Francisco de Goya (b. 1746, Fuentedetodos)

Saturn devouring his Son

1820 – 1823, mixed method on mural transferred to canvas, 182.5 x  87 cm.

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.  Image courtesy of Museo Nacional del Prado.

Saturn was the Roman name for Cronos, the Greek Titan who ate his children at birth because of a prophecy that they would overthrow him. We don’t know what meaning Goya intended the work to have, but one of the many interpretations is that Saturn personifies Spain consuming her own people by subjecting them to political violence, poverty and famine. For Goya the pain of all this must have been especially great given that only one of his six children survived childhood. The painting could also, however, have related to a sense of powerlessness and isolation after suffering from a long and debilitating illness. Along with the other Black Paintings from the Quinta del Sordo, Saturn has been a key source for modern artists such as Pablo Picasso whose painting Guernica emerged from a drawing of the nationalist general Franco devouring his own horse.