Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Some tanning wear and marking due to age. Dustcover has some wear and tear but actual book is great. Year 1956. Hardcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> Goya was in his early sixties when the word ‘liberal’ began to be used first in Spanish and then in every other European language to designate the sentiments of those struggling for a human order founded on freedom. The early stages of this struggle co-incided with the colossal contest be-tween Napoleon’s empire and England whose resistance included the support of claims to national independence. But once Napoleon was defeated the Holy Alliance set out to destroy lib-eralism on the European continent. Goya had to go into hiding during the suppression of the Spanish liberals and in those years he composed the cycle of drawings bearing on the lib-eral struggle with which this book is concerned. They have never before been considered as forming an organic whole even though Gova carefully arranged them in a telling sequence. But according to Dr. Lopez-Rey’s in-terpretation the cycle expands a whole vision of history: some of the compositions such as those directed against religious abuses are carica-tures with a pungent sense of imme diacy; others representing victims of the Inquisition or revolutionary action are of the utmost delicacy of feeling; still others in which freedom’s ulti-mate victory is the theme are as sharp as intellectual conviction can be. (MP)