Goya's Black Paintings

Goya's Black Paintings

This article relates to The Names

In a key scene in Florence Knapp's novel The Names, two characters are in an art gallery viewing an exhibition. The author writes:

"They stop in front of a hideous image, a painting on loan from a gallery in Madrid. It shows a naked man, frenzied and wild-eyed, consuming a smaller figure, its bloodied, headless body clasped between his hands."

The work in question is entitled Saturn Devouring His Son and is by Spanish artist Francisco Goya (1746–1828), and it's one of 14 referred to as his Black Paintings (Pinturas negras).

Goya was a very successful artist and a court painter to two Spanish kings, credited with creating over 600 artworks during his lifetime. In 1792, his health began to decline; he started experiencing hallucinations, vertigo, hearing and speech impairment, and even fell into a coma for a time. Although not proven conclusively, it's thought his illness was likely due to lead poisoning brought on by excessive use of the metal in his white paint, which he mixed himself. In addition to the obvious and permanent physical symptoms, his work changed abruptly around this time, from courtly portraits to dark, disturbing images.

In 1819, as his health continued to deteriorate, Goya purchased an isolated estate on the outskirts of Madrid. He became reclusive and began painting grotesque images directly on the plaster walls of his home. The 14 works he ultimately completed from 1820 to 1823 are referred to as the Black Paintings both because of their preponderance of dark colors and their bleak, surreal subject matter.

No one's really sure what the artist intended with these images, although after his death sketches were found that seemed to indicate the works may have been a cycle laid out to a specific plan. Goya didn't give them names; in fact, it's believed that he never wrote or spoke about them at all. A few art historians speculate that the works aren't Goya's precisely because he made no reference to them (most scholars disagree).

In 1823 Goya donated the property to his 17-year-old grandson and departed Spain for Bordeaux, France, where he lived out the remainder of his life. The estate was left to deteriorate until purchased by Baron Frédéric-Emil d'Erlanger in 1873. Understanding the cultural value of the murals, their new owner had the paintings transferred from the building's walls to canvas, exhibiting them in 1878 at the International Exposition in Paris.

A technique known as "strappo" was used to preserve the pieces. A thin cloth is placed over the artwork and glue is brushed over it. This process is repeated many times before the covered art is left to dry. The top layer of the plaster—which hosts the painted image—is then carefully separated from the rest of the wall; the cloth holds the fragile medium together, thereby preserving the artwork. Excess plaster is removed, and then the same glueing procedure is used on the back of the now detached mural. The next step is to remove the cloth from the front of the painting one layer at a time, using hot water to melt the adhesive. The resulting painted layer of plaster can then be mounted on another medium, such as canvas. (See this YouTube video for a demonstration of this technique.)

The process wasn't foolproof, and Goya's paintings suffered significant damage. They were further harmed by their transfer to Paris and then back to Madrid. Frenchman Jean Laurent took photographs of the Black Paintings in 1873 before the strappo process was begun, and it's evident that the procedure changed them. Many paintings lost details (e.g., candles in one painting, a dog in another) and all experienced a muting of the colors Goya originally employed.

The Black Paintings remain permanently housed in Madrid's Prado Museum, which was visited by nearly 3.5 million people in 2024. Although no restoration efforts are currently underway, in 2014 Factum Arte was hired to digitize the works, creating high-resolution, 3-D images that are being used to bring new understanding to these remarkable pieces and their creator.

Francisco Goya, Saturn Devouring His Son, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Filed under Music and the Arts

This article relates to The Names. It first ran in the May 21, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.