14 Unsettling Paintings by Goya That Would Leave You Anxious
Horror, disturbance, fear, and dread
“A hag or a witch grins ghoulishly over a bowl of food, an evil-looking figure whispers in the ear of an old man, a drowning dog lost in an unidentifiable mass, and the most disturbing out of them is the demonic figure with wide eyes and swallowing the body of his own child.”
Francisco Goya’s Black Paintings radiated horror, disturbance, fear, and dread.
From dramatic, exuberant portraits of the royal family of Charles IV of Spain and His Family to disfigured lost human beings in A Pilgrimage to San Isidro.
From the bright and aesthetically pleasing tapestry of Dance of the Majos at the Banks of Manzanares to murky and dark backgrounds in The Fates.
From being a court painter to the Spanish Crown to becoming progressively pessimistic.
What went wrong?
Why did Goya turn his vibrant world into something so distressful?
What made him pessimistic about portraying the darker side of humanity?
