The thing nobody mentions is that Goya did not name this painting- it was named posthumously when found in his house. It may not be depicting Saturn at all or have anything to do with the Roman myth.

Fun fact: one of the leading theories of what fransico goyas illness was is lead poisoning which caused him to be deaf and have many other ailments 20 years after he died the a new term was created for lead poisoning it was called saturnism. The same thing that caused Goya to go mad and paint himself as a scared depiction of saturn was later called saturnism.

_"I think Goya sees himself as Saturn. Goya painted himself as the monster."_ I thought this painting is based on the Roman myths, but I never expected to hear such a heartbreaking plot twist in history of arts.

I believe, in the Nerdwriter video, it's mentioned that this painting was in Goya's dining room. That just adds a bit more of a macabre touch to the whole thing. While horrible in its subject matter and portrayal, I've always found this painting also a little sad. Saturn does not look like a happy camper, at all, and in the context of Goya's having lost six out of seven children, there seems to be an added level of pathos.

Man, I always thought Saturn's expression was wild and feral, but now I absolutely see the sadness in his eyes, and I'm surprised I never saw it before...

Imagine being the one to discover the black paintings, you’re going through the house of a man who just died and painted directly on the walls of his house are these dark eerie paintings with no titles or descriptions. And this one, Saturn devouring his son, was found in his dining room, again with no title or description whatsoever.

Recently I have a conversation with an artist friend who said the role of the art critic is dead, I'd like to think this channel proves it is very much alive. Wonderful analysis, thoughtfully presented.

You talked about the pain and fear in Saturn's eye's. I think you should take a look at the painting "Ivan the terrible and his son Ivan" by Ilya Repin. The themes, I think are very similar.

That's an interesting interpretation. Personally, as Saturn was the titan of time, I think this is an allegory on how time consumes everything in its path, even gods and beliefs. Also, you see sadness in Saturn's eyes, which, again, is a legitimate interpretation, but what I see is madness and ferociousness. He's not happy to be devouring his son, to be sure, but I don't think he's desperate either. I think he's just doing this out of instinct, not even knowing what he's doing.

I remember seeing this painting for the first time back in elementary, when I opened a book about cyclopes. It was so jarring and horrifying but I couldn't look away. It was just so raw that I became enamored. Probably my first instance of truly emotional art.

never heard of Goya before, and I gotta admt I never been a fan of paintings. But the video about Stanczyk and now this one made me realize how intresting paintings can be. In school you always learn about the same hndful of artists... And I have to admit the more darker themed paintings, like that are actually pretty damn intresting... Also I'm now gonna binge watch videos about Goya's dark paintings, so...

I have nothing to say - these videos are just consistently wonderful. You're opening up whole worlds of art to me that might otherwise have remained closed, and I'm sure I'll be grateful for the rest of my life

I really love your interpretation. I don't know why but when you started talking about how panicked Saturn was it hit me hard on how disturbing this painting really is --- also those wide eyes are just so terrifying. especially when zoomed in and with the ominous piano in the background 😭

Your point of view about Goya's painting is unique and interesting! Your channel's quality is fantastic.

In school I had to do a report about this painting and in my research a lot of people interpreted it as his relationship with his living son. As goya lost it in his later years he avoided his son and they didn't get along.

Maybe that’s why he didn’t tell anyone about the painting, this was a private painting of his own life, he wasn’t trying to depict Spain desolving back into their old ways

I’ve seen the painting in real life and I’ve never had a physical reaction to a painting, but it really shook me. I’m not the only one too, because both of my sisters had to leave the gallery entirely due to them being so disturbed

You did an excellent job in illustrating, through the montage and the paintings that you picked, Goya's decline in health and the stylistic changes in his artistic production throughout his life. Your interpretation taps into the depths of the personal in order to humanize the monster we see. Thus, changing my perception of Saturn Devouring his Son: where I saw a monster capable of the most despicable sin, which I dare to say and in accordance with your interpretation was exactly how he perceived himself and wanted to be seen, I now see the desperation of a painter to express his most unspoken inner guilt. Just wow!

