Title of Artwork: “Atropos (The Fates)”
Artwork by Francisco Goya
Year Created 1820-1823
Summary of Atropos (The Fates)
Paintings by Francisco de Goya known as the 14 Black Paintings, Atropos, or The Fates, is one of them. At 75 years old, Goya was nearing the end of his rope. He drew the series directly onto the walls of the Quinta del Sordo (“House of the Deaf Man”), which he had purchased in 1819.
All About Atropos (The Fates)
If it was on the second floor, it was most likely next to the Fight with Cudgels and directly across from the Fantastic Vision. Salvador Martnez Cubells, a curator at the Museo del Prado, was in charge of the painting’s transfer to canvas in 1873–74.
They were donated to Spain by the Baron Emile d’Erlanger in 1881 and are now on display at the Prado Museum.
Painting depicts the Moirai or fates, the goddesses of destiny as depicted in the works of Homer, Hesiod, and Virgil and other classical writers. One of these ‘daughter-of-night’ was Atropos, the unstoppable death goddess with scissors to cut the lifeline; another was Clotho, with her distaff (which Goya replaces with a doll or newborn child, possibly an allegory of life); and the third was Lachesis, the spinning goddess who looks through a lens or a mirror and symbolises time because she was the one who measured the length of the fibre.
A fourth female figure is added to the three suspended in the air. The hands of this person, who appears to be male, are tied behind his back as if he were a prisoner.
A man whose hands are bound cannot resist his fate, if this interpretation is correct, if the fates are deciding his future. As a punishment for taking fire from Mount Olympus while escaping from Prometheus, who was imprisoned for his crime, some believe that this man may represent Prometheus. All four are abysmal in their own way.
Ochres and blacks make up the majority of the painting’s colour palette, which is as limited as the other black paintings. This creates a nocturnal and mythical atmosphere, which is in keeping with the work’s subject matter. Goya’s black paintings have been hailed as a precursor to modern art because of their arbitrary and irrational features.
Information Citations
En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.
