Shop art print and framed art The Witches' Sabbath by Francisco de Goya

The Sabbath of the Witches (Spanish: El Aquelarre, Sabbath, witchcraft ritual) is one of the small pictures painted by Francisco de Goya between 1797 and 1798 at the summer residence of the Dukes of Osuna, in what was the Osuna Promenade (now the Parc del Capricho), and later outside Madrid, near Barajas. After 1928, José Lázaro Galdiano bought the painting for his private collection, which now forms part of the Lázaro Galdiano Foundation's pictorial holdings. The scene is part of the "terrible sublime" aesthetic, characterised by the obligatory representation of time in literary and musical pre-Romanticism, in a parallel with the German Sturm und Drang. Its nightmarish quality makes the viewer feel uneasy. In this painting, as in the series, the dark tones are accentuated in a nocturnal landscape. At the same time, Goya was working on Los Caprichos, with which this painting is closely linked. The theme of witchcraft was common among the painter's Spanish friends in Enlightenment circles, such as Leandro Fernández de Moratinos. The painting shows a witchcraft ritual, led by a Great Goat, one of the forms taken by the Devil, at the centre of the composition, according to Basque mythology, which gives the work its title in Spanish (see akelarre). Around him appear young and old sorcerers, who feed him his favourite food: children, according to the legend. Also noteworthy is the position of the woman's head in the foreground, hiding the goat's genitals and suggesting a sexual [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the romanticism style.

 

« The Witches' Sabbath » is kept at Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain.

 

Find the full description of The Witches' Sabbath by Francisco de Goya on Wikipedia.