We invite you to read this article about the work known as Saturn devouring his children. A work painted in oil in the fifth of the deaf by the painter Francisco Goya. Which belongs to a series known as black paintings. Where it demonstrates the violence that can arise from a work Keep reading and find out everything!
Saturn devouring his children
The well-known artist of Spanish origin, Francisco Goya, was one of the best painters in history, since he was always very innovative in his works of art and this can be seen in the well-known oil painting on plaster known as Saturn Devouring a their children, This famous work belongs to what the same painter called Goya's black paintings, which are a group of fourteen paintings whose theme is dark since the painter used dark pigments to make each work.
In the work Saturn Devouring his children, the painter Francisco Goya makes use of his imagination to show a scene where cannibalism and infanticide are revealed, since he paints in a very excellent way the God Saturn, who is also known as Crono devouring one of his children.
Since in the story told, the God Saturn (Cronos) was afraid that one of his sons, when they grew up, would take away his crown and kill him as he himself had done with his father, the God Uranus, who was also castrated with a sickle.
Although in history it is said that the god Saturn (Cronos) is the father of the great God Zeus in the mythology of Greece. In addition, he was the only one to be devoured by his father since Zeus's mother did not allow it and hid her son and the glutton of the god Saturn gave him to eat a large stone wrapped in a cloth diaper which he swallowed inadvertently.
As time passed, the God Zeus would become a great God who, through his cunning, would dethrone the God Saturn (Cronos) and force him through a potion to vomit all the brothers that he had eaten. Although in other versions it is said that the God Zeus arrived with his sword to open the God's stomach and free all his brothers from the prison where they were.
In the work Saturno Devouring his children, the painter Francisco Goya paints in a very terrifying way the look of the God Saturno since it is a look of extreme madness when eating his son. Since the God is shown chewing the blood-filled body of his son, whom he takes with extreme force, since it is observed how he introduces his fingers inside the body.
Although it is also seen that the body of the son of the God Saturn is the body of an adult person, as opposed to the other work Saturn Devouring His Son, which is on display at the Prado Museum. Made by the painter Rubens who is a little more cruel than the one Francisco Goya painted.
In the work Saturno Devouring his children, the painter Francisco Goya makes the work seeming that the God Saturno is terrified because the spectators are watching him as he eats his son and it is possible to investigate how the human being can find out that he is happening.
Although many specialists and art critics have speculated about the purpose of the work Saturno Devouring his children, since they have said that the work has political purposes in protest to King Ferdinand VII, since Spain at that time was known as dark times where there was a lot of absolutism, Ominous Decade and Liberal Triennium.
There were also many social upheavals and protests. As well as political repression. Although many have come to say without having proof that the painter Francisco Goya painted the God Saturn making a representation of the monarch Fernando VII swallowing the Spanish people with his wrong decisions, that is, the same people swallowing the people themselves because of his performance.
In a slightly more credible statement is where it is stated that the painter Francisco Goya makes the work Saturn devouring his children, emphasizing the disease he suffers known as lead poisoning that is caused by lead poisoning in the body that left him completely deaf. That is why Saturn was known to lead for people who were dedicated to alchemy.
Although many psychologists have said that it is the representation made by the painter Francisco Goya, about the God Saturn in the conflict that some parents live with their children who become rivals for having the love of the mother or the wife. Many have described the Elder God as intimately related to sexual prominence.
There is a legend about the work Saturn Devouring His Children, in which it is said that the painter Francisco Goya painted the God Saturn with his penis erect while he ate his son. But this was lost due to the deterioration that the mural was suffering or when the transfer to the canvas was made.
In the same way, it is said that the painter self-censored since the work was very strong with the expression of God eating his son who decided to erase that part of the work since this work was done in a part of the house for decoration. .
But 70 years after the death of the painter Francisco Goya, the new owner of the house known as the Quinta del Sordo decided to transfer the different works that were in the case to canvas because they were being damaged. Under the command of Salvador Martínez Cubells. Who had as main charge the restoration of the works of art of the Prado Museum.
