Francisco de Goya and the Art of Critique

An innovative study of Goyas unprecedented elaboration of the critical function of the work of artFrancisco de Goya and the Art of Critique probes the relationship between the enormous, extraordinary, and sometimes baffling body of Goyas work and the interconnected issues of modernity, Enlightenment, and critique. Taking exception to conventional views that rely mainly on Goyas darkest images to establish his relevance for modernity, Cascardi argues that the entirety of Goyas 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 Goyas 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 Goyas critical practice vis--vis a European modernity typically associated with the Enlightenment values dominant in France, England, and Germany. In demonstrating Goyas commitment to the project of critique, Cascardi provides an alternative to established readings of Goyas 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 toand not just a representation ofthe many different factors that are often invoked to explain his work, including history, politics, popular culture, religion, and the history of art itself.