I think it would have been impossible for Goya to paint this without thinking about his own children, there's just no way.

8:37 that Saturn jumpscare scared the shit out of me

I like this analysis but, I find it interesting that the rest of the paintings have connections to Goya’s own life or death, which makes me wonder if Saturn is actually involved at all. We have seen Saturn eats his babies in other depictions of the event and realistically as a titan ruler with a prophecy that your children will defeat you it doesn’t make sense to let them grow in the first place as a baby is about as vulnerable of an enemy you’ll get. The name of the painting wasn’t assigned by Goya, and the child not being young doesn’t make sense in the context of trying to prevent your children from taking your throne. The way that goya depicts Spain when he is young and as nerd writer had said Spain was in Goya’s youth particularly interests me, along with Goya’s fear of death and sad state of living when he got older. In my opinion I think it’s possible that the person eating the young man in this painting is Goya and so is the man being eaten. Old Goya is saving himself from seeing the future and from painting any of these horrible images, which correlates with the fact that Goya’s painting hand and his head are gone. Edit: I thought about something else, a few of the paintings are actually bleaker representations of paintings or events he had already painted, this correlates with the idea that the man in the painting is a worn down version of Goya himself, I saw a video talking about how watching what was previously a funny video had turned kind of sad Bc of what had happened to the people in the video, a few had passed others had failed and a couple even died but the point is that this video was once this very funny thing just like the paintings Goya did in his youth were lovely and showed his depiction of those events at the time. I think it’s like a pilgrimage idk and I don’t want to find it in the video but it’s towards the end its a much darker version of the same people in a field and Goya knowing that Spain has fallen in the time since, he retreats to his deaf house or whatever, ponders on death, life, and what he could save himself from if he forced himself to go back and devour the young Goya so as to save him from what Goya sees as a worse fate

May I also add that being the padre de familia, and this painting being in the kitchen, being so alone with death so presemt all throughout his life and painting because he saw it in his unconscious slowly becoming conscious, all those thoughts as he ate and dined almost completely alone, with Saturn Devouring his Son being a constant reminder to his survivor's guilt and believing he had failed his children by allowing them to die by fate, or of an unknown prophecy.

I always felt this painting was more personal like you said, but I never knew Goya lost as many children as Saturn ate. I really appreciate that you gave us all the pieces without putting the puzzle together, it leaves my interpretations to spin at a mile a minute

FunFact: I‘m an art historian and Goya has always been one of my favorite artists. This painting in particular has always been a favorite of mine and so naturally I love prints of it. That’s why I got myself a skateboard deck with the design. When I skated it first, I had a horrible fall on the road and almost ripped a knee tendon all while trying not to get run over. Whenever I think of this moment, I find it only adds to the painting. No other of my boards has ever gotten me this close to my demise and I think it‘s more than fitting that this one did. (I still love the painting and the board though 😇)

The Painting’s themes I think represent the devolution of man into beast. Saturn had devolved into a beast, but his mind still was intact for a time after. He was aware of his actions, aware of his gruesome murder and consumption of his children, however he was no longer in control. He couldn’t stop himself from devouring his children, and yet he was still present in mind. A monster killing and eating people is terrifying as is, but a monster with its human mind still intact and aware of what’s happening is so much worse. Perhaps that’s what makes Bloodborne’s first act so disturbing for me, moreso than the cosmic horror acts. The beasts you fight are transformed to varying extents and intensities, however many of them seem also to be aware of what’s happening both to them, and of what they’re doing to others.

I saw this painting in the Prado when I was about 11. It has haunted me ever since (some 60 years). Thank you for your interpretation.

I enjoy the unsettling vibes w/ this video, nicely done!

Maaan I absolutely love Nerdwriter's take on this, but yours is even better. Regardless of Goya's true intentions, your analysis is remarkable! You earned my sub, such a cool channel!

I wonder what these paintings look like under candle light. I mean that’s how they were seen back then I bet the light flickering off of it would be amazing and spooky

I loved this interpretation! I had always felt like other interpretations left Saturn's expression unaddressed or incompletely described but this gave me a ton of clarity. Now I need to check out more of your videos!

