The Black Paintings

E60661

mural cycle series of paintings

The Black Paintings are a haunting series of dark, expressive murals by Francisco Goya that depict nightmarish, introspective scenes reflecting his late-life pessimism and disillusionment.

Aliases (2)

Black Paintings ×1
Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son ×1

Statements (61)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	mural cycle → series of paintings →
artisticStyle	dark Romanticism → expressionism (proto-expressionist) →
cityOfCreation	Madrid →
commissionedBy	not commissioned (personal work) →
conservationAction	transferred from walls to canvas in the 1870s →
countryCurrentlyLocated	Spain →
countryOfOrigin	Spain →
createdInArtistLifePeriod	Goya's late period →
creator	Francisco Goya →
currentCity	Madrid →
currentLocation	Museo del Prado →
depicts	despair → disillusionment → madness → nightmarish scenes → old age → pessimism → processions → saturn devouring his son → violence → witchcraft →
endTime	c. 1823 →
genre	Romanticism →
houseName	Quinta del Sordo (House of the Deaf Man) →
intendedAudience	private →
languageOfTitle	Spanish →
locationCreated	Quinta del Sordo →
medium	oil on canvas (after transfer) → oil on plaster → oil on wall →
movement	Romanticism →
notableWorkInSeries	Asmodea (Fantastic Vision) → Cabezas en un paisaje (Heads in a Landscape) → Dos viejos comiendo sopa (Two Old Men Eating Soup) → Duelo a garrotazos (Fight with Cudgels) → Hombres leyendo (Men Reading) → Judith y Holofernes (Judith and Holofernes) → La Leocadia → Mujeres riendo (Women Laughing) → Peregrinación a la fuente de San Isidro (Pilgrimage to San Isidro) → Perro semihundido (The Dog) → Romería de San Isidro (The Pilgrimage of San Isidro) → Saturn Devouring His Son → Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat) →
numberOfWorks	14 →
originalLocation	Quinta del Sordo →
owner	Spanish state →
relatedTo	Goya's deafness → Peninsular War →
significance	key precursor to modern art → major work of Western art history →
startTime	c. 1819 →
surface	interior walls of Goya's house →
theme	anti-clericalism → death → existential anxiety → irrationality of human nature → political disillusionment → war trauma →

Referenced by (3)

Subject (surface form when different)	Predicate
Pale Man ("Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son") →	inspiredBy
Francisco Goya →	notableWork
Saturn Devouring His Son ("Black Paintings") →	partOfSeries