vince’s ear

The Black Paintings of Fransisco Goya

Cannibalism, senseless murder, witchcraft, kidnapping, dogs dying, weird, strange, macabre… These all describe the murals painted on the artist’s walls in his own villa. It was the end of a long and successful career. He was alone and sick, had gone deaf, lived through the terrors of Napoleon, and probably had about enough of the world and life in general. It was time to unleash the true scope of his power by digging deep into the subconscious and pulling out, writhing and screaming, the scariest possible visions imaginable. This was the dark genius of Fransisco Goya.

Goya, who is considered the last of the Old Masters and the first of the Modern Masters, had a very long and successful career, working for the Spanish court. He painted for kings and queens, courtiers, and much of the Spanish upper crust, receiving a more than comfortable salary.

After the travesties of the Napoleonic occupation, Goya was commissioned by the court to illustrate the horrors with a series of prints known as The Disasters of War, which included the Charge of the Marmalukes (Second of May), and the famous Third of May, showing the executions of innocent Spaniards by the French invaders. These unforgiving works depict the real horrors of battlefield and war. The French occupation hit Goya deeply and he would express this anger by creating dark works such as the Colossus.

It was around 1820, that the 72 year old artist sought total reclusion and purposely bought a villa known as the “Deaf Man’s Villa,” which was named after its previous occupant. For a period of some years Goya’s art had become less jovial and bright, with portrayals of carnivals to more disturbing visions of his reality. He had suffered illnesses, and had been hospitalized witnessing the inhumane treatment of the infirm and mentally ill. By the time he was in his villa, secluded from the world, he held nothing back and created the “Black Paintings.”

I’m about to redirect you to an excellent wikipedia article on the Black Paintings which shows each painting and exactly where the were situated in the two rooms of the house. They were painted directly onto the plaster and not intended to be sold or given to anyone. After the painter’s death, the paintings were taken out of the walls and placed in their original position in a special two room gallery in Madrid. It’s interesting to note that there is no real order in the original setup. Goya had created these works in a haphazard arrangement, and followed no narrative.

The Saturn Devouring His Children, which shows the god Saturn eating his sons, as the story goes, is the most hideous and gruesome of them all. It is perhaps the most hideous and gruesome in all of art history and marks the descent of a painter’s mind into the verge of madness.

Or perhaps he was the sanest of us all depicting the world as he really saw it, not afraid and pulling no punches. Perhaps he got it dead on what humanity truly is, in all its grotesque and “cannibalistic” reality.

The Black Paintings of Franscisco Goya- Wikipedia article.

The 10 Scariest Paintings

I did this in the middle of winter and far from Halloween for several reasons. One, I know people can be more into art than they’ve been if they just knew how entertaining it can be. Few people I know would be able to name any of these paintings or their artists and I think that’s sad. Not because they’re ignorant of art, we all learn all the time, it’s that I know they’d get a kick out of these paintings. Most people would eat this stuff up, they just have to know it’s out there. And that’s one of the purposes of this blog.

And another reason is to show that art can conjure up all kinds of emotions. And they’re not always warm and fuzzy. Art can be shocking, sickening and can downright scare the hell out of you. I’m sure we all have our own lists of things, including things in art, that scare us. I hope you’ve enjoyed this list. Now go find some art that makes you really feel something. That’s what life should be about.

#10- The Adoration of the Magi, Hieronymus Bosch

#9- The Isenheim Altarpiece, Matthias Grunewald

#8- Death and the Maiden, Egon Schiele

#7- Death and Life, Gustav Klimt

#6- Study for Innocent X, Francis Bacon

#5- Triumph of Death, Pieter Bruegel the Elder

#4- Reflections, Lucien Freud

#3- The Hell Panel, Garden of Earthly Delights, Hieronymus Bosch

#2- The Great Red Dragon, William Blake

And the scariest painting in all of art history:

#1- Saturn Devouring His Sons, Fransisco Goya

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