Art & Architecture

Francisco de Goya and the Art of Critique

An innovative study of Goya's unprecedented elaboration of the critical function of the work of art

Hardcover

Price:
$42.00/拢35.00
ISBN:
Published (US):
Jan 10, 2023
Published (UK):
Mar 7, 2023
Pages:
376
Size:
6 x 9 in.
Illus:
137 color illus.

Francisco de Goya and the Art of Critique probes the relationship between the enormous, extraordinary, and sometimes baffling body of Goya鈥檚 work and the interconnected issues of modernity, Enlightenment, and critique. Taking exception to conventional views that rely mainly on Goya鈥檚 darkest images to establish his relevance for modernity, Cascardi argues that the entirety of Goya鈥檚 work is engaged in a thoroughgoing critique of the modern social and historical worlds, of which it nonetheless remains an integral part. The book reckons with the apparent gulf assumed to divide the Disasters of War and the so-called Black Paintings from Goya鈥檚 scenes of bourgeois life or from the well-mannered portraits of aristocrats, military men, and intellectuals. It shows how these apparent contradictions offer us a gateway into Goya鈥檚 critical practice vis-脿-vis a European modernity typically associated with the Enlightenment values dominant in France, England, and Germany. In demonstrating Goya鈥檚 commitment to the project of critique, Cascardi provides an alternative to established readings of Goya鈥檚 work, which generally acknowledge the explicit social criticism evident in works such as the Caprichos but which have little to say about those works that do not openly take up social or political themes. In Francisco de Goya and the Art of Critique, Cascardi shows how Goya was consistently engaged in a critical response to鈥攁nd not just a representation of鈥攖he many different factors that are often invoked to explain his work, including history, politics, popular culture, religion, and the history of art itself.