Los Caprichos

Book Description

Considered Goya's most brilliant work, this collection combines corrosive satire and exquisite technique to depict 18th-century Spain as a nation of grotesque monsters sprung up in the absence of reason. 80 plates, Prado manuscript included.

Customer Reviews:

Goya sets the bar.......2007-06-16

This book is phenomenal. The only thing I could say against it is it's a bit small, but I believe the images are actual size, so of course there's not much to be done. A good hardcover edition would show these off very well. These Dover art books are a great, cheap way to get access to images like these if you can't commit to a fine edition or, should you be so fortunate, one of the original prints themselves.

Goya one-upped Surrealism, Expressionism, and much more, a hundred years before the fact. These prints take you on a dream journey through some startlingly original imagery that scrutinizes human social engagement with an unsparing eye. Cynical would be too soft a word for some of the images, but somehow it's hard to disagree with Goya's positions. You feel like people were often that empty in Spanish society of the time. And what about today?

As for the formal side, the etchings are technically inventive, uninhibited, masterful, confident, and often understated. Goya is content to let a few lines and a dark mass of aquatint evoke a whole interior, alleyway, or landscape.

In a way, these prints also relate to Edward Gorey, Tim Burton, and many more. In fifty years you'll be able to rack up a new breed of descendents. Their influence, I'm sure, will be timeless.

Creepy propaganda from a long time ago........2000-07-29

Goya aparently did this book to show how silly the superstitions of the common people were, and still are.

The Disasters of War (Dover Books on Fine Art)

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Timeless
DOVER EDITIONS Brings high quality material and a very low price
Brings the reader to the batlle field
15th century demons from hell

The Disasters of War (Dover Books on Fine Art)
Francisco Goya
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486218724

Book Description

Visual indictment of war's horrors, modeled after Spanish insurrection (1808), the resultant Peninsular War and following famine. Miseries of war graphically demonstrated in 83 prints; includes veiled attacks on various people, the Church and the State. Captions reprinted with English translations.

Customer Reviews:

Timeless.......2007-06-16

When I look at these prints, I am reminded of: the "contractors" whose dismembered bodies were hung from the bridge in Fallujah; the lynching postcards that were commonly mailed around the USA only a few generations ago to celebrate the murder of black men; Auschwitz; All Quiet on the Western Front; Sherman's March; the Trojan War; you get the idea. Unfortunately these powerful images are and shall remain contemporary. There is some topical political comment here, but you're mostly looking at the human condition, and with a few changes of costume and props, these prints are applicable to almost any conflict, anywhere. Good for the kids' room.

DOVER EDITIONS Brings high quality material and a very low price.......2007-04-20

Consistently all things published by Dover are of the highest and most comprehensive quality technically and academically, and yet at a very low and democratic price, as if they actually wish to place high culture into the hands of the common man and the poorest person, rather than charging top dollar for instantly disposable art and airport lounge short-lived literature. Dover rather presents for our constant use high quality and durable books: Our Daily Book.

And thus this book which we need to see and weep every night as we grow dull with constant war and violence. We see here why war must wage nevermore, in this brave new era of total and indiscriminate and disproportionate yet profitable colonialist warfare.

When allowed by our media we may now see the same or similar images to these which Goya so accurately depicts, both realistically and fantastically. Goya, so well known as a painter of the Spanish courts, but also of Saturn consuming his children, here shows us grotesquely and coldly the true meaning of war, the true fruits of warfare, the moral and the spiritual causes and effects of war: the disasters of war.

As I pride myself as bilingual and am certified superlatively fluent in Spanish with some English besides, as well as a few other tongues, I found occasion here to wince at Dover's translations of Goya's carefully scripted captions, or to shout aloud more probable interpretations, yet I find this the only possible objection to this excellent and gratefully received volume, which must be on the table of every American home, lacking as we are the graphics from Fallujah or Gaza. Read this book and pray for peace. Read this book and study war no more. Read this book with Mark Twain's War Prayer, and turn aside from the ever more rugged war path surging with the blood of innocents.

