From the portraits of the Spanish royal family to the horrific scenes of conflict and suffering, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828) left his mark as one of Spain's most respected and controversial artists. As a master of form and light, his influence continues to resonate through the centuries, inspiring and captivating artists from the Romanticists, such as Eugène Delacroix, to British artists like the Chapman brothers. Born in Fuendetodos, Spain in 1746, Goya served the Spanish royal family in 1774, where he produced engravings and tapestry designs for grand palaces and royal residences across the country. He also had the support of the aristocracy, painting commissioned portraits of the rich and powerful with his increasingly fluid and expressive style. Later, after an illness, the artist shifted towards darker engravings and drawings, introducing a nightmarish world of witches, ghosts, and fantastical creatures. However, with his horrific depictions of conflict, Goya achieved a lasting impact. Executed between 1810 and 1820, The Disasters of War were inspired by the atrocities committed during Spain's struggle for independence from the French and penetrated to the core of human cruelty and sadism. The dark shades, the troubled brushstrokes, and the aggressive use of light and dark contrast echoed the Baroque style of Velázquez and Rembrandt, but Goya's subject matter was unprecedented in its rawness and candor. In this introductory book from TASCHEN's Basic Art 2.0 series, we explore the full trajectory of Goya's remarkable career, from courtly elegance to the dire prophet of suffering and grotesquery. Along the way, we encounter famous portraits such as Don Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga, the glamorous Naked Maja, and The 3rd of May 1808 in Madrid, one of the most harrowing images of war in art history.