The Inquisition Tribunal
| The Inquisition Tribunal | |
|---|---|
| Spanish: Auto de fe de la Inquisición | |
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| Artist | Francisco Goya |
| Year | 1812–1819 |
| Medium | Oil on panel |
| Dimensions | 46 cm × 73 cm (18 in × 29 in) |
| Location | Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid |
The Inquisition Tribunal, also known as The Court of the Inquisition or The Inquisition Scene (Spanish: Escena de Inquisición), is an 18x29 inch oil-on-panel painting produced by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya between 1812 and 1819. The painting belongs to a series which also includes The Bullfight, The Madhouse and A Procession of Flagellants, all showing some of the most terrible aspects of 19th-century Spanish life and reflecting customs which liberals (of whom Goya was then one) wished to reform but whose reform was opposed by the absolutist policy of Ferdinand VII of Spain.
The work was owned by Manuel García de la Prada and is now in the collection of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid.
The painting depicts an auto-da-fé (Spanish, "act of faith") by a tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition, being held inside a church. The four accused people are wearing tall, pointed coroza or Capirote (a three-foot tall pointed dunce cap) on their heads and clad in sambenitos describing their offences. Ringed around the accused are the clerics and Inquisitors and farther back a sea of invited guests fill the church interior, witnessing the drama. Every figure in the foreground is in the light, individualised and well-characterised, whereas the background is occupied by an anonymous mass of people shut in by darkness and a claustrophobic Gothic architecture.
The Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478 to keep Catholic orthodoxy. The first auto da fé took place in Seville in 1481, when six conversos (Jews forcibly converted to Christianity) were burnt at the stake. In Goya's lifetime he would have been quite aware of the history and strong influence that the church held on Spanish society. Though the Inquisition was winding down it was not until 1834 that it was officially ended. Goya sketched, painted and printed many scenes showing the barbarity and cruelty of the Spanish Inquisition and of the turbulent, warring times in which he lived.
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