Saturn Devouring His Son

Saturn Devouring His Son is a name given to a mural painting painted by Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes during year 1820 to 1823 at his house Quinta del Sordo (Villa of The Deaf Man) which is located at Spain. He used al secco technique (also called fresco-secco) which means the color pigments are mixed with water and egg york and applied on the moistened plaster. This painting was painted in oils on one of the wall of his dining room. Goya showed Saturn crouched in the centre of the painting with expanded face, bulging eyes and widely opened mouth which he was consuming a smaller human figure with his fists had clenched into it. A headless cadaver is also painted in the back side view which only has a left …show more content…
In 1805, Javier got married and Goya was responsible on this couple’s financial. He spent most of his property on Javier and his daughter-in-law. We could see how much love and care had Goya placed on Javier but he ended up with disappointment as Javier refused to involve himself into art. In addition, it might be related to Goya’s love life. Some experts claimed that Goya was having relationship with his housekeeper, Leocadia Weiss, but there is no strong evidence on this claim. Goya probably wanted to express his loneliness terror after the death of his wife. That is also a reason why many historians suggested that the cadaver in this painting was a female. Besides the expression of emotions, this painting was probably a symbol, Saturn was, maybe the symbol of life, or the symbol of time.

Goya started his collection of black paintings after he turned deaf. All the black paintings were private and personally for him only. The theme of black paintings was dark in nature, which he used almost brown and black hues to express this theme. All the colors have been abandoned by him. Only truth left in his black paintings. Looking back all his black paintings, most of them were trying to reflect the condition of mankind and the world. He probably painted himself as the Saturn in this painting. Who knows? The big bulging eyes with the pupils looking terrifying down to the viewer was probably refer to his