The ugliest painting in history

ghadaelsawy (62)in #art • 7 years ago (edited)

Satren eats his children, is the name of one of the work of the Spanish artist "Francisco de Goya" 1746-1828, which is considered by some as the most prominent work, and the most famous in the history of that artist who died in the 1890s at the age of seventy years.

The painting belongs to the period or stage known as the black art by the historians in Europe. The last years of the life of the artist "Francisco de Goya", were known for its pessimistic and sadistic nature. It is a reflection of his mental and mood condition, It was at this stage that Joya's work was characterized by its dark colors, distorted and frightening figures, and its subjects were related to all that is strange and harsh in Western mythology. However, this work called "Saturn Eating his children" is considered one of the most important works painted by Joya during this stage, which is described by some as the ugliest painting in the history of art at all, and deals with the legend of the Roman god Saturn, which is very similar to the legend of the god" Chronos " the god of time who seized the throne of divinity after killing his father "Uranus" who did not know justice, the legend says that "Chronos" was not better than his father" Uranus", but was darker than him, and more tyranny, and the reason for eating his children was the Prophecies that he heard that one of these children will kill him and take the throne of divinity "Chronos" wanted to avoid this terrible prophecy, at first he thought to establish a fortress to protect him from the attacks of his potential children, but he could not come up with a correct idea in this regard, and as stated in this myth "Chronos" resorted to a trick that he found it will be successful, He ordered his wife "Ria", who had to obey his orders, whatever the orders.....

He ordered her to give him each child immediately after his birth, and she did."Chronos" swallowed all the babies she gave to him until he had five of them in his stomach. And when she was going to give birth to her sixth baby she screamed of her pain but and he didn't care for that but all what he wanted was to eat the coming baby.

"Ria" delivered her baby and as usual she felt sad and pity for her baby, but this time she determined not to hand him over to his father. She came with a stone, dressed it to look like the little boy, and sent him to "Chronos", who swallowed him, thinking he was his son.She took her bay to an abandoned mountain cave to be brought there with mountain nymphs. When he became a boy, his mother gave him the idea of revenge against his father, and he managed to give him the mustard syrup which emptied his intestines to get his brothers whom he swallowed out of his womb. And then Zeus became the ruler of heaven and earth, punishing all who defended oppression and tyranny.

This was the background on which the Spanish artist Joya created his famous painting, "Chronos", or Satren eats his children. However, Joya was not the only artist who dealt with that legend in his work. He was preceded by a number of artists, the most notable is the famous Flamenco artist Paul Robbins "But Joya's painting was the most influential, and the most that has the ability to express this legend among all the artists.

Some have referred to this as the reflection of Joya's psychological state on the collection of works he painted during that period known as black paintings.