Francis Grgeory L. Ku Art Appreciation: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (

Francis Grgeory L.
Ku
ART APPRECIATION
Francisco José de Goya y

Lucientes (/ˈɡɔɪə/; Spanish: [fɾanˈθisko xoˈse ðe ˈɣoʝa i luˈθjentes]; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828)
was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist
of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and throughout his long career was a commentator and
chronicler of his era. Immensely successful in his lifetime, Goya is often referred to as both the last
of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. He was also one of the great portraitists of his time.[1]
Saturn Devouring His Son is the name given to a painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya.
According to the traditional interpretation, it depicts the Greek myth of the Titan Cronus (in the title
Romanized to Saturn), who, fearing that he would be overthrown by one of his children,[1] ate each
one upon their birth. The work is one of the 14 Black Paintings that Goya painted directly onto the
walls of his house sometime between 1819 and 1823. It was transferred to canvas after Goya's
death and has since been held in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
Goya depicts Saturn feasting upon one of his sons. His child's head and part of the left arm have
already been consumed. The right arm has probably been eaten too, though it could be folded in
front of the body and held in place by Saturn's thumbs. The titan is on the point of taking another bite
from the left arm; as he looms from the darkness, his mouth gapes and his eyes bulge widely. The
only other brightness in the picture comes from the white flesh, the red blood of the corpse, and the
white knuckles of Saturn as he digs his fingers into the back of the body. There is evidence that the
picture may have originally portrayed the titan with a partially erect penis,[5] but, if ever present, this
addition was lost due to the deterioration of the mural over time or during the transfer to canvas; in
the picture today the area around his groin is indistinct. It may even have been overpainted
deliberately before the picture was put on public display.[6]
Various interpretations of the meaning of the picture have been offered: 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. There have 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 cannot be determined with certainty. If Goya made any notes on the
picture, they have not survived; as he never intended the picture for public exhibition, he probably
had little interest in explaining its significance. It has been said that the painting is "essential to our
understanding of the human condition in modern times, just as Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel
ceiling is essential to understanding the tenor of the 16th century".[7]
Goya may have been inspired by Peter Paul Rubens' 1636 picture 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 the cannibalistic ferocity portrayed in Goya's rendition. However, some
critics have suggested that Rubens' portrayal is the more horrific: the god is portrayed as a
calculating remorseless killer, who – fearing for his own position of power – murders his innocent
child. Goya's vision, on the other hand, shows a man driven mad by the act of killing his own son. Or
it could be interpreted as a titan driven wild with fear at the idea of usurpation from one of his
children. In addition, the body of the son in Goya's picture is that of an adult, not the helpless baby
depicted by Rubens. Goya had produced a chalk drawing of the same subject in 1796-7 that was
closer in tone to Rubens' work: it showed a Saturn similar in appearance to that of Rubens', daintily
biting on the leg of one of his sons while he holds another like a leg of chicken, with none of the gore
or madness of the later work. Goya scholar Fred Licht has raised doubts regarding the traditional
title however, noting that the classical iconographical attributes associated with Saturn are absent
from the painting, and the body of the smaller figure does not resemble that of an infant.[3] The
rounded buttocks and wide hips of the headless corpse has also called into question the
identification of this figure as a male.[8]
Contents
 1Background
 2Painting
 3Transfer from the Quinta del Sordo
 4Influence
 5Notes
 6References

Francis Grgeory L. Ku Art Appreciation: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Francis Grgeory L. Ku Art Appreciation: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Francis Grgeory L. Ku Art Appreciation: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Francis Grgeory L.

Francisco José de Goya y

You might also like