Toronto Iberic #: The Art of Witnessing

- Blurb -

Widely acknowledged as a major turning point in the history of visual depictions of war, Francisco de Goya' s renowned print series The Disasters of War remains a touchstone for serious engagement with the violence of war and the questions raised by its artistic representation. The Art of Witnessing provides a new account of Goya' s print series by taking readers through the forty-seven prints he dedicated to the violence of war. Drawing on facets of Goya' s artistry rarely considered together before, the book challenges the notion that documentary realism and historical testimony were his primary aims. Michael Iarocci argues that while the depiction of war' s atrocities was central to Goya' s project, the lasting power of the print series stems from the artist' s complex moral and aesthetic meditations on the subject. Making novel contributions to longstanding debates about historical memory, testimony, and the representation of violence, The Art of Witnessing tells a new story, print by print, to highlight the ways in which Goya' s masterpiece extends far beyond conventional understandings of visual testimony.