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Goya
and the Duchess of Alba
by
Susann Waldmann
These
two volumes follow 25 others in the "Pegasus Library" series,
advertised as presenting "the passions that drive the masters."
Waldmann, a Spanish art specialist, delves into the suspicion
some people have entertained over the centuries that Francisco
de Goya and one of his patrons, the 13th Duchess of Alba, had
an adulterous relationship. Some intriguing paintings, drawings,
and prints produced in the 1790s suggest that perhaps they did,
but the salacious quotes from a romantic novel and a final image
of the duchess's exhumed and decayed corpse are more suited
to a tabloid. In contrast, Zollner (art history, Univ. of Leipzig)
uses Sandro Botticelli's art to explore virtuous love within
marriage. He discusses the intended usage of the paintings in
Italian bridal chambers and cites classical and Renaissance
literary references for his analysis of iconographic motifs
in "La Primavera," "Birth of Venus," and several other paintings.
Translated from German, the text of both books flows clearly;
they are sturdily constructed, and the color illustrations complement
the text well. Certain aspects, however, such as the slender
physical format and dust jackets with erotic spine and cover
designs, suggest that these books are intended for gift-giving
or collecting rather than purchase by libraries. The exception
would be libraries that acquire every title on a particular
artist.
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Francisco
Goya y Lucientes : 1746-1828
by
Francisco JosE De, Goya Y Lucientes, Francisco Goya
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
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Goya
Drawings : 44 Plates by Francisco Goya
by
Eric Shanes
Shanes,
a British painter and art historian, here reconciles the ``formal
simplicity'' of Brancusi's (1876-1957) sculpture with its ``richness
of meaning.'' He treats the works thematically, dividing them
into categories, following their chronological development and
illustrating his analysis with his own photographs of the sculptures.
A chapter about ``The Natural World,'' for example, deals with
the celebrated Bird in Space and Fish series. Although Brancusi's
oeuvre lends itself well to this compartmentalized approach,
the result is slightly fragmented. The last chapter fails to
synthesize previous discussions, instead proffering generalities
(``Brancusi elevated the idealism of Renaissance art to a new
plane, creating a modern sculptural language in the process'').
Some of the more challenging modernist issues operating in Brancusi's
art--the polarities of real and ideal and abstraction vs. representation--are
raised but not resolved. A chapter consisting of the artist's
statements on art and a section about his techniques, however,
round out the book nicely.
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