Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat) whose full-length portrait appears in the same series. As with the other "Black Paintings", Goya began with a black background which he painted over with lighter pigments, then with broad, heavy brushstrokes of grey, blue and brown. The darker areas were achieved by leaving the black under-paint exposed; this is most obvious in the figure of the Devil. Like the other works in the series, "Witches' Sabbath" is worked up through heavy, slashing brushstrokes. The plaster was underlaid with thick carbon black before the paint was applied in hues of white lead, Prussian blue, vermilion of mercury, and crystals of
Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat) and "Judith and Holofernes". "Leocadia", "Two Old Men" and "Two Old Men Eating Soup" were on the left wall. Art historian Lawrence Gowing observed that the lower floor was divided thematically, with a male side – "Saturn" and "A Pilgrimage to San Isidro" – and a female side – "Judith and Holofernes", "Witches' Sabbath" and "Leocadia". The house changed owners a number of times before March 1873, when it came into the possession of the Belgian Frédéric Émile d'Erlanger, who speculated that the area would appreciate in value over the coming years. The murals had deteriorated badly after many years