Witches Sabbath (Goya, 1798)

This article is about the painting now in Museo Lzaro

Galdiano. For the similarly named painting now in the
Prado, see Witches Sabbath (The Great He-Goat).
Witches Sabbath (Spanish: Aquelarre)[1] is a 1798 oil

Witches Flight, 1797-98. 43.5cm x 30.5cm, Museo del Prado,

Madrid. This is another of the set of six owned by the Duchess
of Osuna.

Witches Sabbath, 1797-98. Francisco Goya. Museo Lzaro

Galdiano, Madrid

on canvas by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya. Today it

young and aging witches in a moonlit barren landscape.
is held in the Museo Lzaro Galdiano, Madrid.
The goat possesses large horns and is crowned by a wreath
It was purchased in 1798 along with ve other paintings of oak leaves. An old witch holds an infant in her hands.
related to witchcraft by the Duke and Duchess of Os- The devil seems to be acting as priest at an initiation ceruna.[2] The acquisition of the witchcraft paintings is at- emony for the child, though popular superstition at the
tributed to the duchess rather than her husband, but it is time believed the devil often fed on children and human
not known whether they were commissioned or bought fetuses. The skeletons of two infants can be seen; one disafter completion.[3] In the twentieth century the painting carded to the left, the other held by a crone in the centre
was purchased by the nancier Jos Lzaro Galdiano and foreground.
donated to the Spanish state on his death.
Typical of the imagery of witchcraft, many of the symbols used are inverted. The goat extends his left rather
than right hoof towards the child, while the quarter moon
1 Description
faces out of the canvas at the top left corner.[4][5] In the
middle high-ground, a number of bats can be seen ying
Witches Sabbath shows the devil in the form of a overhead, their ocking motion echoing the curve of the
garlanded goat, surrounded by a coven of disgured, crescent moon.
1

4 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Link with the Black Paintings

4 Bibliography
Boime, Albert. Art in an age of counterrevolution,
1815-1848. Chicago University Press, 2004. ISBN
0-226-06337-2
Connell, Evan S. Francisco Goya: A Life. New
York: Counterpoint, 2004. ISBN 1-58243-307-0

Witches Sabbath 1821-3, 140cm x 438cm, Museo del Prado

Hagen, Rose-Marie & Hagen, Rainer. Francisco

Goya, 1746-1828. Taschen, 2003. ISBN 3-82281823-2

Goya used the imagery of covens of witches in a number of works, most notably in one of his Black Paintings,
Witches Sabbath or The Great He-Goat (18211823).

Hughes, Robert. Goya. New York: Alfred A.

Knopf, 2004. ISBN 0-394-58028-1

Interest in the supernatural was a feature of Romanticism,

and is to be found for example in Webers opera Der
Freischtz. However, in a Spanish context, Goyas paintings have been seen as a protest against those who upheld
and enforced the values of the Spanish Inquisition, which
had been active in Witch hunting during the seventeenthcentury Basque witch trials. The later Witches Sabbath
was painted as a bitter struggle raged between liberals and those in favour of a church and a royalist-lead
state, which culminated in the so-called Ominous Decade
(1823-1833).[6] Both paintings can be seen as an attack
on the superstitious beliefs rife in Spain during a period
when tales of midnight gatherings of witches and the appearance of the devil were commonplace among the rural
populace. They reect the artists disdain for the popular tendency towards superstition and the church-led return to medieval fears. Goyas depictions of such scenes
mocked what he saw as medieval fears exploited by the
established order for political and capital gain.[7]

Notes

[1] Aquelarre in the Diccionario de la Real Academia Espaola.

[2] These six paintings were Witches Flight, The Spell,
Witches Sabbath, The Witches Kitchen, The Devils Lamp,
and The Stone Guest. (Sothebys to sell original receipt for
Goya painting in Danny Boyles art heist movie Trance.
ArtDaily. Retrieved 31 August 2013.)
[3] Grange, 63
[4] Boime, 261
[5] Hughes, 153
[6] Dark Knight. New York Magazine, Volume 22, No. 2,
1989. 111.
[7] Boime, 262

Francisco Goya. Kent: Grange Books, 2004. ISBN

1-84013-662-6
Se subastar el recibo original de Vuelo de brujas
de Goya. La Razn. 23 May 2013. Retrieved 30
August 2013.

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

5.1

Text

Witches Sabbath (Goya, 1798) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witches{}_Sabbath_(Goya%2C_1798)?oldid=679037457 Contributors: Postdlf, Auric, Crisco 1492, Attilios, Ceoil, Ser Amantio di Nicolao, Riverdanceman, Cydebot, DBaba, Modernist, Simon
Burchell, JohnBlackburne, Randy Kryn, Kafka Liz, Yomangan, Addbot, Yobot, Petropoxy (Lithoderm Proxy), RibotBOT, Dunc0029,
RedBot, MastiBot, Helpful Pixie Bot, Thoughtfortheday, BG19bot, PhnomPencil, Wikiccount and Anonymous: 7

5.2

Images

File:Francisco_de_Goya_y_Lucientes_-_Witches{}_Sabbath_(The_Great_He-Goat).jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/

wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Francisco_de_Goya_y_Lucientes_-_Witches%27_Sabbath_%28The_Great_He-Goat%29.jpg License: Public
domain Contributors: [1] Original artist: Francisco Goya
File:GOYA_-_El_aquelarre_(Museo_Lzaro_Galdiano,_Madrid,_1797-98).jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
commons/7/74/GOYA_-_El_aquelarre_%28Museo_L%C3%A1zaro_Galdiano%2C_Madrid%2C_1797-98%29.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Mirar abajo. Original artist: Francisco Goya
File:Witches_Flight_Goya.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Witches_Flight_Goya.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors: http://artobserved.com/go-see-goya-in-times-of-war-museo-nacional-del-prado-madrid-until-july-13/
Original artist: Francisco Goya

5.3

Content license

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