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The Colossus (El Coloso)

Francisco Goya • Circa 1808–1812

A fearsome giant looms over a valley filled with a terrified, scattering multitude in what has on occasions been seen as a reference to the Spanish War of Independence. Although catalogued until recently as an original by Goya and often considered one of his most unique works, the painting has been the subject of intense critical debate in recent years. This ongoing controversy has involved the leading experts on the artist who have still not agreed on the attribution. Goya's frequent use of subjects of this type, the originality of the narrative approach, the notable aesthetic merits widely perceived in the work, and the presence of a painting on a similar subject in the inventory of the artist's possessions compiled in 1812 are all factors that locate this canvas in his immediate circle. The Colossus is, depending on one's position in one of the most electrifying attribution debates in the history of Spanish art, either a masterwork of Goya's Peninsular War period and one of his most prophetically modern images — or a remarkable painting by his Valencian assistant Asensio Juliá, derived from a Goya print and executed within the master's immediate circle. It is, in either case, one of the most powerful and most discussed paintings in the Prado's collection.