FRANCISCO DE GOYA AND THE ART OF CRITIQUE

Francisco de Goya and the Art of Critique probes the relationship between the enormous, extraordinary, and sometimes baffling body of Goya's work and the interconnected issues of modernity, Enlightenment, and critique. Taking exception to conventional views that rely mainly on Goya's darkest images to establish his relevance for modernity, Cascardi argues that the entirety of Goya's 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's 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's critical practice vis-à-vis a European modernity typically associated with the Enlightenment values dominant in France, England, and Germany. In Francisco de Goya and the Art of Critique, Cascardi shows how Goya was consistently engaged in a critical response to -- and not just a representation of -- the many different factors that are often invoked to explain his work, including history, politics, popular culture, religion, and the history of art itself.

THONY J. CASCARDI is the Sidney and Margaret Ancker Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of numerous books including The Consequences of Enlightenment and Cervantes, Literature, and the Discourse of Politics.