Saturn Devouring His Son

Saturn Devouring His Son is one of Francisco Goya’s Black Paintings, painted directly onto the walls of his home and transferred to canvas after his death. It shows the mythological Saturn in a violent act of consumption, rendered with stark contrast and loose, expressive brushstrokes. Usually linked to the Greek myth of Cronus devouring his children, the painting is one of Goya’s most disturbing and debated works.

Goya painted the image directly onto the plaster wall of his home, the Quinta del Sordo in Carabanchel, between 1820 and 1823. Before fleeing to Bordeaux in 1823, he bequeathed the house to his grandson, Mariano Goya. Baron Frédéric Émile d’Erlanger bought the property in 1873 and had Goya's mural removed and transferred to canvas. In 1881, d’Erlanger donated the painting to the Spanish State, and the Museo del Prado in Madrid has displayed it since 1889.

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