Witches’ Sabbath The Witches’ Sabbath by Francisco Goya, 1797-98, via Wikimedia Commons Take a look at some of Goya’s pieces that feature witches.ġ. These details were obvious to Goya’s contemporaries, but they puzzle the present-day viewers.
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The works painted by Goya directly addressed these issues and featured many details illustrating practices of witchcraft and trial procedures of the time. The Osuna family were true skeptics, so the paintings were supposed to demonstrate the destructive forces of ignorance and fear. The Duchess of Osuna regularly held salons and meetings to discuss how beliefs in witches and demons could harm the uneducated classes and interfere with scientific and social progress. Although the family members were well-known patrons and philanthropists, they were also concerned with the lack of education and widespread superstitions of peasants and workers. In the late 1790s, the Spanish noble family of Pedro Tellez-Giron, the 9th Duke of Osuna, commissioned six paintings of witches from Goya. The Inquisition Tribunal by Francisco Goya, 1812-19, via Wikimedia Commons Goya was one of the privileged Spaniards concerned with widespread folkloric superstitions and horrified by the actions of the Inquisition and the hunting of witches happening in villages. According to the research done by Goya’s contemporaries fighting to abolish the Inquisition, from 1481 to 1808, almost 32 thousand people were burned alive on the accusations of heresy and witchcraft in Spain.Īs the philosophy of the Enlightenment impacted the wealthy elites of Europe, belief in witchcraft was reconsidered as a superstitious practice of uneducated poorer classes. They were begging for justice and reform. The liberal classes to which Goya belonged were horrified by ruthless methods, bloodcurdling torture, and corrupt trials.
Witchcraft in Spain The Bewitched Man (The Devil’s Lamp) by Francisco Goya, 1798, via Wikimedia Commonsīy the 1800s, the Inquisition was still a governmental institution in Spain, with its last execution happening in 1826, two years before Goya’s death. But how could such an enlightened person like Goya believe in witchcraft? Nonetheless, his paintings often showed unsettling dark figures of sorcerers, demons, and monsters. We do know that Goya was an avid believer in the philosophy of the Enlightenment, reason, and social reform.
There aren’t many credible accounts of his life, which leaves a lot of blank spots in his biography.
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Although his career started with cheerful and decorative Rococo paintings, and continued with royal portraits, during his late years Goya turned to grim scenes full of violence, dark magic, and mythological events. Unlike many of his fellow artists, Goya openly criticized the vices and issues of Spanish society, leaving it to others to paint an idealized picture. Goya was remarkable because of his unwillingness to turn a blind eye to reality. He is sometimes even considered the first modernist artist, preceding other candidates like Gustave Courbet or Edouard Manet. Who was Francisco Goya? Self-Portrait at an Easel by Francisco Goya, 1790-95, via Wikimedia Commonsįrancisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes, commonly known as Francisco Goya, was the most important painter of the Spanish Enlightenment.
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