Why it matters
Satan, as a great horned goat crowned with vine leaves, sits among a coven of young and old witches in a moonlit landscape, who hold out infants to him as if at an initiation ceremony. Goya's painting reflects popular superstition that the Devil fed on children.
Did you know?
- It was painted in 1798.
- The Duke and Duchess of Osuna bought it with five other witchcraft paintings.
- The financier José Lázaro Galdiano later bought it and left it to the Spanish state.
Based on the Wikipedia article Witches' Sabbath (Goya, 1798) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
