BOOK: Goya-The Complete Prints Taschen Publications

Francisco de Goya stands as one of the most daring and inventive peintre-graveurs of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a master whose etchings and lithographs helped define the language of modern printmaking. Trained in both Spain and Italy, and appointed First Court Painter to King Charles IV at a relatively young age, Goya absorbed the ideals of the Enlightenment while remaining acutely aware of the political turbulence and human suffering around him. His art became a charged meeting ground where rational inquiry clashed with superstition, and where the optimism of progress confronted the brutality of war, repression, and social injustice. Working across an astonishing range of formats, Goya created images that are as unsettling as they are beautiful. Individual prints such as the harrowing “Garrotted Man” or the monumental, dreamlike “Seated Giant” reveal his ability to compress entire dramas into a single, unforgettable scene. His celebrated series—the biting social satire of “Los Caprichos,” the unflinching reportage of “Los Desastres de la Guerra,” the kinetic energy of “La Tauromaquia,” and the nightmarish visions of “Los Disparates”—map the fault lines of a world in upheaval. These works are far more than reflections of Spanish society; they are indictments and meditations, warnings and lamentations, their copperplates etched with both technical brilliance and moral urgency. The monumental volume “Goya. The Complete Prints” by Taschen Publications gathers all 287 of Goya’s known prints and lithographs, including editions produced under his own supervision as well as rare state proofs from series never formally published. Together they offer an unparalleled view of his restless experimentation: the subtle play of aquatint and drypoint, the audacious revisions between states, and the meticulous control with which he coaxed light, shadow, and atmosphere from metal and acid. Accompanying the images are extensive commentaries on each plate and penetrating essays by noted scholars José Manuel Matilla and Anna Reuter, whose research distills more than two centuries of critical inquiry. The result is not merely an exhibition between covers but a sweeping visual narrative—a testament to an artist who refused to look away from the contradictions of his age. Goya did not simply record the world around him; he dissected it, exposing the perennial tensions between reason and madness, justice and cruelty, hope and despair, and in the process helped shape the very notion of modern art.-Dimitris Lempesis