Saturn Devouring His Son - famous painting by Goya

multiple

[EveningStar]

"Saturn Devouring His Son is the name given to a painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya. It depicts the Greek myth of the Titan Cronus (in the title Romanised to Saturn), who, fearing that he would be overthrown by his children, ate each one upon their birth."

My wife and I saw the real canvas transfer of the painting by Goya (1746-1828) in the Museo del Prado in Madrid several years ago.

I do know how to hotlink graphics, however this painting is highly disturbing, and possibly the product of a disturbed mind.

Click the reference links below to view the painting and read about it.

This is not for everyone. Discretionary viewer participation is recommended.

Wikipedia (additional links here)

The Black Paintings: Saturn

[SaraJohnson]

Looked kinda like a picture of allah biting off the head of a woman.

[Calvin Locke]

Went to a Goya exhibit in Boston about 20 years ago. He was depressing.

[Apollo5600]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

[Calvin Locke]

Is absinthe (alcohol issues aside) really debilitating? I've heard that
it gained the negative reputation because the French wine
industry suffered some major crop failures, and returning
veterans, used to drinking absinthe because of the dearth of
wine abroad, introduced it to the the general public at large as a
substitute for wine.

Once the vineyards started recovering, they waged a negative
marketing campaign on the usurping beverage, that included
lobbying for laws against the stuff.

[Mountain Mary]

I don’t really see your point in posting this. I didn’t look at it and why would I want to?

[Louis Foxwell]

Cannibalistic madness is an appropriate and timely icon depicting the actions of political authority against the citizens it represents. Most assuredly government elites are cannibalizing the culture.

[kabumpo]

No, not a metaphor. Children were ritually sacrificed in ancient times as surrogates for the king...see The Golden Bough, The White Goddess.
I’ve seen the painting many timed, growing up...for some reason it didn’t upset me then, but it does now.

[kabumpo]

Being grotesque doesn't negate its artistic merit - I'd rate it as one of the hundred greatest paintings of all time, one of the precursors to modernism, even marking the threshold to modernism. The grotesquerie is what makes it art.

[eclecticEel]

Supposedly Goya had the painting hanging in the dining room of his home. Perhaps that’s only apocryphal, or perhaps he really didn’t like having guests over for dinner.

[marsh2]

Goya is quite an interesting artist. He painted portraits of the elite. Then during a Spanish civil war, his paintings became very disturbing - depicting atrocities of war in an almost cartoonish manner. I remember several of empalements that I saw in Spain. Paintings by a man who appears to have been plunged into the hell of a very nasty war. He later paintings show raw emotion. Such a contrast from the detail and control of his earlier courtly works.

[I still care]

I never felt the painting corresponded to the myth, because Saturn’s children were the Roman gods such as Neptune and Demeter- they were immortals, and later escaped when Jupiter (the sixth son) forced his father to vomit them up.

[ponygirl]

You could be right. I always thought original absinthe contained opium and had read that it could have contributed to Van Gogh's mental problems. But after I posted that, I went and looked it up. Real absinthe is supposed to contain wormwood. I think the bad rap it got came from negative publicity during Prohibition, but there was also something I saw about some absinthe distillers cutting corners and adding a form of copper to the drink to give it that verdigris color, which could have caused health problems. It's like that old phrase "Mad as a hatter," which came about from a very common psychosis that was prevalent among the workers in the hat manufacturing industry. The glue they were using contained mercury and they breathed in those fumes all day long.

I personally think they should start allowing absinthe in the US again. (The real stuff; not the fake absinthe they are selling now.) The art they created while drinking that stuff was extraordinary. Not like the nightmare "art" that heroin has given the art world. (Makes you wonder if Goya was into that!)

[goat granny]

Glad you like it. Its not a picture I would return to a museum to study or admire. Prefer a different kind of art.

[goat granny]

Now that is real art.....:O) but its a cow not a bull..GG

[EveningStar]

I don’t really see your point in posting this.

I read about it and found it to be interesting. I thought others might find it interesting too.

I didn’t look at it and why would I want to?

Some might want to look at it. Some might not want to look at it. I posted a warning that it was not for everyone - remember?