Witches' Sabbath (Goya, 1798) feature of Romanticism, and is to be found for example in Weber's opera "Der Freischütz". However, in a Spanish context, Goya's paintings have been seen as a protest against those who upheld and enforced the values of the Spanish Inquisition, which had been active in Witch hunting during the seventeenth-century Basque witch trials. The later "Witches Sabbath" was painted as a bitter struggle raged between liberals and those in favour of a church and a royalist-lead state, which culminated in the so-called Ominous Decade (1823-1833). Both paintings can be seen as an attack on the superstitious beliefs rife in Spain
Peter Toms (painter) Peter Toms (painter) Peter Toms RA (fl. 1748, died 1 January 1777) was an English painter, specialising in depicting drapery for the works of other artists. He was a foundation member of the Royal Academy. Toms was the son of an engraver, William Henry Toms, of Masham Street, Westminster. Apprenticed to the portraitist Thomas Hudson, he became a drapery-painter, and worked for Francis Cotes for several years. After Cotes' death, he was employed by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin West and John Zoffany amongst others. He also held the post of Port Culis Pursuivant. at the College of Heralds. According to