Goya

The Majas: Famous Painting by Goya

The two majas, the clothed and the naked ones are probably Goyas best known works. They depict the same woman in the same pose, naked and clothed respectively. He painted The clothed Maja after outrage in Spanish society about the Naked Maja which was considered obscene by its conservative standards. The identity of the model and the reason behind the creation are still unknown.

An embittered Goya painted this series of 14 paintings after the Napoleonic Wars. His acute awareness of panic, terror, fear, and hysteria colored his imagination into painting this haunting and sometimes morbid paintings. the most well known of the Black Paintings is perhaps the startingly morbid “Saturn devouring his Son”. The disturbing painting portrays the Roman god Saturn eating one of his children. Fearing a prophecy that one of his children would overthrow him, Saturn ate each of his children upon their birth.

Black Paintings: Famous Paintings by Goya

Goya depicts this act of cannibalism with unflinching savagery. The background is black, while the limbs and head of Saturn seem to pop out of the shadows. Saturn's eyes are huge and bulging as if he is mad. His fingers dig into the back of his son, whose head and right arm are already consumed. Saturn is about to take another bite of his child's left arm.

This allegorical painting is obviously a comment on the ruthless society where the tyrranical people in power thought nothing of devouring the happiness of the powerless to further their own cause.