The inaugural lecture of the Royal Academies’ activities gives me the opportunity to share some reflections on artistic and intellectual work, and also on the challenges that our country faces in this difficult hour for the world. I am going to talk about the final stage of the lifework of authors, a period that can combine humble tenacity with flashes of lucidity, and I have wanted to use these bursts of light to elucidate the tasks that Academies can undertake, all in keeping with the mission of service that constitutes the core of their purpose, and with the critical dimension that is inseparable from their independence. No better example of the double endeavor than a figure intimately bound to this Academy, Francisco de Goya...[+]