Hi! I'm from Spain and I've seen this picture on history and art class. The explanation the teachers gave me to this specific picture is that the king said he would apply the enlightment on the whole country and motivated the people to fight in the war against france, but when spain won, the king betrayed us. The king wanted the old government again, and Goya painted this as the king consuming his own people. I love your interpretation cause I didn't know goya had 7 children (same as saturn) and 6 of them died before the moment he painted that. Nice video!

So glad you covered this. This is one of my favorites too. Thank you for the great info and background.

This was quite a unique interpretation of the painting's meaning. Definitely wasn't expecting it to be that deep and sad, overall a very excellent video.

This is such a well made video! I luckily got to see the black paintings in person in Madrid, and they’re truly incredible to bestow. Such bold streaks and dramatic lighting, with more emphasis on the horrid emotions than looking “realistic,” I remember staring at this one picture in particular, as I had already learned of the myth of Saturn. When I was learning this, many pictures came up as Saturn looking like the devil, the “ultimate evil” against the Greek gods. But your analysis of this painting made me remember why I gravitated to it so much… Because it was human.

When I was a child I was interested in mythology etc. (like right now). This painting was in one of my books, and I was probably more afraid of this painting than death. :)

I’m so happy you came up with this conclusion as well. I remember taking Art History in high school and I fell in love with de Goya’s work and this was his most fascinating piece for me. When I did a project on him and looked into his life story I came to the same realization that this was about all his kids who died so young.

I appreciate the research you did to make this video. It was very interesting. I don't really have a take on the matter, so I'm just going to leave it at that. Thanks for the video! :)

Fantastic. Thank you for sharing both history and analysis Cheers to you and yours

I love this channel I subscribed about a week or so ago & I absolutely love hearing ur analysis of these paintings. Iv never even heard of Goya until now, I have no knowledge of art history , but with this channel I hope to learn alot. I love dark paintings & how was the artist feeling & what was he thinking when he painted this dark art. As a survivor of depression I paint what I was feeling at certain times during the darkest days the hopeless days & the feeling that nothing can hurt as bad as living dealing with a horrible past & life just wondering will it ever get better!? 22 yrs later I can say yes it does!! Please post more on dark paintings I'm absolutely fascinated with them. Thanks & glad I found ur channel , also ur voice is so calming & soft I just love it! 🦋

Amazing video once again. I wanted to let you know that your videos have sparked a deep artistic and intellectual interest within me, prompting me to think differently all together. One of the college essays that I recently wrote was even inspired by your video about Napoleon’s paintings. Keep up the incredible work.

one of the most impactful videos i saw recently, loved the way you talked

Showing the self-portrait at 8:16 is unequivocally brilliant editing, all of the sudden his torment shines right through what seemed like undisturbed pride before. Beautiful. Thank you.

This video made me so scared i was looking around me while listenin. Absolutely great, loved your points!

WOW! Great job! Thank you for this video!

When i went to prado museum my favorite room was the Goya black paiting, i was totally absoberd by the asmosphera. My family continued with the visit but i stayed like 45 minutes watching the black paintings without exagerating. Is incredible go to Madrid and watch it, for me my favorite paintor of all time

This channel is incredible. Thank you @TheCanvas

You've given me another new view on a painting i already love!

I'm so happy that I found your channel !

Wow, that was a really interesting theory on the painting's meaning. I would have never thought of that. Thanks for sharing your interpretation. It makes the painting more impactful.

What a video! Congratulations, incredible work.

One of your best so far, which says quite a lot considering the usual sky-high quality on this channel!

i have literally watched this 3 times over..it is genuinely my most favorite youtube video

New watcher of this channel, but I am whelmed to overwhelmed, Love you insight.

Stumbled across your channel by chance and instantly subscribed! Amazing video ❤️

I saw that painting in Madrid, Spain when I was 8 years old...it never faded from my memory. Of all the art I saw that summer, that is the one I remember clearly. It scared me to death. I was riveted with fear. I even can see the room I was standing in, surrounded by masterpieces, but they are all faded. I sense my parents near me. It took me years to get over the fright I felt in those moments. I like your interpretation very, very much. The pain of loosing one's children must be horrifying, absolutely.

only watched a couple of videos, but I am really appreciative of your analysis.