After all, the work known as Saturn Devouring his children. It presents a rather terrifying image. In addition to being dark and violent, there are many contrasts of light that were created by various spots of thick or dark color. But this technique was widely used by the painter Francisco Goya.
Because he was a painter who liked to create drama in his works and was several years ahead of his peers since he made contemporary art and expressionism long before the avant-garde artists, he was known as a very modern art in all categories and aspects.
Analysis of the painting Saturn Devouring His Children
The theme on which the work Saturn devouring his children is based is destruction and melancholy according to the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Since these characteristics and traits are found in black paintings. They show a terrible expression of what is happening or about to happen.
By the painter Francisco Goya he shows us an image of the horror of cannibalism that can occur. Where the god Saturn with his big open mouth and big black and white eyes with an expression of madness takes the already mutilated body to finish eating it. That body full of blood that lacks the head is nothing less than his own son that the God Saturn eats him to make sure that he does not take away the throne when he grows up.
The work is related to the God Saturn, who is also known as Chrono, the owner of time. Rather, he was the governor of the seventh heaven and the patron of all people who were seventy years old, as was Francisco Goya at the time of painting his famous work Saturn Devouring his children.
From the point of psychoanalysis it is studied that the very act of eating their children is reflected in the act of sexual impotence. Especially if the theme is contrasted with another well-known play Judith slaying Holofernes, where the beautiful Judith invites the old Assyrian king Holofernes to a libidinous banquet where she gets him drunk and then cuts off his head with a sword. This work was next to the works Saturno Devouring her son, only one window away from them.
In the work when the God Saturn is devouring his son with the body of an adult person, together with Judith's work, it is that he gives us to know the mutilated body of a human being, in addition the painter frames it very well through the technique chiaroscuro and lighting. The legs of the God folded in the blackness that forms a sentimental void in the viewer.
The painter in the work uses a wide range of shades between black and white. That he applied them in large patches of color and at the same time very thick. This sun technique is broken by the ocher color of the flesh of the God Saturn and the body of the son which is painted between red and white.
Many argue that the painter Francisco Goya compared his work Saturn Devouring his children with the work that Rubens made in the year 1636 that is in the Torre de la Parada del Palacio del Pardo in Madrid, but many studies between the two works are has determined that the one made by Goya is more violent since he stripped it of its mythological pretext using the technique of expressionism.
Conclusion of the work
The work Saturn Devouring His Children is a painting that belongs to a collection known as The Black Paintings made by the Spanish-born painter Francisco Goya. In these works, the painter relied on various techniques to carry out his works, among which dark and black pigments stand out to give the works greater drama. All these works were made in the house of the painter Goya known as the Quinta del Sordo.
This was the country house of the famous painter that was located on the outskirts of the city of Madrid. This house was bought by the painter in 1819. It is important to clarify that the fourteen works were painted in the house in two rooms on the ground floor and the upper floor.
These works were painted directly on the wall and fresco techniques were not used and oil was used in the mixtures of the paintings. In one of the most interesting works is the painting Saturno Devouring his children, which has the following measurements: 143,5 cm by 81,4 cm.
Where the God Saturn is observed coming out of the darkness having a great tension due to what is observed in his legs, body and face. In his hands he is holding the body of one of his children very tightly, already mutilated because he is eating it, the body is bloody.
It is important to highlight in the work that the God Saturn has a great expressiveness in his face because of the way he is looking, he seems to have a touch of madness and his hands show that he is putting a lot of pressure on the already lifeless body and without one's head. of their children. Referring to cannibalism.
But it is also said that the painter did it in the form of protest that they were living in Spain due to the bad political decisions he was taking against his people, that is why Goya made the God Saturn personifying the king eating his people.
If you have found this article about the play Saturno Devouring his children to be important, I invite you to visit the following links: