In the tumultuous Spain of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Goya worked for three kings-the reformist Carlos III, the dithering Carlos IV, and the reactionary Ferdinand VII-and then for social circles of the French usurper Joseph Bonaparte for an overoptimistic three-year constitutional government and, finally, woe to the land, for Ferdinand VII again. “Goya: A Portrait of the Artist” (Princeton), a biography by the American art historian Janis A. Tomlinson, affords me a newly informed chance to reflect on an artist of enigmatic mind and permanent significance. Product Specification Edited by Janis A.A good time for thinking about Francisco Goya is while the world stumbles. The resultant volume is surely to be treasured by all who admire Goya's art and by those who are interested in women's issues of his time. Essays by eminent authorities provide a historical and cultural context for Goya's work, including a discussion on the significance of fashion and dress during the period. Focus is also placed on Goya's more experimental prints and drawings, in which the artist depicted women alternatively as targets of satire, of sympathy, or of admiration. Goya's infamous Naked Maja and Clothed Maja are also highlighted, with a discussion on whether these works were painted at the same time and how they might have originally hung in relation to one another. The artist's famous tapestry cartoons are included, along with the tapestries woven after them for the royal palaces of the Prado and the Escorial. Many of Goya's most famous works are featured and explicated in this beautifully designed and produced book. This groundbreaking book is the first to examine the representations of women within Goya's multifaceted art, and in so doing, it sheds new light on the evolution of his artistic creativity as well as on the roles assumed by women in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Spain. Women frequently appeared as the subjects of Goya's works, from his brilliantly painted cartoons for the Royal Tapestry Factory to his stunning portraits of some of the most powerful women in Madrid. Francisco Goya y Lucientes (1746?1828) created magnificent paintings, tapestry designs, prints, and drawings over the course of his long and productive career.

Goya by Janis A. Tomlinson