Director of Fundación Ibercaja; together with Alfredo Pérez de Armiñán, vice-director-treasurer of the Royal Academy; Juan Bordes, academic delegate and director of the project; Víctor Nieto, academic delegate of the National Museum and Chalcography, and Silvia Viana, the restorer who is carrying out the process, have presented this project, which began in April 2021.
a pivotal project
It is a long-awaited project on the part of RABASF but it has not been possible to tackle it until the Chalcography of Rome presented its conclusions on the work carried out on Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s plates.
“This is a crucial project because 10 or 12 years ago there was already a need to do the restoration due to the deteriorating situation in which the plates were found,” explained Juan Bordes. He has recognized that it was tried up to three times but it was abandoned because the technique was not up to the level until the work of Lucía Guedin in Rome supported the work.
The copper plates that Goya used were of different qualities, especially the one from London and the national one. This is clearly seen in the restoration work. They had different patina baths in steel, nickel or copper. For their analysis they have the support of the Metals Laboratory of the Autonomous University of Madrid.
Over the years, these calcographic dies received different baths of steel, chrome or nickel. With the passage of time it was observed that the galvanic baths that covered the copper plates presented losses of metallic coverage.
stop corrosion
To avoid this process of deterioration, the studies and works that have culminated in the “Project for the conservation of Goya’s calcographic matrices” began. It is fully financed by Fundación Ibercaja.
Its main objective is to stop these injuries caused by corrosion between the copper of the matrix and the superimposed metal layers, produced naturally and favored by environmental humidity.
All these works will open up a large field for further research in the coming decades of the Goya engraver. According to Bordes, it is there “where he finds himself most comfortable, because he gives more interest and intensity to his work and where he makes the most effort” compared to all the paintings he commissions.
Goya, bare copper
He has also been convinced that with this restoration it will be possible to meet and discover “Goya in bare copper and it will be possible to analyze the battle between the will of the artist and the language of the material.”
Different exhibitions are already scheduled for the coming years. They will begin next October in Milan with an exhibition of the work of the painter from Fuendetodos in general. It will count with the transfer of 17 of the matrices already restored.
Between March and May 2024, Madrid will host an exhibition in which the objective will be to connect Goya the engraver with Goya the painter and vice versa, and in which the already restored plates from the series Los Caprichos, Los Disparates and Los Desastres will be exhibited.
At the Goya Museum in Zaragoza there will be three exhibitions in which each of the series will be delved into in the years 2025, 2026 and 2027, before facing what will be Goya’s great year, 2028, on the occasion of the second centenary of his death.
The Fundación Ibercaja Goya Museum is the only museum that permanently exhibits the complete series of Engravings from 1775 to 1828.