Analysis Of Goya's Saturn Navouring His Children

Goya became devoted with depicting the physical and psychological suffering, and moral tortures inflicted by the Spanish court and church. He disguised his repulsion with satire, however, such as in disturbing “black paintings” he did on the walls of his villa, Quinta del Sordo (house of the deaf). The fourteen large murals in black, brown, and gray of 1820-22 present appalling monsters engaged in sinister acts.
“Saturn Devouring His Children” is the boldest painting of the group. Goya portrays a voracious giant with predatory, lunatic eyes stuffing his son’s torn, headless body into his maw, a visual equivalent of torture and muder. The painter chose an almost monochromatic palette of mostly browns, grays, and blacks to convey the tragedy.