![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Goya made a chalk drawing of the same subject in 1796–97: it showed a figure biting on the leg of one person while he holds another to eat, with none of the gore or madness of the later work. It is very likely Goya had seen Rubens's Saturn in his life, but the degree to which inspiration was taken (if any) is unknown. The mood of the painting is in stark contrast to Rubens's Saturn, as the central figure is acting out of madness rather than calculating reason, and the consumed figure is completely lifeless rather than in clear pain. If Goya made any notes on the picture, they have not survived, as he never intended the picture for public exhibition. 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. 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. The only other brightness in the picture comes from the white flesh, the red blood of the corpse, and the white knuckles of the larger figure as he digs his fingers into the back of the body. The larger figure 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 right arm has probably been eaten too, though it could be folded in front of the body and held in place by the larger figure's thumbs. The figure's head and part of the left arm have already been consumed. Goya depicts a large figure feasting on a human form. SmARThistory - Goya's Saturn Devouring One of His Sons Jupiter eventually supplanted his father just as the prophecy had predicted.Ĭomposition and interpretations External video Unlike the painting, the myths usually portray Saturn/Kronos swallowing his children, and later vomiting them up alive after swallowing the stone, rather than violently tearing them apart as in the painting. His wife Ops ( Rhea) eventually hid his sixth child and third son, Jupiter ( Zeus), on the island of Crete, deceiving Saturn by offering a stone wrapped in swaddling in his place. To prevent this, Saturn ate his children moments after each was born, eating the gods Vesta ( Hestia), Ceres ( Demeter), Juno ( Hera), Pluto ( Hades), and Neptune ( Poseidon). This interpretation of the painting sees it as a reference to the Roman myth (inspired by the original Greek myth), in which Terra (Gaea) foretold that one of the sons of Saturn would overthrow him, just as he had overthrown his father, Caelus ( Uranus). It is important to note that Goya never named the works he produced at Quinta del Sordo the names were assigned by others after his death. Saturn Devouring His Son was one of six works Goya painted in the dining room. Created without commission for private display, these paintings may reflect the artist's state of mind late in a life that witnessed the violence of war and terror stoked by the Spanish Inquisition. Īlthough he initially decorated the rooms of the house with more inspiring images, in time he painted over them all with the intensely haunting pictures known today as the Black Paintings. Between 18, when he left the house to move to Bordeaux, Goya produced a series of 14 paintings using mixed technique on the walls of the house. It was a two-story house which was named after a previous occupant who had been deaf, although the name was fitting for Goya too, who had been left deaf after contracting a fever in 1792. In 1819, Goya purchased a house on the banks of Manzanares near Madrid called Quinta del Sordo (Villa of the Deaf Man). ![]()
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