Anyone who has seen de Goya’s ‘black paintings’ hanging in the Prado, created when he was in his 70’s and of an increasingly pessimistic worldview, probably remembers them. What I like about the article ‘Goya and Horror’ is that it traces this darkness back through his earlier work, to hints of it in various disquieting little touches. Some examples: the three cats (one practically with eyes only) staring ominously at a magpie in a portrait of Don Manuel Osorio from about 1788. The threatening glances of onlookers, mouths shielded, in ‘Maja and the Cloaked Majos’ of 1778. The macabre painting ‘Ash Wednesday’ (or ‘Burial of the Sardine’) from 1793 – wow! All of these eventually leading to paintings like ‘Saturn Devouring One of His Children’, which he apparently hung in his dining room, an interesting choice to say the least. He was dark, yes, but also incredibly honest about what he saw about life and those around him, and an artist who was ahead of his time.

Otherwise, this installment of Horizon has more misses than hits. There is an interesting article on the rise and fall of the ocean liner industry, and how luxurious travel had become for the wealthy, complete with sketches from a brochure published by one of the services in the 1920’s.

One of the better pieces was on Roger Revelle, famous for being one of the earliest scholars studying global warming and also for helping to found the UC-San Diego, here commenting in a balanced way on over-population. On the one hand, he projects the present (1968) world population of 3.3 billion possibly doubling by the year 2000, an alarming figure and for a year which must have seemed very distant indeed, just as the year 2050 seems far off to us. The world’s population in 2000 hit 6.1 billion – not doubled, but close. On the other hand, he points out “no society has let its population run amuck over any long period, to the point where its existence has been threatened”, and that he “believes that man can do something to keep the world from being overwhelmed by people. He simply is not convinced that man will. How applicable to global warming as well! What’s interesting about his suggested reforms is that they are not simplistic ‘practice birth control and have less children’; among many other things, he points out high birth rates in less developed countries arising out of a desire to have surviving sons, and therefore lowering death rates paradoxically being of benefit. Lastly, I love this observation: “he blames continued growth on America’s equation of bigness – in just about anything – with virtue.” How true. ( )

Read for the Burgess, the highlight is the environmental pieces about Marsh, Fuller and Mumford. Even 100 years before 1968, the "we must amend our ways" was proclaimed.