Even more than Barefoot Gen, more than the immortal Guernica, more even than Speigelman's Maus series, this realistic, classical and careful draftsmanship of the great Goya brings home to us across the centuries the true horrors and disasters of war, with poignant captions. Please read this book in this excellent, scholarly and complete presentation by Dover Editions, now at an even lower price here upon the amazon. Here must we see that the victims of our violence are human beings, our brothers and sisters, children and elders, and not some dehumanized uncounted collateral statistic alienated into separate labels of faith or of nation. We strike our own family in these disasters of war. This is a powerful book which must be seen today, and most gratefully Dover offers it still upon this amazon.

Brings the reader to the batlle field.......2006-11-20

The Disasters of war is a difficult book to read, containing the most impressing pictures of war and its consequences. The black/white drawings are as real as life itself, and sometimes even more!

Goya depicts tortures made on public squares, people starving to death, and warriors fighting. But the most amazing is the vividness and actuality of the pictures. The Disasters of war is like a poetry book, it has no time, and no defined significance; it can be interpreted in infinite different ways and it is always an up-to-date work.

In my view, one of the best ways to fight war is using art. War leads on to war, art leads on to art. Understanding what and how war happens is essential in order to fight it (I excluded Why since I believe there is no explanation for it). This book shows the What perfectly. I have written a review of the book 'Why?' by Nikolai Popov which is about the How.

15th century demons from hell.......2000-09-13

Like most dover press books, we have here a wonderful bargain: clear reproductions and good paper stock. Goya was a court painter trying to please his patrons, but in this series of etchings, he indulged his twisted soul in the first recorded anti war propaganda. These etchings are both lovely in their technique and horrifying in their imagery.

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Reasonable

Goya
Fred Licht , and Francisco Goya
Manufacturer: Abbeville Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0789207273

Book Description

Newly revised and lavishly illustrated, this acclaimed study of Spanish master Francisco Goya reveals the artist as a pioneer of modern art and culture.

Stunning color reproductions comprehensively survey Goya's paintings and prints in this essential study of his art and its impact on the modern world. Fred Licht's masterful text, revised and updated for this edition, has been hailed as "brilliant" and "profound," one of the most original and illuminating studies of a modern European artist.

Born in 1746 in a small Aragonese town, Goya rose to prominence in Madrid in the period around 1780, being named court painter in 1786. The atrocities of the Napoleonic period and the repressions of the restored Bourbon regime led Goya to paint his greatest works, now recognized as harbingers of modern art. Goya died in exile in France in 1828.

Organized according to the mediums and genres in which the artist worked, Goya is a series of investigations of those aspects of Goya's art that make it especially relevant today. By focusing closely on the work, Licht also illuminates, as few before him have done, the enigmatic personality of this artist, who, as the author affirms, "first fixed the courage and the despair of our modern age."

Other Details:
297 illustrations, 276 in full color. 360 pages. 11 x 13" trim size. Published in 2001.

Customer Reviews:

Reasonable.......2007-10-06

I have always loved Goya, so buying unseen off the internet was less of a risk. The book is a bit oversized without the advantage this often gives, as the layout leaves a lot to be desired, and visually, this has the feel of a mass market book. However, the paintings are stunning and reasonably reproduced, and being a thick book, the selection is pretty representative, and include the prints. The text is also readable. Worth buying as I am not aware of any other book of this size in print at present.

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Goya
Werner Hofmann , and Francisco Goya
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0500093172

Book Description

A new and profusely illustrated appraisal of this leading Spanish painter and graphic artist.

"As a draftsman and painter, Goya favors the human passions, whether uninhibited or suppressed, repressed or repressing." Thus does Werner Hofmann describe the essence of the vast oeuvre left behind by Francisco Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828), pointing to the source of its vital energy, alarming immediacy, and striking modernity.

