Publisher's 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,...

Robert Hughes explores the world of Goya and gives a very personal commentary on his paintings, charting his achievements as a court painter, satirist, and war reporter, and finally as the topographer of the inner self, madness, fear, and despair.