Saturn. Goya

This scene depicts a mythological legend from Rome.

Mythology is the collection of stories about the gods, heroes and traditions specific to nations or cultures.

Goya painted the Roman god Saturn eating one of his sons.

It is a very violent scene.

Saturn looks lost, mean and mad.

Experts explain that this painting represents the human fear of losing power.

Saturn was the god of time.

A prophet once told him that one of his children would overthrow him and take his throne.

To prevent this from happening, Saturn asked his wife Cybele for every child she had.

Saturn then devoured his children to stop them from taking his throne.

When Cybele had her last child, Jupiter, she fooled Saturn.

Instead of a son, she gave Saturn a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Years later, Jupiter defeated his father, Saturn, and expelled him from heaven.

This work is one of the most expressive of the so-called Black Paintings.

The Black Paintings are a group of works that Goya painted on the walls of a house called Quinta del Sordo.

The name of this group of paintings is Black Paintings because Goya used dark and black colours in all of them.

Goya painted scenes on dry walls in 2 rooms on the ground and upper floors of the house.

In these paintings, Goya ignored the typical style and subjects of the time and painted freely.

This Quinta was a country house on the outskirts of Madrid, next to the Manzanares River.

The house had beautiful views.

The house was named Quinta del Sordo before Goya bought it.

Goya suffered a severe illness there.

After he recovered, he started to create these black paintings.

Goya explores themes of time, death, destiny and human cruelty.

Goya bought this house and gave it to his grandson 4 years later.

Afterwards, Goya moved to Bordeaux, France, where he passed away at the age of 82.