Artwork Replica Witches` sabbath 1 by Francisco De Goya (1746-1828, Spain) | WahooArt.com

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"Witches' sabbath 1"

Francisco De Goya (i) - Oil (i) - Romanticism (i)

The supernatural was a major feature of Romanticism but in the context of Goya and the Spanish society, the depiction of witches and Satan was in protest and agitation against the Spanish Inquisition- a witch hunt that raged through Spain. The painting shows the devil as a goat-like creature, wearing a wreath of oak leaves, sitting on an elevated mound in a moon-lit landscape. Many women sit around him, their faces were disfigured, there were also many babies amidst them. One seemingly dead baby lies on the side, one woman holds up a malnourished child and a woman near her holds up towards the devil a healthy-looking baby. The superstition at the time was that the devil feasted on babies and foetuses. In the background, you also see three babies hung by the neck on a stake. A group of bats fly over them. In typical witchcraft imagery, there are inverted motifs, like the crescent moon that faces out of the canvas. In the twentieth century, it was purchased by the financier José Lázaro Galdiano and was eventually donated to the Spanish state.

 




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