Francisco Jos? de Goya y Lucientes, innovative Spanish painter and etcher, was one of the triumvirate including El Greco and Diego Vel?zquez of great Spanish masters. Much in the art of Goya is derived from that of Vel?zquez, just as much in the art of the 19th-century French master ?douard Manet and the 20th-century genius Pablo Picasso is taken from Goya.
Trained in a mediocre rococo artistic milieu, Goya transformed this often frivolous style and created works, such as the famous Third of May, 1808 (1814, Prado, Madrid), that have as great an impact today as when they were created.
