Saturn Devouring His Son

1820–1823

Mixed technique, mural transferred to canvas, 143.5 × 81.4 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

A wild-eyed giant tears at a headless body. The late murals it belongs to shaped the modern image of the artist and, says the Prado, fed into Expressionism, Surrealism and film.

Placed on the ground floor of the Quinta del Sordo, facing an image of Leocadia Zorrilla.
Look at the staring eyes and the darkness that swallows everything except the two bodies.
Chemical analysis found oil in the paint, which is why the Prado calls the technique mixed.
Made for the house he lived in rather than for a client or a public showing, it is art kept for the artist alone. The Prado suggests the god may stand for the fear of losing power.
Baron Émile d'Erlanger bought the house in 1873, had the murals moved to canvas at a heavy loss of paint, and gave them to the Spanish state.

Black Paintings: The later name for the dark murals painted directly on the walls of the Quinta del Sordo in Madrid, near the end of his life in Spain.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (PD-Art)