The self-portraits of Francisco Goya
"With his numerous self-portraits, Francisco Goya was alone among visual artists of the Romantic period in responding to the genre of autobiography that became popular in the late eighteenth century. Across a range of media and styles, Goya tested, expanded, and eventually obliterated the conventional boundaries of the genre, discovering its infinite expressive possibilities. Goya used the self-portrait to comment on royalty, literature, society, religion, sex, and death as well as his own art, genius, and self. In this study John J. Ciofalo examines a broad sampling of Goya's oeuvre through the lens of self-portraiture. In doing so, Ciofalo offers new interpretations of some of Goya's most famous works, including Family of Carlos IV, Los Caprichos, Los Desastres de la Guerra, and the 'black' paintings. Interdisciplinary in scope, this book provides fresh and illuminating perspectives on a notoriously enigmatic artist"--Jacket
Print Book, English, 2001
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001