From Publishers Weekly
A portraitist for the Spanish aristocracy before being struck deaf after an illness in 1792, Goya (1746-1828) subsequently developed a bolder, rougher style of religious fresco, sided with the French after they invaded, was pardoned by the Spanish king in 1814, and lived a more and more reclusive life, finally going into exile in Bordeaux in his final four years. In a conceit familiar from her previous titles (including The Emperor's Last Island, where British writer Blackburn juxtaposed a chronicle of Napoleon on St. Helena with her own life and travels), this book is as much about Blackburn's life as it is the second half of Goya's. Blackburn free associates, for example, from memories of her mother's paint studio to episodes from the life of Goya, finding parallel grotesques in each world. She interlards her narrative of Goya's life with her own tourist trips tracking his movements through Spain and France to the point where it can be difficult to tell the sets of experiences apart. The faux naIve tone that dominates the book seems to be an attempt to imitate the art writer John Berger's famed "peasant" style, with vastly inferior results: "Goya the deaf man makes me think of a toad.... But before he was deaf he was able to hear and before he was old he was young." For those serious about Goya's life and work, this book obscures more than it reveals.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient de la
Hardcover
édition.
From Library Journal
The author of both fiction and nonfiction, Blackburn (e.g., Daisy Bates in the Desert) has returned with a m‚lange of biography, historical fiction, and meditation on the life of Spanish painter Francisco de Goya. Although many academic works on Goya are available, Blackburn's reluctance to conform to any one genre makes this book on the painter's last 35 years unique. Blackburn's meticulous research into Goya's life, the cast of characters around him, and the impact of his hearing loss allowed her to re-create the most intimate moments. For example, in her description of Goya's relationship with the Duchess of Alba, Blackburn imagines the newly deaf Goya being seduced by one of the legendary subjects of his portraits. Goya purists may be uncomfortable when Blackburn goes off on tangents, as when she revels in meticulous descriptions of late 18th- and early 19th-century Spain or draws parallels between the death of her mother, a painter, and Goya's own demise. But in the end, Blackburn's subjective take on Goya the man works beautifully. She successfully creates a virtual tour through Spain's past and present and fills in the gaps about Goya's personal life with details one won't get from the audio tour at the Prado museum. Highly recommended. Adriana Lopez, "Criticas.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient de la
Hardcover
édition.