Another amazing video. The amount of work behind these videos is unbelievable! Thank you so much, greetings from Moscow.

Wow. I am in tears after viewing this. I just can’t imagine what Goya went through, but I can feel his pain through the paintings. What an amazing thing art is. Hopefully our time is better than his, and I firmly believe artists like Goya make us strive for a better tomorrow. Thank you for sharing your beautiful interpretations.

Painting ain't the topic that gets me more interested from all the arts but I really do appreciate it and I get inspired by it. Very nice video

Superb analysis. I really enjoy your channel.

Excellent video. Thx for sharing.

Fantastic Real good. Thank you so much.

Brilliant analysis!

Thanks a lot as always.

Really interesting stuff, thank you for the video

They make the Saturn paintings really terrifying but in the myth he swallowed them whole. He even swallowed a rock thinking it was Zeus. Spoiler alert: Zeus came back and killed Him freeing his sisters and brother. The most popular being Hades and Poseidon arguably.

It is truly dastubing what this man showed the world when he didn't even want to

One of my favouriote painting. I didn't know about this interpretation. Good job

For how good these videos are, I’m surprised this channel only has 50 thousand subscribers

I actually did a re-creation of this painting at my high school last year on my senior year. I went to my first period class which was my art class, and we had to pick a piece of art then recreate it by changing 7 things about the painting. ether it’s to add on or changing the piece entirely giving it a new value, and meaning to our piece of art. My art teacher found that I was struggling to find a piece of art to create since a lot of people took very common, and well knowing paintings like the Mona Lisa, or more colorful and bright kinds of paintings. So my art teacher gave me one of her many books full of artist and painting to choice from. However, soon enough I found an art piece that caught my eye. Yes it was the Saturn Devouring his son painting. I never even bothered to reading about the artist, nor what the painting was exactly including its name. I was just so fascinated by the art work, and was completely different from everyone else’s. The more I stared at it, the more I was intrigued. I started by drawing it first, and then printed in on the white canvas. It’s worth noting that I never saw myself as a great painter, especially how much skill it takes to make a fine piece of art, including colors theory. But when I began painting it. I began experiment a lot with trying to find the right colors and mixtures. I guess you could say I was obsession with it. I always had an obsession when it came to mastering new things, or just me enjoying something until I got it right. But this felt different. I don’t know what I really felt, but I wanted to find the same expression on how I felt with this painting. It took me awhile to complete, mind you it was a little over do and I took most of my break’s, and lunch time into this painting. Once I finished it I was quite happy with it. Still proud of it even because it wasn’t only best work, but also came out how I wanted it to be. And my classmates, teachers, friends saw this painting, they felt the same way looking at my painting, like the same way when I first saw what my painting was based from. 1 year later and I found this video, and I see why a bit on what made me so fascinated with it a bit, but once again it’s a feeling that I cannot explain, and only can be expressed by art.

Here's my interpretation: Goya indentifies himself with Saturn because of his age. The painting is an exploration of time's relationship with death, of old age devouring youth. Saturn is depicted as old age devouring a full grown adult, and for Goya it could represent his youth succumbing to what he has become, an old man stepping closer to the void of death. Goya, as Saturn, is anguished because he is not choosing to grow old, he simply has to, time is out of his control yet ultimately controls his fate, and in growing old he has not only lost his mobility, but also his agency (or at least his assumption of having it). As time passes, Goya devours the memories, the accomplishments, and the freedom of his youth, and once that youth is devoured all he will be left with is the monster of old age. His face is anguished not only because he doesn't want to devour his youth or his inability to choose not to, it's the knowledge that with each bite of flesh he comes one step closer to realizing his true fear: being left with nothing but a grotesque mutilation of the man he once was.

Great analysis. I love seeing different interpretations of one of my favorite paintings ^^

I didn’t know this could be so terrifying. This gave me chills. I loved it!

