Goya's black paintings

The paintings

The list of Goya's black paintings

Click the links to see the paintings.

A manola, doña Leocadia Zorilla

Probably a painting of Leocadia Zorilla, Goya's live-in housekeeper, with whom he may have had a relationship.

Saturn devouring one of his children

The most gruesome, but probably also the best known, of the black paintings.

Judith and Holofernes

A scene from the apocryphal bible book Judith.

The witches' sabbath or the great he-goat

A gathering of witches with deformed faces, a young woman probably about to be initiated in the witches' rites, a goat in a monk's cloak personifying the devil. The atmosphere is gloomy, the participants are frightening.

Two friars

Two men, one of them an old, bearded, dignified man, the other deformed, almost beastly, without a trace of dignity.

Two old people eating

Two old people, one of them eating, the other apparently browsing through some papers or books. An everyday scene, yet Goya made it into a disturbing, scary picture.

Two men fighting with clubs

A bright painting, attractive and peaceful scenery. The blackness of this painting is not in the colours but in the subject matter. That is far from peaceful and contrasts sharply with the pretty background.

The reading

A group of men reading a book, or maybe a newspaper or magazine, that the man in the middle has on his lap. One of them is probably reading aloud, some of the men seem to be reading along, others are merely listening.

Two women and a man

Two women looking and laughing at a man. Probably formed a pair with The reading.

Pilgrimage to St. Isidore's hermitage

St. Isidore is the patron Saint of Madrid. His feast (15 May) is a local holiday. His relics are kept at the Church of St. Andrew (Madrid).

The fates

In classical mythology, the fates are three goddesses that control the thread of life. They are the personifications of destiny (or fate). The first, Clotho, spins the thread of life, the second, Lachesis, controls its length, and the third, Atropos, cuts it. They symbolize birth, the passage through life, and death, respectively.

Pilgrimage to St. Isidore's well

Pilgrimage to St. Isidore's well is also known as The holy office. The holy office is another name for the Spanish inquisition, an institution that had been abolished in 1820, and re-instated in 1823. Goya had come under the scrutiny of the holy office several times. The painting may be a comment on either the abolishment of the holy office or its re-instatement.

Asmodea

Asmodea is a strange painting of two people flying through the air. It is unclear who they are, or why they are flying - maybe witches on their way to a witches' sabbath.

Half-submerged dog

This is the most enigmatic of all the black paintings. A dog, half submerged, gazing into emptiness, and nothing else.