⚠️Disclaimer!⚠️

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*This slideshow includes graphic images of horror art*

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The Art of Fear:

Goya’s Legacy and the

Power of Confronting Darkness

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By Dakota Risley

Why I am Interested in Horror

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• A single painting sparked a fascination.
• Francisco Goya’s Black Paintings awakened dark, unspoken emotions.
• What is it about horror that grips us so deeply?

‘Shock at his own monstrousness’ … from Saturn Devouring His Son, 1820-23, by Goya, on show in Madrid. �Photograph: Christophel Fine Art/UIG via Getty Images

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What is Horror?

• Origin: Horrere – to bristle or stand on end.
• Horror challenges our comfort zones and reveals the taboo.
• The cognitive dissonance between attraction and repulsion
• Approximately 50% of Americans enjoy watching horror films.

“What scares me is what scares you.

We're all afraid of the same things.

That's why horror is such a powerful genre”

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--John Carpenter, Director and Producer of “The Thing”

The Key Factors I Discovered

• Horror is more of a psychological than physical release
• Goya confront our deepest fears and anxieties
• When you lack reason, there is room for irrational thoughts
• “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters”

A commentary on how the loss of reason can lead to the rise of irrational fears and superstitions. Goya's print depicts a sleeping artist surrounded by monstrous creatures, symbolizing the darkness that emerges when reason is absent.

Unpacking the Attraction

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• We are drawn to what is forbidden, creates an emotional pull.
• Attraction/repulsion - Goya uses repulsion to allure his viewers
• Death: a universal terror explored through art and media.
• Safe spaces allow catharsis and confrontation of fear.
• Being able to control the amount you see.

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Horror Began with Goya

1. Goya's raw, feral works evoke primal emotional reactions.
2. Exploring the strange language of horror in visual art and film.
3. A gateway to understanding therapeutic value of horror movies.

Disasters of War (1810-1820)

Yard With Lunatics (1794)

Witches Sabbath (1798)

• Goya's Black Paintings reveal his angst and despair, merging personal pain with universal themes of fear of death and social collapse.

• Critiques societal violence and injustice, using revulsion to expose harsh realities of human cruelty.

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Saturn Devouring His Son

Goya Sets the Precedent for Horror Genre

Light as Terror in Goya’s Art

Inversion of Traditional Symbolism

• Unlike modern horror, Goya uses light as a source of fear and threat.
• Light exposes hidden horrors rather than providing clarity or hope.
• In 'Procession of the Holy Office,' bright light reveals sadism and fanaticism.

⚠️Trigger Warning⚠️

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*Three Graphic Images of Body Horror to Follow*

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Body Horror: Fear in the Flesh

• Bodily decay and transformation evoke primal fear of inevitable death.
• Themes: identity, aging, disease, illness, societal rejection.
• Physical horror as metaphor for cultural or internal trauma.

The Embodiment of Fear– The Thing

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• Paranoia and identity disintegration.
• Social cohesion evaporates
• Grotesque transformations mirror psychological breakdown.
• Minimal dialogue heightens visceral fear.��

John Carpenter, Director (1982)

The Horror of The Body – The Substance

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• Aging female body is terrifying.
• Metaphor for impossible beauty standards and societal control.
• Grotesque self-inflicted violence
• Gender and identity fears externalized through the body.

Coralie Fargeat, Director (2024)

Goya’s Legacy in Modern Horror

• Goya’s art critiques social turmoil and human cruelty, a tradition continued in horror cinema’s reflection on cultural fears and injustices.

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• The raw, unsettling imagery Goya pioneered inspires modern horror’s intense visuals and powerful emotional impact.

One of Goya's more famous prints shows three naked and dismembered corpses (Goya: Plate 39 / The Folio Society)

Art was Goya’s Coping Mechanism

• Black Paintings were personal therapy.�
• Painting as emotional survival, descending into madness in a war-ravaged society.�
• Art as a tool for processing pain.
• Transform suffering into creative expression.

The Third of May 1808 In the work, Goya sought to commemorate Spanish resistance to Napoleon's armies during the occupation of Madrid in 1808 at the start of the Peninsular War.

Therapeutic Value of Horror

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• Exposure therapy through horror experiences.
• Managing anxiety in steps.
• Makes the unknown knowable.
• Safe confrontation of fear through art.
• Catharsis via emotional release.
• Horror promotes empathy and shared understanding.
• Horror can offer self-exploration and healing.

�“Monsters in movies are us, always us,

one way or the other. �They're us with hats on.”

�John Carpenter, The Thing, horror film director and producer.

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