ART EVALUATION

For analysis of paintings

by Romantic artists like

Francisco de Goya, see:

How to Appreciate Paintings.

Analysis of Saturn Devouring his Son by Goya Francisco Goya y Lucientes was the leading figure in Spanish painting during the period 1785-1820. A worthy successor to the great Old Masters of the Spanish Baroque, like El Greco (1541-1614), Jusepe Ribera (1591-1652), Zurbaran (1598-1664) and Velazquez (1599-1660), Goya lived through troubled times. The French Revolution (1789-95), for example, shattered the peace of the 18th century and led directly to a series of Continental catastrophes including the Peninsular War (1808-14), when Napoleon's armies overran Spain. Meanwhile, Spain itself was ruled by an Absolute Monarchy, buttressed by a medieval Catholic Church, shadowed by the Inquisition. In addition, since the age of 46, Goya himself had suffered from profound deafness and periodic bouts of depression. As a result, he had turned - in his private painting - to a form of dark Romanticism, as illustrated by four different sets of artwork: a group of small-scale paintings on tin, known as his "Fantasy & Invention series" (1793); his "Caprices" ("Los Caprichos") etching series (1797-99); his "Disasters of War" engraving series (1810-20), and his murals, known as the "Black Paintings" (1819-23). Consisting - in varying degrees - of Hogarth-style caricature art, nightmare fantasy pictures, and graphic imagery of bestial cruelty, this collection of works represented Goya's bleak response to life: in particular the cruel and tragic events taking place in Spain during the 1800s. Note however that none of these works were designed for public consumption, and all were in stark contrast to his official output of portrait art and religious paintings for the Spanish royal court and the nobility. Saturn Devouring his Son, one of Goya's most horrific and unforgettable images, belongs to the series of so-called "Black Paintings." These murals were painted by Goya directly onto the plaster walls of his farmhouse (known as Quinta del Sordo, the "Villa of the deaf man") - situated on the banks of the Manzanares river near Madrid - which he had purchased as a final retreat in 1819. To begin with he decorated the walls with more uplifting images, but over time he overpainted them with a set of far more violent and disturbing pictures, which no doubt reflected his increasing depression and paranoia, as well as fears about his own approaching death. Goya did not write about these paintings, is not known to have spoken about them, and made no effort to name them. Names were chosen by other people years after his death, based upon the presumed content and meaning of each work. Moreover, the pictures remained untouched on the walls for almost 50 years: it was only in 1874 that they were transferred from the walls to canvas.