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Masterpiece
| Artist | Francisco de Goya |
|---|---|
| Title | The witches' sabbath or the great he-goat |
| Year | Between 1819 and 1823 |
| Technique | Mural converted to canvas |
| Current location | Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain |
The witches' sabbath or the great he-goat
The room downstairs was dominated by two huge paintings (about 4.30 metres wide and 1.40 metres high): Pilgrimage to St. Isidore's hermitage and The witches' sabbath or the great he-goat.
The
witches' sabbathThe witches' sabbath or the great he-goat is also known as The great he-goat, Sabbath, or The witches gathering.
A gathering of witches with deformed faces, on the right a young woman probably about to be initiated in the witches' rites (or is she a victim?), on the left a goat in a monk's cloak personifying the devil. The atmosphere is gloomy, the participants (except maybe the young woman) are frightening.
Note the contrast between this painting and Goya's earlier rendering of the same subject, The witches' sabbath painted around 1798.
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