A Historical Vignette “Be proud of yourself: you have a History!” The world of medicine depicted by Francisco de Goya. A tribute to the Goyescas

“The world of medicine depicted by Francisco de Goya. A tribute to the Goyescas”. During his long life (1746- 1828), Goya had many opportunities to meet patients and physicians. He saw, drew and engraved portraits of all kinds of physicians. He depicted sick persons, injured men and the disabled. He visited hospitals, praising those who tried to relieve suffering; he denounced charlatans and acclaimed the martyrs of science. Obsessed by the mouth and everything it expresses, Goya depicted himself without clemency, as a deaf man and as a patient. The deafness of the painter usually gave his work the characteristics of a nightmare. However, his depiction of medicine was also a metaphor of the struggle against the unhappiness of ordinary people, the arrogance of false scientists, the privileges of the nobility and the tyranny of the Inquisition.