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"During the first fifty years of his life Francisco de Goya produced light-hearted studies of contemporary life, society portraits of great emotional realism and dramatic representations of political events. Later the chaos and horror of the Napoleonic Wars in Spain had a profound effect, as can be seen in the new radical political stance and almost modern sensibility that emerged in his later work." "Towards the end of his life, embittered by the appalling cruelty of the war years, Goya semi-retired from public life to a country house, the Quinta del Sordo, just outside Madrid. In the 1820s the walls of this house were decorated with a series of fourteen terrifying murals, depicting in almost phantasmagoric terms the fear and remorselessness of everyday human existence. Known as the Black Paintings, and considered to be the culmination of Goya's life as a painter, this series of murals now hangs in the Prado Museum in Madrid." "Illustrated with full colour reproductions of the paintings, X-rays and many vivid details, this volume is the only book on the Black Paintings available in the English language. A controversial narrative gives new interpretations of the artist's intention behind these works. It also illustrates some of the problems surrounding the early history of the rooms in which the Black Paintings were displayed, and shows how during this period Goya's work anticipated Surrealism and other aspects of twentieth-century artistic vision."--BOOK JACKET.