Discussions of Goya in recent decades have centered on his influence on nineteenth- and twentieth-century painters. Hofmann redresses the balance, focusing instead on the Spanish artist's profoundly disturbing imagery, and demonstrating that Goya's modernity derives from his lifelong investigation of what lies behind the world of appearances and convention.

Amazon.com

This paperback edition of the award-winning study of the life and work of Goya is filled with the same fine reproductions as the original 1994 hardcover. Goya was one of Spain's greatest and most controversial painters, famous for incisive portraits and the "black" paintings of his later years. Scholars have often attributed Goya's progression from producing light-hearted court paintings to creating somber images of the Napoleonic wars to the artist's serious illness of 1792, which left him deaf. Writer Janis Tomlinson's aim here is to show a continuity in his work before and after the illness. She sees in Goya's vast output--at least 1,800 works--a vital drive to explore and exploit his personal creativity, which was strengthened by the deafness that cut him off from all but visual communication with the world. With detail supported by formidable research, Tomlinson presents Goya's life chronologically, analyzing his work from icons like the Naked Maya to his Los Caprichos series of etchings with their biting social satire and supernatural imaginings of a world turned upside down. The demonic intensity of Saturn Devouring His Son and Witches Sabbath, painted on the walls of his "Country House of a Deaf Man" at the end of his life, suggest to some the work of an embittered madman. Rather, these disturbing paintings reflect Goya's profound empathy for the victims of a predatory and unjust society--empathy that a modern audience readily shares. --John Stevenson

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

A thought provoking book... but come to your own conclusions.......2004-02-02

This was my introduction to Goya. The great thing about this book (and about all the books in Phaidon's Art & Ideas Series) is that it does an excellent job of putting the artist in historical context. I think this is really important, because Goya (like David in France) really is inseparable from his time, and we simply can't understand his images if we don't have any idea about what was going on in Spain and the rest of Europe at the time. "The Disasters of War", for example, means so much more to me now that I understand what happened when Napoleon invaded Spain. I was also glad to see that pictures by some of Goya's contemporaries are included, pictures that would otherwise be pretty hard to find.

Some of the author's interpretations, though, annoyed me. Intellegent readers shouldn't have any problems drawing their own conclusions, but I'm a little more concerned about readers who aren't very good about questioning authors. For example, when talking about "The Second of May 1808" and "The Third of May 1808", Symmons says that the figure stabbing the horse in the first painting is the same man lying dead in the heap of bodies in the second one -- and then she says that repetition of figures like this is a major theme in Goya's works. It is, but apart from the fact that both of these men are wearing green coats, there's no way of saying they are the same man. Maybe Goya said they were, but if he did, the author hasn't pointed that out. Seems minor, but it isn't. Another quirk is the author's search for Goya's sources. I understand that artists borrow motifs from each other every now and then, but when Symmons tries to tie in a couple of Goya's images with political prints by James Gilray, for example, simply because some of Goya's poses (which really aren't that unusual) vaguely resemble some of Gilray's, I think she's going out on an awfully big limb. Maybe Goya did take them from Gilray, but he could have taken them from a thousand other places just as easily, and without more substantial proof of Goya's sources, I just don't see what the author is trying to accomplish. This is a very useful book, but leave room for forming your own opinion about Goya.

A very nice monograph on Goya........2000-01-19

Janis Tomlinson, the writer of this book, seems primarily concerned in showing that there is a continuity in Goya's work, that it did not suddenly change from light-hearted to dark after Goya went deaf. For the most part, I feel she achieved this end, I for one am convinced. I wish she wrote more on Goya's technique and his personal life, both of which she does not go into much. The 300 or so colour reproductions of Goya's work are excellent, and there are many good close-ups. Unfortunately, Goya produced around 1,800 works, so it is disappointing that only a fraction of them are in this book.

