The Self-Portraits of Francisco Goya

With his numerous self-portraits, Francisco Goya was alone among visual artists of the Romantic period in responding to the genre of autobiography which became popular in the late eighteenth century. Across a range of media and styles, Goya tested, expanded and eventually obliterated the conventional boundaries of the genre, discovering its infinite expressive possibilities. Goya used the self-portrait to comment on royalty, literature, society, religion, sex, and death; as well as his own art, genius, and self. In this study John J. Ciofalo examines a broad sampling of Goya's oeuvre through the lens of self-portraiture. In doing so, Ciofalo offers new interpretations of some of Goya's most famous works, including Los Caprichos, Family of Carlos IV, The Disasters of War, and the 'black' paintings. Interdisciplinary in scope, this book provides fresh and illuminating perspectives on a notoriously enigmatic artist.

• Style is lyrical, literary, and very accessible, striving to be as absorbing as its subject
• Focuses on well-known works, enabling the reader to see Goya in a new light
• Highly interdisciplinary in scope, encompassing art, medicine, madness, literature, philosophy, history, and social and political science