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"Goya was breakfast companion of the Queen and painter to the court, but his portrait of the royal family is so mercilessly unflattering that it's been wondered how he escaped strangulation. Yet his female saints and angels were beautiful, buxom majas - many thought them more suitable for brothels than churches. Goya was the portraitist of noble after silly, vain noble, and lover to the Duchess of Alba, the most desired woman of his age and one of the wealthiest - but his Spain was also one of blind beggars, cripples, cut-throats, lunatics, swaggering majos, flirtatious majas, dwarfs, bullfights, carnivals, massacres, and Inquisitors seeking the Devil. Much of it Goya saw through a glass darkly." "This inscrutable artist is a brilliant choice of subject for Connell, whose literary histories and penetrating novels have placed him among our greatest writers. With his famous wit, wry erudition and prodigious research, he brings to life an artist of unsurpassed imagination and his brutal times - Spain in the clutches of the Inquisition. Connell introduces a wealth of detail and a cast of comic and eccentric characters - dukes, duchesses, royalty, politicians and artists; as lewd and incorrigible a group as history has ever produced. As he charts the arc of Goya's career, Connell keeps pace with the tumultuous era and shrewdly sifts through two centuries of commentary on Goya's work, from Paul Claudel's dismay that Goya sought to avoid the eyes and the image of God, to Baudelaire's deadly accurate comment that he painted the black magic of our civilization." "Goya's protean talent sent connoisseurs barking in various directions. He was a master whose image of Saturn bloodily devouring his son is as unforgettable as his peerless rendering of the gentle light caught in the white satin gown of a countess. Most critics agree that Goya changed Western art forever, although the nature of his influence has been widely interpreted. Edgar Degas, for one, lamented that because of Goya he was condemned to painting a housewife in her bathtub. Connell has marshaled the vast array of contradictory thoughts on Goya, and conjured the artist, his art, and his times with fierce originality and imagination. The result is an unforgettable portrait from a literary master."--BOOK JACKET.… (altro)
A Goya revival much like the recent resurgence of attention paid to Vermeer and Caravaggio is under way, claiming the attention of Susan Sontag, Julia Blackburn, Robert Hughes, and now one more commentator with a distinct point of view. Connell lives up to his reputation as a meticulous researcher, cogent prose stylist, and critical thinker in his prickly assessment of Goya, but he is far more attuned to politics, lust, and eccentricity than he is to art. Consequently, Connell, who seems endlessly bemused by humanity's failings, concentrates on the power structure of Goya's volatile world, scrutinising the secrets of church, state, and bedchamber. He tracks Goya's fascination with caricature, seeks the elusive truth about Goya's relationships with those he painted, especially the famously irresistible duchess of Alba, and theorises that lead poisoning might have caused the illness that cost Goya his hearing.
A biography of an interesting man who lived in interesting times. Even if you are not an art fan, you are sure to be entertained by the writing of Evan S. Connell, who writes with such a personal and witty touch, not afraid to include non-relevant but entertaining tidbits For example: "He took an apartment on the Street of Noah's Ark, which doesn't mean a thing but is somehow engaging" (p.24) "There ought to be a moral in this twisted tale. If so, nobody knows what it is." (p.167) Connell is obviously well read, and it shows, not in a ponderous academic way, but a spritely skipping to and from the subject of Goya, his diversions always interesting and somehow related the biography's subject, however tenously. Two points off because - there are no reproductions other than the painting on the cover. I know reproductions, even black and white, cost money, but this is a book about an artist for goodness sake (i am fortunate enough to have many Goya art works scattered about books i own, and i have been super-fortunate enough to have seen many of the originals, but still...). The other point off is because of the many times Connell compares people's features to George Washington's. A bit much really. But don't let that put you off. You should read this book, whether you are an art fan, Spain fan, history fan, biography fan, whatever ( )
"Goya was breakfast companion of the Queen and painter to the court, but his portrait of the royal family is so mercilessly unflattering that it's been wondered how he escaped strangulation. Yet his female saints and angels were beautiful, buxom majas - many thought them more suitable for brothels than churches. Goya was the portraitist of noble after silly, vain noble, and lover to the Duchess of Alba, the most desired woman of his age and one of the wealthiest - but his Spain was also one of blind beggars, cripples, cut-throats, lunatics, swaggering majos, flirtatious majas, dwarfs, bullfights, carnivals, massacres, and Inquisitors seeking the Devil. Much of it Goya saw through a glass darkly." "This inscrutable artist is a brilliant choice of subject for Connell, whose literary histories and penetrating novels have placed him among our greatest writers. With his famous wit, wry erudition and prodigious research, he brings to life an artist of unsurpassed imagination and his brutal times - Spain in the clutches of the Inquisition. Connell introduces a wealth of detail and a cast of comic and eccentric characters - dukes, duchesses, royalty, politicians and artists; as lewd and incorrigible a group as history has ever produced. As he charts the arc of Goya's career, Connell keeps pace with the tumultuous era and shrewdly sifts through two centuries of commentary on Goya's work, from Paul Claudel's dismay that Goya sought to avoid the eyes and the image of God, to Baudelaire's deadly accurate comment that he painted the black magic of our civilization." "Goya's protean talent sent connoisseurs barking in various directions. He was a master whose image of Saturn bloodily devouring his son is as unforgettable as his peerless rendering of the gentle light caught in the white satin gown of a countess. Most critics agree that Goya changed Western art forever, although the nature of his influence has been widely interpreted. Edgar Degas, for one, lamented that because of Goya he was condemned to painting a housewife in her bathtub. Connell has marshaled the vast array of contradictory thoughts on Goya, and conjured the artist, his art, and his times with fierce originality and imagination. The result is an unforgettable portrait from a literary master."--BOOK JACKET.
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