Be aware that it is in Spanish. If you are okay with that, it's a very nice, well put together, very nicely illustrated, quality book. Because I buy art books mostly for the reproductions, I am happy with it. Many things not commonly seen along with the more common. Mostly from the Prado. But with Goya, what do you expect?

This book was a follow-up after visiting the landmark Goya exhibition at the Fine Arts Museum here in Boston, I learned a huge amount about this incredible artist along with several visits to the Prado in Madrid in past years. Thanks for the book.

Nice more compact size and absolutely full of pictures and descriptions of his style and his life and his artwork.

very good resource

good illustrations and I wish there had been more. They concentrated on the paintings, not much explanation and only showed a few prints.

People don't really want to see their ugly side, where raw desire and ego sometimes meld with cruelty, vanity, vengeance and hideous actions. No one wants to peer into their misty memories and find a person who joyously plucked the legs from ants, who trapped animals and watched them struggle for amusement, who blithely encouraged or deceived others into self-destructive behavior or who used, demeaned or eliminated others for some advantage or potential advancement. Yet such reprehensible behavior often seems like an inherent aspect of the human condition. People often frame these murky realms of humanity obliquely or at a fully detached and safe distance, for example in horror movies, police reports or in the macabre stories of serial killers. For many, these ghastly possibilities always seem "over there" and not "right here," in constant denial that one's own being, situation and surroundings could produce such monstrosities. Morbid curiosity probably originates in the questioning of collective moral boundaries or in an unspoken dare for the human race to push our sensibilities just one step further into the abyss. Allowing the less than savory elements of existence into one's perspective arguably reveals a more balanced picture of the human species. To obsess exclusively and interminably on the mangy and dreadful side of life, of course, may suggest some sort of mental or emotional affliction, but to perpetually ignore the "ugly underneath" may imply a similar malady. Diseases of pessimism and optimism may exist in equal portions and produce the same effect. The work of Spanish artist Fransisco Goya often gets romanticized as unearthing the underworld or showing a side of reality that we would rather not see. While true, Goya also produced many beautiful and seemingly life-affirming pieces, which any holistic analysis of his vast oeuvre shows. Though obviously confined by his nearly lifelong duties as a court painter, the injection of the ugly and the downtrodden into a collection that also features gorgeous portraits, religious paintings and vibrant quotidian scenes may demonstrate that this acclaimed artist did not look at life myopically, but perhaps he saw it in an unusually open and healthy manner, in all of its imposing totality. Goya's art definitely has applications beyond the sometimes stifling confines of academia and the museum. This might help explain why his work, despite its age and specific cultural context, still resonates aesthetically, morally and even politically to the present day. It may even prove instructive.

Much of Goya remains inexplicable and mysterious, which likely also explains his perpetual appeal, but nobody escapes the times into which they find themselves thrown and Goya unquestionably lived through dynamic and volatile times. To better understand his context, Phaidon's "Art & Ideas" series dedicated a volume to Goya's life and work. Though it appeared in 1998, almost twenty years ago, it won't include the latest cutting edge scholarship, but it nonetheless provides a fascinating overview packed with historical and biographical information. From Goya's only slightly humble beginnings, the book describes his family's connections to the "minor impoverished aristocracy," in Fuendetodos, where his birth house still stands, to minor commissions in Saragossa to early failures in Madrid, to his first success in Parma, Italy and eventual rise to the most renowned painter in all of Spain, the book covers it all. Surprisingly, Goya had a rough start. His submissions received absolutely zero votes in Madrid art competitions held in 1763 and 1766. Favor finally arrived with a 1771 contest in Parma, Italy where he received six votes, enough to qualify for an "Honorable Mention" and a taste of credibility. This helped increase commissions in Saragossa and his 1773 marriage into the prestigious Bayeu family provided him with crucial art world connections. Networking through marriage really worked in those days. Goya acquired a Royal position after moving to Madrid in 1775 and, through his lucky Bayeu affiliations, obtained a modestly paid position in the Royal Tapestry Factory. Here he produced "cartoons," or blueprints for tapestries, many of which now qualify as major works. Most depicted scenes of alleged "rural innocence," such as 1776's "The Picnic" (featured on the book's cover) and 1778's "Boys Blowing up a Bladder." Once transformed into tapestries, these images hung in royal buildings and residences. Many consider "The Blind Guitarist" from 1778 as Goya's first portrayal of "infirm, outcast mendicants." Fortunes rising, he produced a 1786-1788 portrait of King Charles III, who the book describes both as "an educated despot of considerable intellect" and "phenomenally ugly." Goya's work took an even more interesting edge as he discovered etching and produced more chilling work such as "The Garrotted Man" in 1778. Drama and scandal surrounded his 1780 painting of the Saragossa Cathedral of El Pilar when the church censored Goya's "sensuous and dramatic" portrayal of saints. The Royal Academy swept up the damage, Goya returned to Madrid and his reputation seemed untrammeled.

