Saturn Devouring One of His Children

This is an original painting by Francisco Goya. This piece was created during his dark age, where he was very depressed and quite possibly insane because of numerous factors; his wife had recently died and he had also gone deaf.

The original work of art was painted don the walls of his dining room, and so they had to cut out the plaster of his walls to display this piece in a museum.

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Francisco Goya was a famous painter from Spain, and there is no doubt about that. However, there are doubts that run through his treacherous line of art; the solemn, disturbing figures and actions he decided to display frighten many, but some cannot decide why other than the fact that "it's creepy." Through allusions, colour planning, and lighting, Goya creates a harmonized feeling of despair and other-worldly havoc.

The initial element that is applicable to Goya's piece is an allusion to Greek Mythology. Although this piece was not completed in the era of the Ancient Greeks, nor was it painted in Greece or Rome, it is very direct in addressing the mythology of the previous locations; Saturn was the Roman name for Chronos [Greek God of Time]. Chronos, in mythology, ate his children to avoid the idea of them growing up and slaying him. In another example of this piece's allusions, he alludes to some sort of demon or creature with the wild expression. He gives Saturn wide eyes like a wild animal spotting man in the distance, and his stance appears as though he is about to lumber off.

The colour choice is another element that ought to be discussed. The entire piece is made up of warm colours and different shades of red, yellow, orange, and brown. The importance of these colours is astronomical; they are warm colours specifically because most partner reds, yellows, and oranges with things such as blood, fire, or the eyes of large predators [big cats or wolves]. All of these reminders lead to the same point: they represent destruction, as does his piece "Saturn Devouring One of His Children." Alternatively, the browns represent mud, especially when one looks into the shadows [do they not appear ruddy?]. This was done on purpose, because what Saturn is doing is not only destructive and wrong, but volatile and dirty; the concepts of this piece are not meant to be clean, and so the colours have come to match those terms.

Finally, the light source and the definite chiaroscuro that takes place both bring us to a final destination of observation; Saturn almost appears to be emerging from a cave, or some sort of dark and hellish location [the darkness, ruddiness, and warmness of the colours and shades all allude to this[. Again, Goya has done this on purpose, to imitate a beast-like man who, as the title tells, devours children.

In no doubt, Goya's piece has been planned to be a disaster on plaster; he has unified his colour to his concept, and his mythological logic has been applied to an illogical situation. He applied much effort to attain this sort of unity and I give my kudos to the amount of connections this piece has to history, with much accuracy.