By Raúl Flores
There were a total of 14 paintings done by Goya during the early 1800s. I have always found the situation of their discovery extremely fascinating; Goya never intended to release them or make them public. Rather, they were a bunch of murals in his home, so they were discovered after his death, taken out and revealed to the world. What was unveiled is a series of paintings that had a common aesthetic; they are all dark depictions of humanity, mythology and many other things. The paintings have a bleak aura that is immediately perceivable, thus, they were named the "Black Paintings".
I absolutely love Goya's work, specially since they seem to come from a place of necessary artistic release. Goya was alone in his home, and he had a fear for insanity, which seeps into his work very clearly. Notice how, whenever Goya depicts humans, faces are distorted, as if seen through the scrambling lens of fear. Goya was an artist plagued with fears and anxieties, but he was an artist nonetheless so he had to find ways to release all the things he was feeling at the time of spending so many of his days alone, isolated. Colors are muted, shadows are prominent, and the use of black, brown, grey and white predominate these murals. When an outdoor scene is depicted, the sky is a muted blue that barely resembles the warm feeling of a sunny day. There is little to no room for happiness here. In "Two Old Men" you might interpret as a lone man being tormented by his own demons, that painting in particular feels like a perfect depiction of isolation; being alone with oneself, but what happens when you are, involuntarily, your own enemy?
One of the most famous works from this series would be "Saturn Devouring His Son", a freakish masterclass example of horror as depicted in a painting. There are plenty of scary paintings; The Scream and most of Hieronymus Bosch's works come to mind, but there's something rather sinister about The Black Paintings and the circumstances of their creation that attracts me so much to them. Also, I believe that a lot of these works can fit into our theme which is isolation. Dark crevices predominate these scenes, which result in a feeling of being alone in the dark, of creeping around an abandoned house, just to turn around, shining your light at a corner where you find the mythical figure of a demented Greek God devouring his infant son, his face glaring with utter madness.
Both the creation and the result of The Black Paintings pertain to isolation. They reflect a dark shadow in the human condition that many people have gotten insight to, but few have depicted it in such raw and brilliant ways as Goya did here. There is a special kind of beauty that is hard to describe; beauty because at the end of the day, this is still art. Art done by a master painter in full control of his tone and style. Goya channeled all this into his last works that were done not for fame, not for recognition, but instead for that essential need as an artist to express oneself; to liberate your mind of the shadows that encompass it.
To see the all 14 of Goya's Black Paintings: https://www.francisco-de-goya.com/black-paintings/Links to an external site.
Raul Flores is a senior at New Mexico State University. After working as a staff writer for a year with NMSU's student news organization, The Round Up, he became editor-in-chief of the publication. This is his second semester as editor and it will also be his last. Flores is currently pursuing a major in Journalism & Mass Communication with a minor in English. He was born and raised in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, about an hour from Las Cruces.
I met my future wife 31 years ago on the Plaza 2 de Mayo in Madrid, where Napoleon's troops massacred the local people Putin style. Fortunately, our relationship has been a bit better than the painting would suggest! ¡Gracias, Raúl!