Francisco Goya's Witches Sabbath - A Dark and Satirical Masterpiece

Witchcraft and witches have perplexed and troubled human imagination for centuries. These elusive women endowed with magical powers have been the subject of many fables and fairytales and were used to both scare and empower, to reveal female agency, and to suppress it.

It is now known from historical documents that women pronounced to be witches endured prosecutions and torture and were more often than not brutally killed, as an example to other women who dared to live a life that contrasted with what rigid, patriarchal norms of their times prescribed. 

From condemned figures to women celebrated for their bravery and growing into symbols of women's struggle for independence, witches preoccupied the imagination of many artists, from medieval craftsmen, who banished them to the circles of hell in religious depictions, to contemporary creatives such as Rachel Rose or Alejandra Hernández who celebrate women power in Wil-o-Wisp, 2018 and Golden Portal, 2018. 

However, one of the most popular and ubiquitous representations of witches is Witches' Sabbath from 1798, the painting by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya (Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes).

Goya's Witches' Sabbath 

The painting, fairly small in scale, measuring 43 cm x 30 cm (17 in x 12 in), belongs to a series featuring witches of witchcraft with five other paintings that Goya created at the turn of the century. It is unclear if the paintings were commissioned by the Duchess of Osuna or later acquired by her husband. Intended to decorate the Duchess's boudoir in El Capricho palace, the works fully show Goya's technical virtuosity. 

Witches' Sabbath or El Aquelarre in Spanish, held at the Museo Lázaro Galdiano in Madrid, showcases Goya's strong sense of space, precise execution, and delicacy in using colours. Goya depicted the devil in the form of a goat, surrounded by a coven of witches, both young and old. They are shown in a nocturnal landscape, with light earthly tones in the foreground.

The scene also includes depictions of children offered to the devil, with several shown dead, hanged on a stake in the background, and one lying beside the women's feet. The representation of dead children and children being offered to the devil in the initiation ceremony came from the popular superstition of the time that the devil feeds on children. 

The eery imagery is dominated by the goat figure, with oak leaf garlands on its horns and outstretched hoofs. Inversions, typical for images showing witchcraft, are present in the form of the crescent moon facing out of the painting and the goat's extended left hoof instead of the right. Bats can also be seen in the night sky, their movement echoing the curve of the moon. 

The Spanish Romanticism 

Romanticism characterized a fascination with the paranormal, as may be seen, for instance, in Weber's opera Der Freischütz. Goya's works, though, in a Spanish context, are more a protest against individuals who defended and implemented the principles of the Spanish Inquisition that organized witch hunts and trials well into the seventeenth century, then a celebration of the occult.

Goya highly valued the achievements of the Enlightenment period and was firmly against the use of popular fears for political gain. He was highly critical of the church and the widespread tendency toward superstition, and he used his artistic prowess to expose and ridicule these tendencies in Spanish society. 

Fighting against the disastrous influence of the clergy, Goya confessed in a letter to his friend, Martín Zapater, in 1789 that he only fears humans, as everything else pales in comparison. 

"I confess that I was dazed at first, but now? Now, now, I don't even fear witches, goblins, ghosts...miscreants, etc. Not any kind of bodies but humans..."

Witches as a Symbol

Following the series of witchcraft-themed paintings, Goya turned to explore the flaws and vices of society in the satirical print series Los Caprichos. This did not mean that he refrained from nightmarish images, but he continued to explore them in even more detail through depictions of ghosts, witches, and demons. 

Witches' Sabbath is far from being the only work where Goya depicted the topic of witches and witchcraft. Another piece titled Witches' Sabbath or the Great He-Goat belongs to his Black Paintings series and shows the devil as a goat surrounded by a crowd of men and women. Black Paintings were murals that originally decorated la Quinta del Sordo house where Goya lived, which were later transferred from the walls to canvas. The paintings, created between 1819 and 1823, show sombre and ghoulish subject matter, including the famous Saturn Devouring His Son.

While Goya criticized society through art, the Black Paintings series, including Witches' Sabbath, is also coloured by the artist's personal struggles with various illnesses. By the end of his life, Goya was almost entirely deaf, and he also feared for his mental health. 

Much of his mental and physical state was influenced by the events at the turn of the century with Napoleon's conquests and later restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. The accession to the throne of  Ferdinand VII was followed by the revocation of the Constitution and reinstatement of the Inquisition. The dark and pessimistic visions Goya painted in his home correspond with the regressive social events and his personal decline. 

Considered one of the most important Spanish artists, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828), primarily painted for nobility and royalty; he was also appointed as court painter, but this did not stop him from being an astute critic of society, even of its highest circles. 

In casting his criticism, Goya used witches as a symbol. They stood for the backward social customs and represented adherence to superstition and medieval beliefs that plagued Spain at the time. While on the one side, the society was kept in thralls of backward customs and beliefs, others pushed for its liberalization and secularization. Acutely aware of the situation, Goya joined the battle with his artworks. 

Featured image: Francisco Goya - Witches Sabbath, 1789, detail, oil on canvas, via Creative Commons