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Goya's Last Works
Jonathan Brown , and Susan Grace Galassi
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300117671

Book Description

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828) spent the last four years of his life living in Bordeaux with other political émigrés from Spain and South America. In those years he created small-scale, intimate pieces, including uncommissioned portraits of friends and family, miniature paintings on ivory plaques, and numerous drawings and lithographs. These works attest to the artist’s continuing vitality in his old age and also offer insight into his life in Bordeaux.

This beautiful book presents fifty-one key works from Goya’s late period along with two essays that illuminate his works of that time. Jonathan Brown retells the story of Goya’s difficult years in exile when he nevertheless continued to make art, experimenting with the new medium of lithography, inventing a technique of miniature painting on ivory, and painting remarkable portraits of friends and supporters. Susan Grace Galassi describes the rich historical and cultural milieu of Bordeaux and establishes a biographical context and sense of place that underscore the triumph of Goya’s final achievement.

Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Vol 1

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Carmen Thyssen-Bornemixza Collection Vol 1 & 2

Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Vol 1
Thomas Llorens , Eugene Boudin , Jan Brueghel , Francisco de Goya , and Theodore Rousseau
Manufacturer: Ediciones el Viso/Fundaci n Colecci n Thyssen-Bornemisza
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Prado Museum

ASIN: 8496233065
Release Date: 2005-03-15

Book Description

The private art collection of Mrs. Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza is considered one of the most important in the world. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum has published these two volumes to accompany the permanent exhibition of the International Collection, which includes 345 works of art by Brueghel, de Hooch, Van Goyen, Canaletto, Fragonard, Constable, Corot, Pissarro, Sisley, Degas, Van Gogh, Monet, Gauguin, Braque, Kandinsky, Nolde, Heckel, Hopper, Picasso, Juan Gris and others. Also included in two the volumes is a selection of works of art from a number of important 19th-century American artists such as Head, Bierstadt, Church, and Bricher. Provided here is a fully documented analysis of the collection, including color illustrations and a summary profile for each work of art, as well as research analyses written by 87 international experts and field specialists. There is an introduction to each chapter written by Javier Arnaldo--the publisher of these volumes, and co-curator at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. Volume 1 focuses on art from the 13th to 19th centuries, while Volume 2 looks at art of the 19th and 20th centuries. Combined, these two books feature 960 pages and some 270 beautifully-reproduced full-color images.

Customer Reviews:

Carmen Thyssen-Bornemixza Collection Vol 1 & 2.......2006-03-09

After seeing the collection in Madrid a study of Vol 1& 2 were rewarding in so far as each work of art (95% plus ) paintings had an essay regarding the work and aspects of the artists life and style. The paintings in the books and collection were perhaps not typical of the artist they are in deed lovely and worth an art lovers time. These are not coffee table books but give one an opportunity to get a good idea of what Western art is. A. Cinelli, M.D.

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Hughes Only Skims the Surface of Goya's Art
Goya would have liked this
Goya beyond the paintings
Also a path to understanding Spain and its culture
Enjoyable reading

Goya
Robert Hughes
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0394580281
Release Date: 2003-11-11

Book Description

Robert Hughes, who has stunned us with comprehensive works on subjects as sweeping and complex as the history of Australia ( The Fatal Shore), the modern art movement ( The Shock of the New), the nature of American art ( American Visions), and the nature of America itself as seen through its art ( The Culture of Complaint), now turns his renowned critical eye to one of art history’s most compelling, enigmatic, and important figures, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes. With characteristic critical fervor and sure-eyed insight, Hughes brings us the story of an artist whose life and work bridged the transition from the eighteenth-century reign of the old masters to the early days of the nineteenth-century moderns.

