Goya’s ‘Black Paintings’

Francisco Goya produced 14 images known as the Black Paintings, which a half-century after his death were cut from the walls of his country house on the outskirts of Madrid. The Black Paintings decorated the walls of the Quinta del Sordo between when he purchased it in February 1819 till 1823.

‘Saturn Devouring his Son’ Goya,

According to the traditional interpretation, it depicts a Greek myth of the Titan Cronus, who, fearing that he would be overthrown by one of his children, ate each one as they were born. There are various interpretations of what this painting might mean. The painting may have been inspired by a Rubens, 1636 painting of the same name. Rubens’ painting, also held at the Museo del Prado, is a brighter, more conventional treatment of the myth: his Saturn exhibits less of a cannibalistic ferocity than which is portrayed in Goya’s rendition. (Painting below)

 Rubens 1636 ‘Saturn devouring his son’

Many other theories of the painting our the conflict between youth and old age, time as the devourer of all things, the wrath of God and an allegory of the situation in Spain, where the fatherland consumed its own children in wars and revolution. Their has been explanations rooted in Goya’s relationships with his own son, Xavier, the only of his six children to survive to adulthood, or with his live-in housekeeper and possible mistress, Leocadia Weiss; the sex of the body being consumed can not be determined with certainty. Any notes on the picture, have been lost or either were never created; as he never intended the picture for public exhibition, he probably had little interest in explaining its significance.

As I stated this is just one of the 14 paintings found in his house after he died, and as they were found in his house 70 years later we know they were never supposed to be viewed by the public.

 The intentions of this painting I see them as a symbol of man and its destruction on one another. The symbol of not a identity of someone but the a identity of idea, I want to create this question of life about my paintings.