During the 1780s Goya established important relationships with wealthy patrons through who, according to the book, he tasted an unprecedented dose of artistic freedom. His reputation spread through portraiture, beginning with his ebullient 1783 portrait of the Count of Floridablanca, in which Goya himself appears. He painted many eminent people of the day, including royalty, politicians, soldiers and the aristocracy, most famously his enigmatic portraits of the Duchess of Alba. A court position in 1786 increased his fortune and Goya bought shares in the Banco de España and painted its founders. His only child to reach maturity arrived in 1784, King Charles III died in 1788 and Charles IV succeeded him to the Spanish throne. The new court embraced Goya enthusiastically and though he complained about the excessive spending that his distinguished position required, he also once added that "I like it." The political situation intensified following the French Revolution and the execution of the French monarchy, to which Charles IV was related. A 1792 illness rendered Goya deaf for the rest of his life. Despite this his work became more adventurous as his sometimes erotic Cadiz notebooks from 1796 show. These led to one of his most famous works, the 1799 print collection called "Los Caprichos." These included portrayals of deformity as analogies for moral decay and cruel, depraved, abusive and often horrific acts. "El sueño de la razon produce monstruros" became the series' iconic image. Few copies sold, possibly because each collection costed the same as an ounce of gold. In 1798 he painted San Antonio de la Florida's cupola, one of his largest projects, with stylistically exaggerated scenes from the life of St. Antony of Padua. A famously informal portrait of Charles IV's family appeared in 1800, again featuring Goya himself in the shadows (a la Velázquez's 1656 "Las Meninas"). A pair of erotic paintings created around this time called "The Nude Maja" and "The Clothed Maja" would get Goya into trouble with the inquisition later. Goya's reflections on madness also increased around this time. Album C contains a drawing of a lunatic accompanied by the cryptically funny yet tragic caption "this man has a lot of relations and some of them are sane." The political situation exploded in 1808 when France invaded Spain to quell a rebellion. Napoleon had forced Ferdinand VII, Charles IV's successor, to abdicate and placed his own brother, Joseph, on the Spanish throne. Outrage led to riots, violence and reprisals, which Goya later captured in two of his most famous paintings, "The Second of May 1808" and "The Third of May 1808," both painted in 1814.

The Duke of Wellington, best known for his defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, liberated Madrid from the French in 1812. Goya painted Wellington in portrait, on horseback and as a "vain peacock" before the Duke's reputation for ostentation and womanizing caught up with him in Spain. War inspired another of Goya's famous print collections, not released until 1863, with the politically sensitive title "The Disasters of War." This showed the rural side of conflict, including a tribute to women who fought against the French invasion and also many gruesome atrocities. For many it showed a side of war never before seen, namely, the suffering of the nameless masses. Following the restoration of Ferdinand VII an era of nationalism and intolerance arose within Spain. The inquisition, abolished by the French, was reinstated and "improper works" came under scrutiny, which summoned Goya to the inquisition for his "Maja" paintings, though the book gives few details of his trial. Reflecting on the new Spain, one of the final prints of "Disasters of War" shows the death of truth as a beautiful glowing female corpse, captioned "Murió la Verdad." Goya took the opportunity to leave Madrid for the now long demolished villa "Quinta del Sordo." In this house he created his famous "Black Paintings," a series of frescoes that included the painting of Saturn devouring his son. A later generation painstakingly removed all of these to the Prado Museum as the frail house had sustained considerable damage. Goya continued to paint as he relocated to Bordeaux, France in 1824, requested to retire, received a small pension, painted his last self-portrait in a famous series of lifelong self-portraits in 1824 and died in 1828. His body, moved from Bordeaux in 1901, now lies in Madrid in San Antonio de la Florida, underneath the murals he painted in 1798. The book also discusses Goya's considerable influence on later painters such as Delacroix, Manet and Munch. Many consider Goya's psychologically layered work as "the birth of the modern."

The book contains numerous full-color reproductions of Goya's work, including photos of his birth house and cathedral murals. Some of these suffer by their location near the margins and the spine, which unfortunately often obscure interesting details, such as portions of "The Family of Charles IV," the Second and Third of May and the "Maja" paintings. The book's smaller size, small compared to the usual coffee table sized art tome, at least, does constrain the size of the reproductions. Regardless, this book focuses more on the narrative and providing a historical and art historical context for Goya's work. In that it excels. Anyone wanting more than a thumbnail sketch of Goya's life, times and influence will find this book billowing with fascinating information. It thankfully never romanticizes Goya, either, but it does unabashedly proclaim him as one of the western world's most influential artists. Few would disagree. Newcomers to Goya will likely benefit from seeing his output as a whole rather than in fragments, such as books that focus on his etchings or on his "Black Paintings" in isolation. This book clearly shows the surprising array of mediums and moods that Goya utilized throughout his life. It also liberates him from the usual disturbing, freakish or "suffering artist" cliches that some other sources project onto his work. Goya more than once found himself trapped between political regimes, patrons or religious institutions. Sometimes he had to play multiple fields simultaneously to survive. His obvious ability to see the world in all of its diverse totality probably helped him greatly in such situations. This complex perspective radiated into his art, which continues to make it intriguing, shocking, gratifying, revelatory and even sobering today. Maybe we could even learn something from it if we look closely enough. Perhaps Goya's monsters still exist today? Perhaps we still don't want to see them?

Janis Tomlinson, the writer of this book, seems primarily concerned in showing that there is a continuity in Goya's work, that it did not suddenly change from light-hearted to dark after Goya went deaf. For the most part, I feel she achieved this end, I for one am convinced. I wish she wrote more on Goya's technique and his personal life, both of which she does not go into much. The 300 or so colour reproductions of Goya's work are excellent, and there are many good close-ups. Unfortunately, Goya produced around 1,800 works, so it is disappointing that only a fraction of them are in this book.

Great book, thanks