Saturn Devouring His Son - Francisco Goya

Today, I want to take a rather different approach on the topic of philosophy, looking at a piece of art by Spanish painter Francisco Goya named Saturn Devouring His Son. This man constructed this piece in the 1820s during a period of art known as the Romanticism, extending not only in painting but through other mediums as well. Some prominent figures of the time included the famous American gothic poet Edgar Allan Poe and Italian violinist Niccolo Paganini. Looking at Francisco Goya himself, I have found out that he was rather morbid when it came to topics. Another painting by him, The Third of May 1808, depicts an execution of Spanish citizens by Napoleon's troops during their occupation of Madrid. I think that because of this I have learned more about Goya and his very nihilistic outlook on the world and society as a whole. Back to the topic of this painting though, this piece comes from a collection known as The Black Paintings, done in his later years (his 70s), depicting many horrific and haunting scenes. These were done as murals until moved to the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

Now I want to start by understanding the context of this painting about who this figure is in the centre supposedly consuming the lifeless remains of his son. As mentioned in the title, this is Saturn (Cronus in Greek) who in Roman mythology is a Titan rather than a god. These were the beings that gave birth to them and were part of the original beings that gave life to the world. After hearing from Terra (Gaea), a personification of the Earth, that his children would usurp his power and take over, Saturn felt anxious as he himself overthrew his father, resorting in him preemptively consuming his children one by one to prevent any chance of this happening. After being fooled by his wife to swallow a stone, he would vomit his children alive and eventually be slain by his son Jupiter (Zeus). Already we can see the contradictions to the painting before us as the corpse in this figure is very much deceased, eliciting this uncanny feeling when we realizing it detours from what we know as the original myth. From this context though, we can now understand and interpret the message that Goya was trying to convey through this piece.

 To give my opinion and interpretation of this image now, I perceive this to be a representation of guilt more than anything. The very grainy texture of the background creates a contrasting feeling of order and chaos as it contradicts to the very dark, monochrome background. Furthermore, the colors used are neither happy or sad, more than anything they feel rather disgusting with lighter hues of green and darker yellows, evoking this feeling of ugliness being evoked. These uses of color are very evocative of the idea that the action being performed in this picture is anything but human, and in a sense ironic that these are the beings that we worship. The pupils of the Titan are quite dilated as though he feels a sense of shock realizing the extent of his actions and the impossibility to back out. Not to mention, even his eyebrows slant downwards from the ends highlighting this idea that he feels guilt despite being all powerful. I think the painter's choice to create the physique of the giant without clothes, displaying an overall muscular body, helps exemplifies this idea of barbarism and lack of humanity involved with this filicide. Going back to a previous idea, the gaze is put upon us the viewers as to further relate us with the beast here as though we are a person of significance involved with his actions. The piece here carefully displays the very realistic undertone of the consequences of one's actions and the burden not just placed on the body but especially on the mind.

Now finally, the importance of this in the modern day world. In this day and age, it is to no surprise to say that this world is anywhere near perfect. In some of my previous articles, there have been many references to the flaws of society again and again. I think this recurring theme exemplifies the reasons we need for change. I think the display of Saturn's greed in this image is the great global issue that is being conveyed. This deadly sin not only caused him to lose those of his own flesh and blood, but lose any sense of morality that he had in the first place. Without a moral compass it is acceptable to do anything which causes utter chaos because of the lack of cooperation we have with each other. Also, how else can we define ourselves as humans besides showing humanity. As conscious being we must understand our role in the universe, to be ones that understand our own mortality and able to understand that others feel the same way. With Saturn losing everything after taking all, this gives the overarching message that we should not take more than we need.

To conclude, I really enjoyed researching and appreciating this piece of art. The works of Goya are very powerful and to me are a display of his dark interpretations of the world he lived in at the time, combined with his deteriorating mental state. I learned a lot about how to analyze art and the importance of understanding different techniques and interpretations. Though it is important to understand the artist's intentions, I hope that my interpretation gave some light to this very interesting take on European mythology and that we all come to like art a little bit more.