Saturn, painting by Francisco Goya completed in 1821–23.
In 1819 Goya bought a house south of Madrid called the Quinta del Sordo (“Villa of the deaf man”). A previous owner of the house was deaf, and the name remained apt as Goya himself had lost his hearing in his mid-40s. The artist painted directly on to the plaster walls of the Quinta the series of 14 psychologically brooding images popularly known as the “black” paintings (1819–23). These murals were not intended to be shown to the public, and only later were the pictures lifted from the walls, transferred to canvas, and deposited in the Prado. The haunting Saturn illustrates the myth of the Roman god Saturn, who, fearing that his children would overthrow him, ate them. Taking the myth as a starting point, the painting may be about God’s wrath, the conflict between old age and youth, or Saturn as Time devouring all things. The painting is also of a piece with the many paintings and drawings Goya made of the horrors of war and human brutality, such as The Third of May, 1808 (1814), which was similarly kept from public view until the 1850s. The avernal darkness from which the horrific scene of Saturn emerges speaks plainly to the noted art critic John Berger’s observation that “the light in [Goya’s] work is merciless for the simple reason that it shows up cruelty.”
Goya, by then in his 70s and having survived two life-threatening illnesses as well as the ravages of the Napoleonic Wars, is likely to have been anxious about his own mortality. He may have been inspired by Rubens’s Baroque portrayal of the myth, Saturn Devouring His Son (1636). Goya’s version, with its restricted palette and looser style, is much darker in all senses. The god’s wide-eyed stare suggests madness and paranoia, and he seems unselfconscious in carrying out his horrific act.
In 1823 Goya moved to Bordeaux. After a brief return to Spain, he went back to France, where he died in 1828.