Saturn Devouring His Sons Francisco Jose De Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828)

Description of Francisco de Goya’s painting Saturn Eats His Children

If one follows the usual interpretation, Francisco Goya’s painting depicts Cronus, a god from ancient Greek mythology. The name Saturn dates back to the Roman era. This deity, following a prophecy in which he was foretold to be overthrown by one of his offspring, devours children who are still alive.

But the artist interprets the story in his own way. In the myths, Cronus ate babies completely swaddled. Here we see that the heroes of the work are completely naked. Originally, the picture was painted on the wall of the house of Francisco Goya, but a few years later it was transferred to the canvas.

The background of the work is blackness, which symbolizes the emptiness that comes at the moment of each death. God resembles a starving old man: his limbs are dry and wiry. The color of his skin is more appropriate for a sickly creature. Saturn’s eyes display, if I may say so, the last degree of madness. They are about to roll out onto the bridge of his nose. The disheveled hair, falling down in dried spikes, completes the feeling. God’s mouth is wide open, as if trying to cram as much as possible into his mouth at a time.

Some scholars argue that the artist thus demonstrated the relationship between Saturn’s open mouth and the gates to hell, where his children disappear one by one.

Clutching tightly with his palms, the god holds the rest of the body of one of the offspring. Red spots can be seen on the sides of the deceased. Saturn has clawed so hard into the child’s flesh that the child is bleeding. Francisco Goya captured the moment when the head had already disappeared into the bowels of the cannibal’s body, and the god proceeded to devour the baby’s arm.

The artist, using gloomy tones, successfully conveyed a sense of the horror that could arise in an unwitting viewer at the sight of such action. No bright colors other than red were used in the work.