Francisco Goya's Palette Knife

Origin
Francisco Goya (30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish printmaker and painter known for his allegorical and overt works on contemporary events of his time, considered by many as a bridge between the Old Masters and the emergent moderns. Beginning as a teenager, he became courted as an adept portraitist and tapestry maker for the Spanish royalty.

His early period also marked the beginning of his tragedy, plagued by miscarriages, secretive paranoia, physical tiredness, mental breakdowns and by 1793, deafness caused by an unknown illness. The cumulative strain heavily affected his work, where his rich and colorful prints were replaced with more socially aware and darker, violent subjects. The Peninsular War raged by the French only exposed him to even more macabre and melancholy material, incorporating insanity, superstitious beliefs, religion and death into his appropriately titled “Black Paintings”. By the time he passed, Goya had taken his maid as a new lover, was partially blind, paralyzed, isolated and lacked reliable access to art supplies.



Effects
Contacting directly with any form of pigment or deeply colored substance will prime the knife, absorbing splotches of nearby color and leaving a dull gray field. Any negative or detrimental qualities the user feels, such as hatred, disgust and psychological trauma will manifest directly in their surroundings. It will appear as if all niceties and comforts have been utterly removed, and only misfortune has been amplified. The effect is self-reinforcing, as the strength of the effect torments the victim back with increased pain and emotional turmoil, increasing the field’s potency. An overwhelming amount of negativity can cause the person’s every cell to momentarily flare up and then extinguish themselves from the artifact’s intensity.