Hofmann places Goyas paintings, drawings and prints in a biographical context, revealing the specific character of each phase of the artists life and work. He discusses the glory and the pain of faith evinced by Goyas early work, the artists parabolic representation of the threat posed by the French Revolution, his dramatic documentation of the French occupation of Spain, his variations on cruelty in the Disasters of War etchings, and the religious faith apparent in his late work. Hofmann also relates the artist and his work to contemporary intellectual developments, drawing comparison with writers, critics and philosophers from Goethe to William Blake to the Marquis de Sade.