Saturn Devouring His Son

His eyes, wide and white, are locked in a terrible stare.

This is Saturn devouring his son, painted by Francisco Goya in the final years of his life, directly on the walls of his home.

with no intention of public display.

But the myth behind it is even older.

They didn't have titles and some of them don't even have notes related.

to the paintings.

So even this one being called Saturn devouring his son is a name that we kind of put onto it to make sense of what is like a very chaotic kind of painting.

So do you guys think that that's kind of like a representation of how he became like, do you think he just became mad? Or do you think there's more of like an idea behind it?

His eyes, wide and white, are locked in a terrible stare.

this is saturn devouring his son painted by francisco goya in the final years of his life directly on to the walls of his home with no intention of public display but the myth behind it is even older according to greek and roman mythology phronus or saturn was a titan who feared being overthrown by his children to prevent this he ate them each of them after birth but one zeus escaped grew up in secret and eventually fulfilled the prophecy by defeating his father so why would goya a court painter once celebrated for his portraits paint this grotesque myth in such a violent raw almost nightmarish way was he exploring madness was he critiquing power and tyranny was he simply descending into darkness in his final years Here's the real puzzle.

Despite the horror of the image, the violence, the blood, the terror, many still call his painting beautiful.

So is this an example of aesthetic contradiction? Can a painting of cannibalism still be considered beautiful? Is Goya creating artistic truth through terror or just indulging in the grotesque? These are the questions we will try and answer today.