The Black Paintings by Goya Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fourteen

There are fourteen official paintings in this series by Goya. Initially painted as murals directly on the walls of the house where he was living at the time, they were transferred from the walls of the two-storey house to canvas. Originally there were fifteen paintings; however, only fourteen were transferred to canvas and removed from the house.

Answer: Madrid

When Goya was seventy-two years old he moved to a two-story house just outside of Madrid called Quinta del Sordo (Deaf Man's Villa). The person who had lived in the house before Goya was deaf. The house was named for the previous owner; however, Goya also had hearing problems while living there.

The paintings he created while living there at that time of his life are monstrous, dark, bleak and disturbing, and represent his state of mind at the time as a fearful and anxious old man.

Answer: False

Goya most probably did not name the paintings at all and if he did, the names were never shared. The names given to them were done so by art historians and his children. Some of the names of this collection are "Two Old Men", "Two Old Men Eating Soup" and "Women Laughing." He also didn't show them publicly and likely never wanted to reveal them publicly.

When he left the house, he left it to his grandson who then gave it to his father. It wasn't until years later that the paintings were transferred from the walls to canvas for the purpose of public exhibition.

Answer: Saturn Devouring His Son

"Saturn Devouring His Son" is probably one of the most famous of the Black Paintings. It depicts the myth of the God Saturn eating his son. It is a very disturbing painting, Saturn is a large, grotesque figure with big bulging eyes. The head and an arm of his son is missing and his body is bloody as Saturn takes another bloody bite.

This painting was found on the wall of the dining room of the house were Goya lived. The Rubens version was created before the Goya version and likely inspired Goya.

Answer: The Dog

The painting of "The Dog" was found on the second story of the house. It is a painting that shows a vast mustard colored sky on a large part of the work, with a dark sandy colored bottom portion. There is the small head of a dog sticking out of the sandy dirt, looking upward toward the top of a slope.

The body of the dog is unseen and covered. The painting is quite mysterious and has been perceived as showing a helpless and stuck dog drowning in quicksand. Variations on the title reflect this - "The Buried Dog", "The Half-Drowned Dog" and "The Half-Submerged Dog."

Answer: Museo del Prado

Fifty years after Goya moved out of the house, the process of painstakingly and carefully transferring the oil paintings from the walls of the house to canvas was undertaken. The paintings were moved to the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The walls of the house were covered in wallpaper and it was on this material that Goya painted.

Initially the paintings were to be sold at the Paris World's Fair but they were instead donated to the museum. Many other works by Goya are also on display there.

Answer: 1819 - 1823

Goya moved into the two-story house in 1819 and lived there until 1823. While living there he created the paintings directly on to the walls of the house. He left in 1823, moving to Bordeaux. Goya was seventy-two when he moved into the house and his outlook on life as well as toward his fellow man was bleak.

He had survived two illnesses which were near fatal and was paranoid and nervous about having a relapse. The paintings are dark in color (browns, greys, blacks) as well as in theme. The images are grotesque and disturbing, matching his outlook on life.

Answer: Witches' Sabbath

In this painting, a group of witches are shown cowering and afraid. A shadow of Satan, depicted by a goat, looks upon them. There is also a figure in white whose face cannot be seen by the viewer but is facing the coven of witches. This painting was originally the widest of the works in the series and during the transfer process about fifty-five inches was removed from the right side.

The painting is interpreted as a protest against the royalists and clergy. Goya did not outright express his views as it is thought he would be subject to persecution.

Answer: La Leocadia

In this painting, a woman dressed in black is leaning against a mound that could be a funeral mound. Her expression is sorrowful as she leans against the mound on her elbow. The woman in the painting is commonly accepted as Leocadia Weiss who was Goya's maid, companion and also possibly his lover.

This is all a hypothesis though, as Goya did not annotate or name the painting himself. Leocadia moved to Bordeaux with Goya after he left the two-storey house.

Answer: False

There is some dispute about the authenticity of the paintings. The paintings were found on both storeys of the house, initially seven on the bottom and eight on the top. Art historian Juan José Junquera suggested that they could not all be attributed to Goya because at the time he lived in the house, it was one-storey only. Junquera believes that Goya's son Javier might have created them and that another son Mariano sold them as Goya's in order to make money.

This theory has been debunked by Goya scholar Nigel Glendinning.