Francisco Goya, Saturn Devouring His Son, 1818-1823

As one of Goya’s 13 Black Paintings, Saturn Devouring His Son was painted directly on his house wall—specifically, the wall of his dining room.

During the period it was painted (between 1819 and 1823), Spain was undergoing turmoil as its government, the Liberal Triennium, struggled to stay in power. Government forces seized the royal palace and took King Ferdinand VII prisoner. In 1822 Ferdinand’s supporters staged an uprising in Madrid, which sparked a national civil war. At this point, the government had almost zero power.

Just a year later, France invaded Spain, slaughtered the remaining constitutionalists, and made Ferdinand VII an absolute monarch. The corpse of Saturn’s son portrays Spain’s death at the hands of political strife, while the culprit stands in an almost off-balance position.

A giant monster, Saturn, opens his mouth wide open to chomp off another piece of his son’s body. However, while covering the left side of Saturn’s face, the observer notices a scared, frail middle-aged man constantly regretful of what is happening. When covering up the right side of Saturn’s face, his left eye stares piercingly at the observer. Saturn is a fierce Titan stopping at nothing to assert his dominance. Supporters of both the constitutional government and the monarchy were themselves terrified of the violence in Spain, but masked their feelings with a false sense of confidence.

In the end, revolutionaries promoted their own agendas at the expense of the country, just as Saturn sacrificed his sons in an effort to continue his rule.