With their dark tones and cynical themes, Goya’s Black Paintings epitomize the artist’s bitter resentments toward the Napoleonic Wars and Spanish governmental reformations. On top of constant political turmoil, Goya also contracted two epidemic diseases, the product of which resulted in his masterpieces, the 14 Black Paintings. With the intent of keeping the paintings hidden within his home, Goya invested all his negative feelings into the works through painting scenes filled with terror and horrific occurrences.

Goya’s overpowering brush strokes and imposing shadows add to the terror clearly displayed on the women’s faces in his painting Witches’ Sabbath. The distinct silhouette of a midnight-colored goat shrouded in a monk’s robe clearly dominates the scene, while offering an explanation for the fear-stricken postures of the surrounding females. Goya paints the goat as a representation of Satan, who acts as a supervisor to the witches’ meeting, while also equipping the demon with a scribe, adorned in white. Sitting to the right of the painting, a young witch fidgets in her chair in anticipation of the ceremony that follows the Devil’s presence.

Goya bases the events depicted in his painting off of the Basque witch hunts that occurred throughout 17th century. The trials, started by the same skepticism and fear caused by religious paranoia, represent the Spanish Inquisition’s most ambitious attempt at stomping out societal weaknesses. By setting his painting in a dark setting, Goya draws attention to the illuminated silhouette of the satanic goat while satirically mocking the historical relevance of a cave setting in the history of witchcraft.