"Saturn Devouring His Son"
Francisco De Goya - Oil On Canvas - 83 x 146 cm
Spain’s pioneering painter Francisco Goya y Lucientes was considered a great successor to the Spanish Baroque Painting masters, namely painters like El Greco, Velazquez, and Jusepe Ribera. His career spanned between 1785 and 1820. “Saturn Devouring his Son” was a part of the “Black Paintings” series that he made between 1819 and 1823. This series was a combination of caricatures, nightmares and cruelty of a bestial nature. Goya was only reflecting the troubled times that he had survived throughout his life. Goya based this particular painting on the myth of the Greek God, Saturn. There was a prophecy that haunted Saturn – that his sons would cause his death. To avoid this, Saturn eats five of his children after their birth. Although there was a painting similarly depicting Saturn by the 17th century painter Peter Paul Rubens, Goya’s monstrous and graphic display of gore sets his work miles apart. His psychopath seems to be innocently gnawing away at his victim, with his eyes wide open, as if he can’t stop it. There is madness of an utterly hysterical nature present in his nomadic disposition. However, there are some elements in this painting that set it apart from the myth as well. The figure, whose head seems to be already devoured by the psychopath, does not look like a baby boy, but a grown girl. According to some art historians and theorists, this “Saturn” could also symbolize the autocratic Spanish government, while some others believe it could be the French Revolution. No one is sure, as Goya never offered any clarifications. “Saturn Devouring His Sun” can be found in Museo Nacional Del Prado.