Francisco De Goya Y Lucientes: Goya. Text by Jose Gudiol

An excellent large book on Goya! From 'The library of Great Painters' series. Goya, Francisco De Goya Y Lucientes, with great analysis and commentary in English by Jose Gudiol, Director, Instituto Amatller de Arte Hispanico, Barcelona. Published by Harry N Abrams, Inc, New York, Presumably 1964?. Illustrated with 127 reproductions including 48 wonderful full page full color tipped-in plates. Tight binding. Lovely grey cloth boards with gilt titles front and spine. Structural integrity of the book is excellent. Volume in very good condition. Comes with dust jacket from the 1960s which is in relatively decent condition, with a small nick on cover and spine and some discolouration. Inside pages, book and cover are clean with no markings. 168 pages; with bibliography. 1928g. 25.5x33x3cm      Francisco Goya, whose illustrious name in the history of Spanish painting ranks with those of El Greco and Veláz-quez, was a man of whom it might also be said that his life was secondary to his art. "It may be suspected," writes Professor Gudiol, the eminent authority on Goya who is author of this volume, "that, in reality, Goya was always weak-firm in his art, but insecure in his relationships with the outer world." Here the strength of Goya's art is revealed. An excellent selection of Goya's pictures includes 48 colorplates, each with a commentary, and numerous examples of his drawings, his lithographs, and his renownedetchings. The authoritative text probes the fascinating complexity of the artist's dual character. This duality, on the one hand, catapulted Goya to the publicly acclaimed rank of Spain's First Court Painter and, on the other, plunged the artist into a private abyss of despair — a hideous despair that confronts us powerfully when we consider his "black paintings." That the same artist could produce the haunting, awesome Witches' Sabbath and the radiantly pensive Milkmaid of Bordeaux is a paradox that defies unraveling. Indeed, Goya was no stranger to the common vicissitudes of life. 
 He was never able to forget his youthful failures, notably the early humiliation at the hands of the Madrid Academy, though they steeled his resolve; nor was he able, even amid the affluence of the Madrid Court, to forget the dire poverty and severe deprivation of his youth. A renegade in art, one inspired but never overwhelmed by tradition, Goya in mid-life fell victim to a grave illness that left him deaf. Even the gods seemed to affirm his isolation from his fellow man.                                                               Nothing was more abhorrent to this artist whom neighbors called "Frank, the Deaf Man" —as much out of affection as ridicule-than the role of imitator, whether in life or in art. The bold technique, the scathing eye, the sardonic humor that have long been associated with Goya are part and parcel of his intense integrity and fierce individualism.   Professor Gudiol, a distinguished art historian and director of Spain's Instituto Amatller de Arte Hispanico in Barcelona, in this book has carefully distinguished four periods in Goya's long career. He traces the developments in artistic style against the brooding inner development of Goya's personality as man and artist, the sum of which is brilliantly presented in Goya's extensive oeuvre, so well represented in these pages.