Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat): Difference between revisions

The Witches' Sabbath or The Great He-Goat (Spanish: Aquelarre^[1] or El gran cabrón^[2]) is the name given to a painting of between 1821-1823 by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya (1746–1828). Its unusual dimensions of 140cm x 438cm add to its haunted, spectral aura, while its two titles are derived from names attributed by Goya's children after his death in 1828.^[3] Today, it is in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Originally painted in oil on plaster, it has now been transferred to a canvas support.

Witches' Sabbath shows Satan, represented by a hybrid goat-human figure rendered entirely in black, presiding in moonlight over a coven of mostly disfigured, ugly and cowering witches.^[4] The work draws its power from the seemingly absolute command the devil holds over the women, who mostly quake before him in fear of their lives. It was painted in a time when superstition was widespread in Spanish society, and many rural peasants would have been susceptible to tales of secret societies, corrupted women and perverted religion.

The work is one of Goya's 14 Black Paintings created between 1819–1823, when he was in his seventies and near deaf. As with the others paintings from the series, it was painted directly onto the plaster of the house he was living in. It continues his exploration of both his political beliefs and haunted mental state at the time. Its exploration of violence, age, death and superstition^[5] examine the worry he felt in his later years over his physical and mental health, and as well as his continuing disillusionment with political and religious developments in Spain following the 1814 restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. Torture was then a common method used by both Spanish clerics and royalists to extract confession, while accusations of witchcraft were often used as a ploy to execute or get rid of undesirables. He saw this as a reactionary tactic and railed with such satrical work against what he saw as a descent into medievalism.^[6]

Witches Sabbath is one of the final^[8] of his "Black Paintings" series completed while he was living in near solitude in a farmhouse converted to a studio outside Madrid which became known as "la Quinta del Sordo" (House of the Deaf Man).^[9][10] Goya was then tormented by fear of old age and madness - the latter an anxiety he carried from middle age following an undiagnosed sickness that left him deaf - and adrift from his former public office, likely embittered by recent developments in Spanish politics. In physical and psychological despair, and with no other outlet, Goya painted 14, likely untitled, paintings directly onto the walls of the house.

The Quinta was purchased by Baron Émile d'Erlanger in 1873.^[11] Although the murals were uncommissioned and not intended by Goya for public exhibit, they were taken down from the walls and transferred to canvas. In 1881, d'Erlanger donated the works to the Museo del Prado, Madrid.^[11]

The work was based on commissions for the Duke and Duchess of Osuna of folkish depictions of witches which were by comparison almost cartoonish in their humour and charm. The earlier works showed a conventional crescent moon; in this painting it is replaced by a lightning effect.^[2]

The work derives its Spanish title^[12] from the Basque word for a male goat akerra. This was combined with the word larre or field, to give Aquelarre, or Domain of the He-Goat.^[13] When hung in Goya's Madrid villa, the work was placed in the lower room where it occupied a full wall between two windows, opposite to A Pilgrimage to San Isidro. On the wall to the right were Saturn Devouring His Son and Judith and Holofernes, while Leocadia, Two Old Men and Old Man and Old Woman hung to the left.^[14]

Witches' Sabbath shows the devil, in the form of a goat, holding court before a coven of witches. Hulked and silhouetted, he stands to the left with his back to the viewer, while before him crouch a circle of terrified^[2] mostly female witches who appear fearful and intimidated. The devil's absolute power has been compare to Goya's 1815 The Junta of the Philippines, where the King rules not through charisma or respect, but through fear.^[15] The women comprise a mixture of old and young, but share similar twisted facial expressions and are mostly scowling and unruly, yet for the most part obedient. Only one differs - she is shown sitting on a chair to the far right. She is apart from the main group though her face is hidden by a black veil. It has been speculated that this woman is about to be initiated into the coven.^[16]

