The Black Paintings II





    Saturn Devouring His Son is a direct reference to the Roman mythology. In the myth titan named Saturn (in the original greek version, known as Cronos) would devour his newborn children to prevent his prophesied fall at the hands of his successor. Goya’s version does not show us a god like deity, what we see is a man. An old, maddened man slouching in a dark space, his hair in disarray, his face not filled with anger or satisfaction but with fear. His fingers clenched on a dead half-eaten body, not of a newborn, but of a full grown person. It's not known what the exact meaning of the painting is, it may represent the state of Spain at the time, falling deeper into autocracy and losing the ideas of enlightenment, or it may be a deeper reflection on human nature and the inability to let the new replace the old (perfectly visible in today's politics filled with elderly man barely recognising the world that constantly changes). 
 
 
-Saturn Devouring His Son

 
    Half-drowned dog, not as gruesome as Saturn, depicts a head of a dog. The animal is submerged in an unknown substance, possibly falling deeper into it with every second, looking longingly, with its hollow eyes, into the sky. The style of the painting is very unusual, the simplicity of the background and the atypical focal point give it an abstract and surreal feeling, something that wasn’t popular in the world of art at the time. Interestingly if history took a different route The dog could have had an alternate meaning to the one it has today. During the relocation of the piece, from the wall of the house, or possibly during the renovation of the painting, two elements disappeared. The photography that was taken right after discovering the paintings reveals to us two birds, flying freely above the trapped animal, that are not part of the piece today. 
 
 
- Half-drowned dog as we know him toady and the original version
 
    Summing up, “Black Paintings” are one of the most unusual works of art up to this day. Not only do they display a unique style, filled with misery and terror, that differentiates them from the most art pieces created at the time, but they also carry a mystery. We don’t know what motivated Goya to create them. Were it his nightmares? A message or a warning? Why were the paintings left in hiding for many years? And why were they painted with a technique that made removing them from the walls extremely difficult? Those questions will probably remain a mystery. 
 
Sources:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JWcoGwRGTA 
- https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perro_semihundido
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Paintings
- https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturno_devorando_a_su_hijo
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g15-lvmIrcg

Comments

  1. AgataLJanuary 25, 2021 at 1:26 PM

    I'm scared now! I think your post fits the subject of our recent lesson perfectly. I wish there were more though ;)

    ReplyDelete

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