Saturn Devouring His Son

The house of the deaf man

In 1819 Francisco Goya, now in his seventies and completely deaf after an illness in 1792, bought a country house on the banks of the Manzanares river outside Madrid. It became known as the Quinta del Sordo, the House of the Deaf Man, after a previous owner who was also deaf. Between about 1820 and 1823, Goya covered the walls of two rooms with fourteen dark, haunting images painted in oil directly on the plaster. They are known as the Black Paintings.

Goya never titled them, never spoke about them and never meant them for the public. Saturn Devouring His Son hung in the ground-floor dining room.

The myth of Saturn

In Greek mythology, Cronus, called Saturn by the Romans, was warned that one of his children would overthrow him, as he had overthrown his own father. To prevent this, he ate each child at birth. Only Zeus escaped, saved by his mother, and eventually fulfilled the prophecy. The myth had been painted before, notably by Rubens, whose version Goya knew from the royal collection.

The eyes

Goya's Saturn is not a classical god but a monstrous, half-mad giant emerging from the darkness. His eyes are wide open, bulging, staring in what seems to be terror or madness rather than triumph. It is as if he is horrified by what he is doing but cannot stop.

Detail 1Zoom to detail

The hands

Saturn's huge hands grip the body of his child so hard that his fingers dig into the flesh. The body is that of an adult rather than a baby, and some have noted it may be female. The gripping hands are painted with rough, violent strokes that express the intensity of the act.

Detail 2Zoom to detail

Darkness all around

The figure seems to crouch or kneel in total blackness, his body lit from one side. There is no setting, no landscape, only darkness. The palette of the Black Paintings, blacks, browns, ochres and greys, is unlike anything else in art of the time.

Detail 3Zoom to detail

What does it mean?

Many interpretations have been proposed. Saturn has long been a symbol of time, which devours everything it creates. The painting has been read as an image of Spain devouring its own children in war and revolution, of the destructive power of old age, of the fear of death, or of Goya's own despair after years of war, illness and political repression. Goya left no explanation, and the painting's power lies partly in its mystery.

From wall to museum

In 1874 the house's new owner, Baron Émile d'Erlanger, had the Black Paintings transferred from the walls to canvas, a difficult operation that damaged them in places. He exhibited them in Paris in 1878, then gave them to the Spanish state. Since 1889 they have been in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, where they are displayed together in a room evoking the house. Saturn measures about 1.43 by 0.81 metres.