Fourteen Black Paintings Lyrics
[Verse]
From the pain come the dream
From the dream come the vision
From the vision come the people
From the people come the power
From this power come the change
[Instrumental Outro]
[Non-Lyrical Vocals]
About
The song’s name and lyrics come from the Black Paintings, a series of fourteen (possibly fifteen) murals painted by Spanish romantic painter Francisco de Goya on the walls of his villa outside Madrid between 1819 and 1823.
The paintings are known for their unusually bleak subject matter and composition, even by Goya’s standards. The nature of the paintings is believed to be a reflection of the aging artist’s fear of insanity, feelings of isolation as a result of his deafness, and feelings of disdain towards Spanish society in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars and subsequent political turmoil.
Goya created the Black Paintings with no intention of them being exhibited to mass audiences— indeed, he never bestowed names onto any of the murals— and as such, never disclosed the meanings of them before he died. Titles were given to the paintings after their transference to canvas, and the intentions behind their creations have become the subject of much speculation by art historians in the following centuries.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
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