Pierre Gassier

This oversized volume represents a prodigious effort, requiring years of research and the help of museums, collectors, historians, historical and literary experts, art dealers, and auctioneers from throughout the world. In its 400 pages, there are 48 color plates, 200 black-and-white reproductions, and 1,900 catalog illustrations, representing the entire known artistic output of Francisco Goya (1748-1828). Goya was a technically competent painter who emerged as a master after losing his hearing in a near-death illness at the age of 47. The authors describe him as "a 'quantic' artist: one who advances by sudden leaps rather than through the steady evolution of his artistic gifts" (10-11). Coming to artistic maturity in a Spain that celebrated mediocrity in art, "Goya had had no influence either on his period or on his immediate successors" (225). The major portion of his body of work is in drawings and etchings, which form a damning social commentary on the times in which he lived, a time of bloody wars, Napoleonic occupation, and the Spanish Inquisition. It is rare to have the opportunity to view an artist's entire works in one volume, and it is well worth the effort to carefully examine each of the small (approximately 1½"x2") catalog illustrations. (February 1997)… (mere)