S6E9: Francisco Goya and the Royal Philippine Dead End

The Colonial Dept.

In Francisco Goya’s painting Junta de Filipinas, sinister, shadowy figures preside over a stockholders’ meeting of the Royal Philippine Company. What was this Royal Philippine Company—and what was so important about it that Goya made a painting of one of its meetings? And more than that, what was Goya trying to say about this tumultuous period in Spanish and Philippine history?

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My voiceover partner-in-crime, Anya, is on leave this week, so I’ll be reading quotes from references and sources. When she’s able to record her lines, I’ll update the episode to include them.

Additional audio from the Ville de Castres YouTube page, and The Social Network, © 2010 Columbia Pictures.

References:

Legarda, Benito J. (1999). After the Galleons: Foreign Trade, Economic Change and Entrepreneurship in the Nineteenth-Century Philippines. Ateneo de Manila Press.

Miranda-Chou, Teresita (1996). “Art as Political Subtext: A Philippine Centennial Perspective on Francisco Goya’s Junta de la Real Compañía de Filipinas.” Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society, 24, pp. 187-215.

Alford, Roberta M. (June 1960). “Francisco Goya and the Intentions of the Artist.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 18(4), pp. 482-493.

Ville de Castres (26 April 2022). “L'OEUVRE A LA LOUPE : La Junte des Philippines #1.” [Video] YouTube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdv9bs207cs

Prodger, Michael (26 September 2015). “From princes to paupers: how Goya’s portraits tell the story of Spain.” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/sep/26/francisco-de-goya-portraits-national-gallery-london

Dalrymple, William (2019). The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company. Bloomsbury Publishing.