Goya’s Black Paintings
Comments: 17
I must have been about 9 or 10 years old when I discovered a book of reproductions of 19th century European paintings belonging to my grandfather. It contained a full-page plate of Goya’s Saturn (giving the title as “Saturn devouring his children”) and this is the only image I can recall from that book. It’s an image that, quite understandably, has never left me, and I’d have to say that my discovery of that picture is one of my more powerful childhood memories.
Venerated as the first modern artist, Francisco Goya produced nothing more abrasively modern than the series of 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. Even today, when you come upon them in the sanitized confines of the Prado Museum, these nightmarish visions can unmoor you. An ancient crone grins ghoulishly over a bowl of food; a demonic figure whispers in the ear of a stooped old man; a midnight coven surrounds a goat-headed sorcerer; a dog raises its head forlornly; and, most famous of all, a raggedy-bearded man with bulging eyes devours a human form that is already reduced to red meat. Of this last iconic image – called ”Saturn,” after the Titan who ate his children – the art historian Fred Licht has written that it is as ”essential to our understanding of the human condition in modern times” as Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling is to our grasp of the 16th century.
It’s a shocking image for anyone, and for an unsupervised child sitting cross-legged on the floor at the foot of a bookshelf, well, there’s perhaps no more startling and dramatic introduction to the essential desperation of existence to be had. It’s no exaggeration to say that everything began to change that day in ways you spend a lifetime trying to figure out. I could never bring myself to talk about what I’d seen with anyone.
Now the authenticity of the Black Paintings is in doubt (not that it matters to me; the wheels set in motion long ago spin to this day). Arthur Lubow has an article in the NYTimes on work by historian Juan Jose Junquera that suggests the paintings were actually by Goya’s son, and passed off as those of the master by Goya’s grandson. It’s a fascinating hypothesis backed up by some interesting if not entirely compelling archival detective work which should be stirring things up for some time to come.
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Posted to Oh, the Humanity • 2003.07.28 (Mon) • 11:24
Comments
Posted by Blake 2003.07.28, 12:37
Oi. I have strange memories of the painting Saturn Eating His Kids…My former Printmaking professor had this picture as the focal point of his studio. When I first saw it I thought he was nuts. Being an art major, shame on me for not recognizing the peice. It was in Art History that I learned more about it. Still, the painting itself haunts me sometime. It’s just such an eerie and unsettling portrait. Very gruesome, and something more disturbing seeing what’s left of his prey, legs and all, hanging lifeless below his hands.
Posted by Jon 2003.07.28, 23:46
That image was used by the French band Trisomie 21 on the cover of their 1985 album “Chapter IV + Wait and Dance”. It is a grisly image to be sure.
Posted by dave 2003.07.29, 02:25
Are you saying that it is a bad thing for a child to see Goya’s paintings? I am just wondering because that is how you are coming arcoss. Do we dare lock these paintings away until the age of the viewer is 21?
Dave
Posted by Jake 2003.07.29, 04:18
I don’t think that’s how he’s coming across.
Posted by MacDara 2003.07.29, 06:45
Speaking of Goya, some of this work was the subject of a different sort of controversy a few months back. (Link to the Guardian feature here: http://tinyurl.com/ibsz)
Posted by Jerry Kindall 2003.07.29, 12:30
I had a similar reaction when I ran across Munch’s “The Scream” when I was in my early teens. It was the first time an image had produced a literal visceral reaction in me.
Posted by jimmy 2003.07.30, 06:09
Amazing how this image has seeped into popular culture. Here’s a recent Goya appropriation…. http://tinyurl.com/ifxc
Posted by jh 2003.07.30, 22:27
In no way did I mean to suggest that I somehow shouldn’t have seen this painting, or that children should be ‘protected’ from art, although it often doesn’t hurt to have a more knowledgeable person talk them through the significance of a work (nor do I mean to imply that it’s OK for kids to view any old thing).
I’m in favour of education (“Here’s why this is significant” or “Look how paint is being used here: no one had done this before” or “Let’s think about what was going on in society at the time that someone could produce this work.”)
Censorship rarely does anyone any favours.
Posted by Fran 2003.08.01, 17:47
Well, now I have something to do this weekend: fight body to body with tourist around the world to see again the Black Paintings. Thanks for the tip! You have his beautiful stuff at hand’s reach in your city and you don’t appreciate it.
Posted by jh 2003.08.03, 21:42
Fran, I hope you know how lucky you are!
Posted by alejandro goya 2003.09.16, 10:20
i am alejandro goya and trying to confirm my ancestry related to francisco goya. if anybody can find out who was mariano goya’s son/s please let me know. thanks
Posted by robin 2003.10.02, 15:59
Goya fathered several children, of which only one son, Xavier, lived into maturity, marrying a wealthy trader’s daughter, Gumersinda de Goicoechea y Galarza… everything else is in Spanish!
Posted by Maximilliam 2003.10.16, 11:54
I have been looking for the saturn picture and didn’t know untill today that it was a Goya. Fun facts: It has been used to my knowledge in two movies, recently Queen of the damned (Aliyah,Stuart Townsend and my Countrywoman Lena Olin) and previously the movie that i saw it in first, The ressurected (Chris Sarandon).
Posted by Vadim 2004.11.04, 07:22
Don’t forget that Saturn Devouring his Children is only one of the paintings, and that many of the others are just as disturbing, visually powerful, etc…
Posted by Crea Land 2006.02.04, 08:25
I appreciated all of the previous comments about Goya’s Saturn devouring his children. I have recently completed a thesis about envy, and in it i have named this painting. I have related it to envy in that envy can possibly be about the devouring of another’s creativity, as well as a devouring of one’s own creativity ( symbolised by the children). I am doing a presentation on my research in a couple of weeks and will use this image. I also am looking for another image which i saw somewhere at the beginning of my research 3 years ago and i thought it was by Goya, but so far i can’t locate it. Maybe someone can help please. The image is of a dragonlike, snakelike, wild-looking figure with one its front paws splayed outwards as if about to attack, and the other front paw splayed inwards as if attacking of the self. Any ideas? Thanks. Crea
Posted by laura 2006.03.16, 05:18
that is a tigth painting
Posted by Sgt White 2006.12.02, 16:35
When I was growing up in the 50s, I used to re-read two books from the library — The Red Fairy Book, and I think the other was the Green (or maybe Blue) Fairy Book. They had the usual fairy and folk tales, but not neatly cleaned up and sanitized as was commonly done so as to not “warp the children’s psyches.” It was some pretty grim and morbid stuff, but I’m almost positive that “Saturn Devouring…..” was one of the illustrations in there, and I believe it may have been for “Jack and the Beanstalk.” I was about 8 or 10 at the time and the image obviously stuck in my mind since I’m now 60. Didn’t seem to warp me much, but it does say a lot about the power of the artist when he can have that effect.
Don’t know if I’ve seen all of his Black Paintings, but I’ll make an effort to look them up.
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