With his numerable self-portraits, Francisco Goya was alone among visual artists of the Romantic period in responding to the genre of autobiography. Goya used the self-portrait to comment on royalty, literature, sex, and death as well as his own genius. In this study John J. Ciofalo examines a broad sampling of Goya's oeuvre through the lens of self-portraiture, offering new interpretations of some of his most famous works, including Los Caprichos, The Disasters of War, and the "black" paintings. Interdisciplinary in scope, it provides fresh and illuminating perspectives on a notoriously enigmatic artist.