As with the other works in the series, Goya began with a black background which he then painted over with lighter paint. In some of the darker areas of Witches Sabbath, he lets the black seep through, most obviously in the figure of the devil, who is rendered entirely in black. In his use of tone to create atmosphere, Goya is drawing on a tradition in Spanish art that stretches back to Velázquez (1599-1660) and Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652). Ribera was an admirer of Caravaggio (1571-1610) and adapted the Italian's pioneering use of tenebrism and chiaroscuro. Goya learned from these sources, and also held an interest in the work of Rembrandt (1606 -1669), some of whose prints he owned.^[17]

Witches' Sabbath was painted in a powerful rage against the royalists and clergy who had retaken control of Spain after the Peninsular War of 1807-1814. Advocates of the Enlightenment sought to redistribute land to the peasants, educate women, publish a vernacular Bible, replace superstition with reason and end the Inquisition. Witch hunting was one of the main preoccupations of the earlier Logroño Inquisition,^[18] and idealist liberals such as Goya were opposed by traditionalists who blocked all reform.

As court painter, Goya was a part of the established order, his since his death it has emerged that his firm conviction was in favor of reason. He kept such beliefs largely private; they were more commonly expressed in his art and his more sensitive works were not publish at the time for fear of reprisal or persecution. Witches' Sabbath is one such painting, and mocks and ridicules the superstition and fears of the ignorant who held more faith in ghouls, quack doctors and tyrants.^[6][18]

The work is similar in mood and tone to Goya's 1789 Witches' Sabbath, while he had earlier examined the motif in his Caprichos series.

After various changes of ownership, the Quinta del Sordo came into the possession of the Belgian Baron Emile d'Erlanger in 1874. After 70 years on the walls of the house, the murals were deteriorating badly and, in order to preserve them, the new owner of the house had them transferred to canvas under the direction of the curator of the Museo del Prado, Salvador Martinez Cubells. After exhibition at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1878, where they were met with little reaction, d'Erlanger donated them to the Spanish state.^[19]

The effects of time on the murals, coupled with the inevitable damage caused by the delicate operation of mounting the crumbling plaster on canvas, meant that most of the murals suffered extensive damage, and lost a lot of paint. At the Prado, they were restored by museum staff, including Martín Cubells, who repainted much of the Witches Sabbath. It is known he retouched a number of the witches' faces and the devil's horns, as well as chopping over 1.4 meters of sky to the right of the postulant witch. This had the effect of changing the relative position of the young woman, so that she is no longer in the center of the composition.^[11] It is probable that the area beyond restoration; art critics consider it unlikely that such a large area painted by an artist of Goya's stature would be lightly discarded.^[16]

Writing in 1964, Bernard Myers said;

"This is probably the most well-known of the black murals from the House of the Deaf. An awestruck congregation gapes at the silhouetted goat-devil. A white shrouded figure in the center of the picture appears to be issuing from a hole in the ground, a grave or tomb. At the extreme left of this extraordinary scene of resurrection by sorcery sits the demure figure of a young girl. She is veiled and heavily draped in black, her hands hidden in a muff. What is her significance? Is she put there to heighten the grotesqueness of the others, or is she part of the ceremony, a seemingly innocent victim like the adolescent figures that are supposed to have a strong affinity with poltergeists? Certainly she heightens the horror of the scene."^[20]

• Acton, Mary. Learning to Look at Paintings. Routledge, 1997. ISBN 0-4151-4890-1
• Boime, Albert. Art in an age of counterrevolution, 1815-1848. Chicago University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-2260-6337-2
• Connell, Evan S. Francisco Goya: A Life. New York: Counterpoint, 2004. ISBN 1-5824-3307-0
• Junquera, Juan José. The Black Paintings of Goya‎. London: Scala Publishers, 2008. ISBN 1-8575-9273-5
• Hagen, Rose-Marie & Hagen, Rainer. Francisco Goya, 1746-1828. Taschen, 2003. ISBN 3-8228-1823-2
• Hughes, Robert. Goya. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. ISBN 0-3945-8028-1
• Licht, Fred. Goya: The Origins of the Modern temper in Art. Universe Books, 1979. ISBN 0-87663-294-0

• Digital tour of the Quinta del Sordo