I remember seeing this art piece in my art class last year and being so infatuated with it. I am not an art person or someone who is passionate about paintings, but when I saw this for the first time I just couldn’t take my eyes off of it and found myself to be fascinated

I love your analysis so much wow

I always enjoy your vids

Great video. Thanks!

My eyes got watery at the very end. Well done!

Wow! That analysis was chilling! What a troubled soul that poor man had.

This has actually been one of my favorite painting since I was 12, it looks pretty cool, and it has blood and cannibalism, and it looks pretty cool!

Best decision I’ve made all day was clicking on this video. I love when I find somebody who shares my interpretation and can put it into words much more succinctly

Fascinating video x

Goya's life should be known, and a wonderful introduction, if taken in context, is a movie entitled Goya's Ghosts starring Javier Bardem. You are doing a wonderful job with this channel. We, the unsophisticated peasants, thank you.

Thanks for highlighting the pictorial art of Spain. We have way more than Dalí o Picasso. I recently went to Zaragoza (Goya's birthplace city) and visited the Goya Museum. His work of Los Caprichos is fascinating and a privilege to observe in person. I thoroughly enjoyed this video and how accurately presents information about our history Greetings from Spain 🇪🇸

Great video. I liked your analysis. Before, I wasn't really familiar with the story behind this painting but every time I see it, I am always fixed on Saturn's eyes.... because they really looked liked almost going to cry and choke, it doesn't look like he's devouring it. It's like eating dinner alone and trying not to cry but you're very sad and feels so much pain, you're eating your sorrow away.

Wow! Thats a great interpretation I would have never thought of that. You just got yourself a subscriber LOL great content!

I loooove this video!! Your point of view is so interesting!

Wow. Now it's also Halloween when I found this. Thank you so much for making this video.

Thoughtful analysis!

I did a project on Goya's artwork for my final art assignment in senior year for high school. Learning about Goya's life and his mindset while painting all of his works is so interesting that made me a fan of everything he made. The way they're painted screams the bleak realities of death, murder, rituals, superstitions, and lonely solitude.

This video is on a another level.

Chilling. I’ll have to see Nerdwriter’s video too.

Awesome video thank you very much

I've had the honor to see the painting in person, it disturbed me when I saw it, so I keep looking more from Goya, and then I found like a painting of some war, and the atmosphere it gave me was terrifying. It is called the executions of May 3 Edit: I see it was referenced on 3:00

Recently got to see this painting in person, very cool. Also love that my favorite mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto referenced it in csm.

Lovely work. I think one of the great things about great art is that it can hold so many interpretations. One can only speculate if this really is a facet of Goya's expression, but it certainly works as a reading. And I think you're touching on something incredibly deep about the horror of facing death. The Myth of Jupiter is by no means the only story of a father destroying his children so he can live forever. Myths and legends are packed with such stories. The tale of Oedipus immediately springs to mind. There's something horrific about the old living on while the young parish, and yet, every generation seems to hold contempt for the generation that comes after, as though deploring their new identities and ideas will somehow stave off our inevitable obsolescence. What makes this image so profoundly horrifying is the undeniable knowledge we see in Jupiter's eyes of his own monstrousness. He's clearly mad, and yet, the worst part is how clear it is that he knows he's mad. Perhaps the greatest horror is the horror of self-knowledge. So yes, I think you've nailed an aspect of the painting that the brilliant Evan Puschak didn't quite touch in, that it is, in all likelihood, a self-portrait. Whether Goya consciously intended it to be so or not is irrelevant. The shoe fits.

love these videos about art, especially horror.

wow what a great interpretation, looks like I have a new channel to binge.

This is what got me into painting. I was a kid and my brother was doing a homework about the mythology so he was putting this picture on his notebook, I was somehow mesmerized, before that I would see art as just pretty things but this was something so different, so dark if you want to call it that way but it just made me obsessed, then I saw more of Goya's work and got completely fascinated.

most theories that i come across i don’t really follow, your theory blows everything out of the water, i can really see and feel the theories you have captured in his artwork