With his salient passion for the artist and the art, Hughes brings Goya vividly to life through dazzling analysis of a vast breadth of his work. Building upon the historical evidence that exists, Hughes tracks Goya’s development, as man and artist, without missing a beat, from the early works commissioned by the Church, through his long, productive, and tempestuous career at court, to the darkly sinister and cryptic work he did at the end of his life.
In a work that is at once interpretive biography and cultural epic, Hughes grounds Goya firmly in the context of his time, taking us on a wild romp through Spanish history; from the brutality and easy violence of street life to the fiery terrors of the Holy Inquisition to the grave realities of war, Hughes shows us in vibrant detail the cultural forces that shaped Goya’s work.

Underlying the exhaustive, critical analysis and the rich historical background is Hughes’s own intimately personal relationship to his subject. This is a book informed not only by lifelong love and study, but by his own recent experiences of mortality and death. As such this is a uniquely moving and human book; with the same relentless and fearless intelligence he has brought to every subject he has ever tackled, Hughes here transcends biography to bring us a rich and fiercely brave book about art and life, love and rage, impotence and death. This is one genius writing at full capacity about another—and the result is truly spectacular.

Customer Reviews:

Hughes Only Skims the Surface of Goya's Art.......2007-08-04

Although Hughes wrote much about the times in which Goya lived and did so well, I was most dissatisfied with how he tended to merely describe rather than give me insight into Goya's art. Consequently, I searched for a book that focused on what makes Goya's art so ground-breaking. Kudos to the reviewer (whose review I've been unable to find again) who alerted me to GOYA: THE ORIGINS OF THE MODERN TEMPER by Fred Licht. So excellent is it that half-way through the library copy of it, I ordered my own. While Licht does not ignore the times and does include personal details about Goya, his focus is on analyzing the art and explaining why it was, as the book's subtitle suggests, a departure from the art of the times. It was from Licht, not Hughes, that I gained a new appreciation of and respect for Goya's works in each of his periods. And as an added bonus, Licht is a good writer who is easy to follow, even by those who do not have much background in art. (The only negative of Licht's book is that most of the plates of Goya's paintings are in black and white. But I'd have to agree with another reviewer who felt that although those in Hughes' book were in color, the reproductions of them were too small to really be illuminating.)

Goya would have liked this.......2007-04-09

A great biography, full of informative details on Goya's life (his beginnings in particular), and, of course, a brilliant study of his works (especially the etchings, which do need explanation when you are not a specialist). Interesting insight on Spanish society of the 18th and 19th century. The style is lively and straightforward, as is always the case with Robert Hughes whom I consider the greatest art critic alive.

Goya beyond the paintings.......2007-04-01

Robert Hughes' book reaches the goal of describing not only the wonderful paintings and drawings of Francisco de Goya, but his life, feelings, beliefs. This makes it possible for all those who are interested in studying Goya's life and work a deeper understanding of the man behind - and beyond - the works.

Also a path to understanding Spain and its culture.......2007-02-27

Mr Hughes' writing skills - which include a peppering of modern analogies, a sharp wit and an uncensored vocabulary -combine with a considerable feeling for his subject to enliven this book on Goya. Apart from his artistic expertise and technical knowledge of art generally, his sympathetic explication of the many works referred to bring the reader to a state of warm understanding of the evolution of this major artist. In addition, the non-expert, as I am, comes away with a better understanding of the Spanish and Spain. A most enjoyable read.

Enjoyable reading.......2007-02-23

Usually I look for the artist's art in a monograph book, not his story (assuming the art itself would tell it more deeply anyway).
But his writing is enjoyable: humorous, down to earth, cynical and sober, yet you feel through all this the passion and ambition of Goya.
I find the his sober treatment of Goya as a not-so-idealistic fellow to actually inspiring - that he achieved what he did WITH all the real-life compromises he had to make.
Makes you laugh at the ridiculousness of people's meanness, wickedness, arrogance, and downright cruelty. You laugh because you cannot cry.

