Goya
By Xavier de Salas, Xavier
Published by Mayflower Books, 1978
ISBN 0831739509
206 pages
Printed in Italy

Xavier de Salas writing on Goya in this volume has the warm, easy pace of someone who has handled the subject over and over (Salas' author credit says that he has produced over 180 books). He seems more concerned with explaining the basics for the reader versus charging into any thick and weighty debate, which is a nice difference since the subject of Goya typically provokes easy argumentation. While de Salas flatly declares which way he stands on a number of issues (for example, the supposed affair between Goya & the Duchess of Alba, i.e., it didn't happen), he also presents the reasoning behind the opposite position. This is done in a deferential manner, and with great tact, which, I think, reveals the Spanish culture that de Salas is writing from (this book is an English translation from the Spanish). American writers, particularly with regards to Goya, have things to prove, and don't have time for such niceties, which can conjure a sort of high school debate atmosphere to a book written in that way.

Which speaks all the more to the grace of de Salas' volume. He writes in a straight forward, authoritative manner, and has a personal tone toward the reader. Salas approaches Goya as if he were an artist and a man, not a god, which is a tendency with some art historians. Perhaps this is because for de Salas, Goya is a talented and thoughtful countryman, not a foreign genius and peg to hang modernist art theory upon.

Considering its age, the production qualities on this 9.5" x 13" book holds up well. While much of the reproduction on the images are poor by comparison to any modern book published since the 1980s, there is a certain quality to the photography which is not found in modern techniques. Chiefly this is in the instances when a paintings surface is in relief, such that brush strokes can be seen in the color. This is a fascinating attribute that does not show up in newer books, since the aim in reproduction is capturing the flatness of the painting. (Example below, detail from the portrait of Gaspar Melchor Jovellanos, 1798)

Goya
By Sarah Symmons
Published by Phaidon Press, 1998
ISBN 0714837512
352 pages
Printed in Singapore

Symmon's writing in this book has a tour guide feel to it; sometimes I felt as if I was walking from one painting to another, cut off from what went before as a new image was described. Yet Symmons is comfortable with her subject and seems to take pains to be thorough without being wordy. The amount of information is perhaps overwhelming, and I have found that this is a book that I can open at just about any place and begin reading, since an evolution of an idea is not being carried from paragraph to paragraph before breaking off into a new idea. This is an art history book in the true sense of the word.

Symmons makes short work of many of the Goya legends, and she brings up the usual debates (the Duchess of Alba) with a succinct explanation of the background. Her attitude seems to be one of some sympathy for Goya, although she attempts a neutral position while still declaring Goya a genius: maybe that is the neutral position. The Spanish painter is a touchstone for so much of modern art that when Symmons takes us on her fascinating "Tribute of Posterity" near the end of this volume, she handles it without bogging down into existentialism while all the same describing the existential concerns that modern artists (and art critics & historians) find to be such a magnet with in Goya.

"The disturbing enigma of Goya's vision, the hint of threats from an unknown source and the conjuring up of indefinable states of mind made him the inspiration for nineteenth-century masterpieces depicting anxiety and fear." (page 319)

She is explaining an existential image without existentializing her text, in fact someone need not even be familiar with existential ideas to understand what she is saying. This seems very fitting since Goya comes to us from an age when the ideas he is now so often celebrated for did not even exist in a categorical way. One need only to be human to absorb the pathos of, say, The Third of May. And Symmon's book often presents Goya in just that manner.

There is a generous amount of addendum information which makes this slim book something of a Goya anthology reader. It includes copies of Goya letters and the cartoons he sometimes included.

This is a long, multi-part essay which discusses Goya as understood by novelist and critic Andre Malraux. He proposes many ideas, and brings up many questions, often in areas untouched by other volumes on Goya. The book is well illustrated, and assumes the reader is familiar with Goya and his work to a certain extent.

This is an excellent selection of Goya ink & brush pieces. The selection is taken from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There are also other crayon, pencil and chalk drawings.

This oversize volume has clean and precise printing in the reproductions, though they sometimes are too dark and obscure a portion of a painting. The limitations of four-color printing are evident - however, overall an excellent volume and with its large size, quite eye-pleasing.

This book is organized and printed in a style long out of vogue. The writing itself, by Mr. Myers, is well-suited toward the student, as it breaks up specific points and paintings in easy to assimilate groupings. The color printing is not at all acceptable by todays standards, in fact retouching by the production personal is evident on several paintings - altering significantly the painting itself.

This is a lightweight, though excellently organized, episode-and-topic overview of Goya and his work. Some of the reproductions are much too dark, but might be an artifact of 1960s era printing. Includes illustrated comparisons with other artists.

This volume collects together a number of Goya's major prints, and compares their themes and techniques with the prints from other artists and their countries. Includes many illustrations of comparative art. Images are reproduced excellently.

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Thanks goes to the Alfred Knopf company for the review copy of Robert Hughes Goya they provided for this website.

Thanks goes to Abbeville Press for the review copy provided of Fred Licht's Goya book.