Goya's Depiction of Witches

     After doing a Maymester study abroad in Spain during my sophomore year, I have grown to appreciate art and art history more than ever before. During school, art was always one of my favorite subjects because of the creative expression it allowed, but I never dove too deep into specific artists or pieces of artwork. During my study abroad, we visited the Prado museum and had a lovely tour guide who described the paintings to us. 

    One of the artists featured in the museum is Francisco Goya, regarded as one of the most important Spanish painters during the Romantic period. He is known for portraying contemporary historical upheavals, especially after the violence of the Spanish War of Independence. Still, however, Goya was appointed as the first court painter, according to NGA.gov, and painted many portraits of the royal family and government officials. After a relapse of his mysterious illness, Goya began to paint more dark art, one of which is a collection known as the Black Paintings. Seeing these paintings in person was powerful, they have an impactful presence seeing them all in a dark room together. It made me imagine how Goya had them painted all across his house, and it shows how he was spiraling into madness towards the end of his life.

Needless to say, I was excited to see some of Goya’s work in our textbook! I thought it would be interesting to analyze his depiction of witches, especially as he became more critical of Spanish society, specifically the Inquisition.

The Spell (El Conjuro)

During the night, a couple of old witches gather to perform their magic on an innocent man, seemingly dressed in a nightgown. They appear to take advantage of his vulnerability and harness the power of infants to cast a spell on him. Bats and owls surround them, possibly being familiars to the witches. There is also a figure coming down from the sky, which some have proposed is a depiction of the devil or the queen of the witches' coven. Some people feel that this painting was meant to be an attack on the superstitious beliefs in Spain surrounding witches and those who were fearful of the perceived “dark” side of society.

Witches’ Sabbath (The Great He-Goat)

This painting is a part of Goya’s “Black Paintings” collection. The cloaked goat at the forefront is meant to represent the devil. Much like the previous painting, it is not meant to be taken literally, as it is criticizing “the ugly and dark side of the human condition and the depravity of post-Napoleonic war society that surrounded him,” according to AtlasObscura.com.

As we can see, Goya chose to primarily depict female witches, and at times he does promote the stereotypes that surround them. A trope he is inspired by is the idea that female witches are promiscuous and renounce motherhood. But, instead of doing this to condemn women, he actually attempts to celebrate their full power. Interestingly, Witches’ Sabbath, The Spell, and Witches’ Flight were all created for the Duchess of Osuna. Unsurprisingly, she was an avid proponent of the rejection of the establishment and the Spanish’s view of womanhood. It is likely that she commissioned these paintings to celebrate how witches could serve as a symbol for powerful females reclaiming their place in a patriarchal society.