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Francisco Goya (Great Masters)
Sarah Carr-Gomm
Manufacturer: Grange Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Great Goya Etchings: The Proverbs, The Tauromaquia and The Bulls of Bordeaux (Dover Books on Fine Art)

ASIN: 1840137789

Book Description

Francisco Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) is one of the undisputed masters of 19th century Spanish painting. he is also often called "the first of the Moderns" because of his bold technique and his belief that the personal vision of the artist is more important than tradition. As a young man in 1775, he worked in the Royal Tapestry Factory in Sainte-Barbe in Madrid, where he studied the masterpieces of Velasquez, who influenced him greatly. After becoming court painter to King Charles III in 1786, he did that series of portraits, religious and genre paintings which brought him fame and prosperity. In 1799, overcome by a profound pessism, he isolated himself and changed his whole approach to painting. His new style was bold and close to caricature. Durin the Napoleon invasion he expressed his horror of conflict in realistic etchings on the atrocities of war. This book presents a comprehensive overview of Goya's paiting, engarving, and cartoons for tapestries with illustartions and text covering the main incidents of his life.

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Fine prints from a great museum

The Prado Museum
Francisco de Goya , Vel zquez , and Hieronymus Bosch
Manufacturer: Poligrafa
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 8434309629
Release Date: 2002-12-02

Book Description

Renowned as the largest art gallery in the world, the Prado houses sculptures, drawings, coins, and other works of art--but it is its incomparable collection of paintings which has drawn fame worldwide. Included in its store of more than 8,600 paintings are works by members of the Italian, Flemish, Spanish, French, Dutch, and German schools. Albrecht Drer, Anton van Dyck, Correggio, El Greco, Goya, Hieronymous Bosch, Josa de Ribera, Lucas Cranach, Nicolas Poussin, Pieter Brueghel, Rafael, Rembrandt, Rogier van der Veyden, Rubens, Sandro Botticelli, Tiepolo, Tintoretto, Tiziano, Velzquez, and nearly every other master painter from the 12th to the 20th century. The history of the Prado began during the reign of Charles III, when he tried to create a single collection under one roof, but it did not really concretize as an institution until the reign of Fernando VII, under whom the Royal Museum of Painting and Sculpture was founded in 1819. King Fernando's death caused inheritance problems and endangered the unity of the collection, but with the disapearance of the Spanish monarchy, the museum became national property and was renamed the Prado Museum. Only a tenth of the Prado's immense collection of works are normally on show at any one time in the museum's two buildings: the Villanueva and the CasAn del Buen Retiro, but this will soon change. Architect Rafael Moneo has designed a plan to join the existing neo-classical building with two nearby historical buildings, the cloister of the San JerAnimo church and a 17th-century palace, by buried passageways, and has included a 400-seat underground auditorium as well. Completion of the project is scheduled for October 2003.

Customer Reviews:

Fine prints from a great museum.......2003-03-17

This book contains fine prints of great art from a wonderful museum. It will be valued by persons who like great art, or by people who have visited the Prado and want a momento that they can page through to jog their memory of what they saw there. Some of the prints will be new to them: the Prado's collection is so vast that only a small portion of it can be displayed at a time.
Obviously, the compilers necessarily had to be selective about what they put in the book. I liked the selection of paintings by Goya but was mildly disappointed that it did not include "Saturn". Also, the compilers have made a decision to broadly cover the artists represented at the Prado, rather than making an exhaustive compilation of some of the artists that a Prado visitor might particularly have focused on, such as El Greco, Velazquez or Goya.
This is basically a book of prints, so the accompanying text is not, to my mind, a major contribution to the value of the book. The text covers the history of the museum and how the collection came into being. It briefly discusses the different "schools" of art represented in the museum: "Spanish School", "Italian School", "German School", etc. The part of the text dedicated to Velazquez is only a page and a half long (although they are big pages). For somebody without a background in art history who wants to prepare to make their Prado visit more meaningful, I will say that I benefited from reading Tomlinson's "Fransisco Goya y Lucientes: 1746-1828" and Brown's "Velazquez".

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