Witches’ Sabbath is one of the 14 Black Paintings by Francisco Goya. It explores themes of violence, intimidation, aging and death. Goya was then around 75 years old, living alone and suffering from acute mental and physical distress.
About Witches’ Sabbath (The Great He-Goat) in brief
Witches’ Sabbath is one of the 14 Black Paintings by Francisco Goya. It explores themes of violence, intimidation, aging and death. Satan hulks, in the form of a goat, in moonlit silhouette over a coven of terrified witches. Goya was then around 75 years old, living alone and suffering from acute mental and physical distress. The paintings were completed in secret: he did not title any of the works or leave a record of his intentions in creating them. Around 1874, some fifty years after his death, the plaster murals were taken down and transferred to canvas supports. Witches’ Sabbath was much wider before transfer – it was the broadest of the Black PaintINGS. During the transfer about 140 cm of the painting was cut from the right-hand side. Some critics find the framing is unusually tightly cropped, which some critics find adds to its haunted, spectral aura, although others believe it distorts Goya’s intentions by moving the centre of balance and reducing the painting’s impact. The title El Gran Cabrón was given by painter Antonio Brugada. The Basque term for a Witches’ Sabbath, akelarre, is the source of the Spanish title Aquelarre and a derivation of akerra, the Basque word for a male goat, which may have been combined with the word larre to arrive at akelara. The works today are known by a variety of titles, most of which date to around the 1860s.
It is thought that he had hoped for political and religious reform, but like many liberals became disillusioned when the restored Bourbon monarchy and Catholic hierarchy rejected the Spanish Constitution of 1812. He deliberately suppressed a number of his works from this period – most notably the Disasters of War series, which are today considered amongst his finest. He was tormented by a dread of old age and fear of madness, the latter possibly from anxiety caused by an undiagnosed illness that left him deaf from the early 1790s. The house had become known as ‘La Quinta del Sordo’ after the nearest farmhouse had coincidentally also belonged to a deaf man. The Belgian Frédéric d’Erlanger, who speculated that the value of the area would appreciate over the coming years, said the painting would be of great value in coming years. The painting came into the possession of the Belgian art dealer Édric délanger in 1873. On the right were the wall to the left, opposite A Pilgrimage to San Isidro and Devouring His Son, and on the left were Two Old Men and Two Old Women Eating Soup. On. the left was a male side– Saturn and a female side – Judith and Holofernes, Witches‘ Sabbath and Leocadia.
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