Saturn Devouring One of His Children

[many a good man]

Saturn Devouring One of His Children
Goya


I really like this painting because of the way it bluntly
portrays the circle of life, and, when pushed, how far things
can go. This is a painting of the story where Saturn hears his
fate. He learns that the only way he can die is when one of his
sons kills him. He does not want to live his life in fear, and is
very paranoid, so he is forced to do the impossible. He starts
eating his children. This painting shows him eating one of his
children.

This whole painting is very dark and drab, like "May
Third," and also does not emphasize the background - but yet
uses it to emphasize the god in the foreground. There is a use
of only basic, dull colors, typical of Goya. He draws the god
as a man, yet in him has a twist to communicate to you how
he is not human. He uses the man figure and the size of the
child to make it look, in a odd sort of way, like an average
man having to eat his son for him to survive, and you feel the
cold, you feel disgusted and hollow, because at heart you
know it is possible, even though you tell yourself it is a made
up story about a god.

http://www.jordan.palo-alto.ca.us/staff/lgoldman/public/mmart3/class/16/merry.html