The gothic moods of Francisco de Goya’s Black Paintings

In Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin, Richard Davenport-Hines calls Francisco de Goya “the greatest painter to have had gothic moods.” Although perhaps best known in his own day for his religious and stately work as Spain’s court painter, he had long explored a more pessimistic view of humanity – mostly engravings and often in secret. Here, insanity, witchcraft and war featured heavily. And in Madrid’s Museo del Prado, in a room dedicated to Goya’s 14 Black Paintings, I got into a gothic mood of my own.

In 1819, old and sick, the artist withdrew from public life to a secluded farmhouse. Its name: Quinta del Sordo, or Villa of the Deaf. Here, between 1819 and 1823, Francisco de Goya produced the Black Paintings – his darkest and most gothic creations.

“I have no fear of witches, hobgoblins, apparitions, swaggering giants, knaves, varlets, or indeed any other beings,” said Goya. “Except human beings.”

After a lifetime of revolutions and dictators, power disillusioned him. He had witnessed tremendous atrocities against his fellow citizens. He lived with these feelings not just internally. Goya painted the 14 Black Paintings on the wallpaper all over his home. Perhaps the most famous and, indeed, horrifying, is Saturn Devouring One of His Sons.

The painting depicts the Roman god Saturn and the remains of one of his children. Warned that his children would overthrow him as he had overthrown his own father, Saturn ate each one. The myth has him swallowing them whole shortly after birth. But in Goya’s depiction, the body appears to be that of an adult. Saturn tears hunks of flesh from his grown son, his face twisted in horror at this unspeakable – though, to him, necessary – evil.

It’s just as I’m reflecting on the lengths to which people will go to protect their power that a museum attendant warns a fellow visitor that photography is prohibited.

As far as we know, Goya never intended for anybody to see these paintings. (He neither signed nor named them. Their titles came later, directing people like me to a suggested reading.) Yet after his death, the Quinta del Sordo was bought by one Frédéric Émile d’Erlanger. The murals were removed. Damaged in some cases. Even altered in the process of restoration – as in the case of Witches’ Sabbath. (Restorers repositioned the painting to place the circle of women in the centre; Goya’s original painting incorporated a lot of open space on the right hand side.)

All this to explain why I have no choice but to use photos from the public domain instead of my own. Francisco de Goya intended his Black Paintings to remain secret – undiscovered and, certainly, unphotographed. Somebody should tell the museum attendants that it’s too little, too late.

If you’re in the area, the Fountain of the Fallen Angel in El Retiro park depicts the decline of another mythical figure. And if you’re in the mood, Goya’s hometown of Fuendetodos includes a museum dedicated to his engraving work.