Spanish Portrait from El Greco to Picasso

the long version

"The Spanish Portrait from El Greco to Picasso is an unprecedented survey of Spanish portrait painting and the development of this genre in Spanish art from the late fifteenth century to the early decades of the twentieth. Drawing on the collections of the Museo del Prado and other major international collections, it is the first book to cover more than 500 years of Spanish art from the viewpoint of the portrait. It features a selection of eighty-seven works and includes all the leading names in this field. This book is the first to present the stylistic evolution of the Spanish portrait, the differing social implications of the genre in Spain, the formulation by the various sitters of the self-image they wished to convey to posterity, and the various representational devices and strategies used by the artists of each period."--Jacket.