Francisco Goya
The Witches' Sabbath
1798
One of six small panels from Francisco Goya's 'Witches' Sabbath' (El Aquelarre) series of 1798, originally commissioned by the Dukes of Osuna for their country house. Under a full moon, a colossal black goat — the devil incarnate in Spanish folk belief — presides over a congregation of young and withered witches in a rite of grotesque parody. The dark palette and biting caricature distil Goya's sharp Enlightenment critique of ignorance and superstition, now housed in the Lázaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid.
Exhibition Venue
Image source: Wikimedia Commons