Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat) Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat) Witches' Sabbath or The Great He-Goat () are names given to an oil mural by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya, completed sometime between 1821 and 1823. It explores themes of violence, intimidation, aging and death. Satan hulks, in the form of a goat, in moonlit silhouette over a coven of ugly and terrified witches. Goya was then around 75 years old, living alone and suffering from acute mental and physical distress. It is one of the fourteen "Black Paintings" that Goya applied in oil on the plaster walls of his house, the Quinta del Sordo.
Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat) The paintings were completed in secret: he did not title any of the works or leave a record of his intentions in creating them. Absent of fact, "Witches' Sabbath" is generally seen by art historians as a satire on the credulity of the age, a condemnation of superstition and the witch trials of the Spanish Inquisition. As with the other works in the group, "Witches' Sabbath" reflects its painter's disillusionment and can be linked thematically to his earlier etching "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" as well as the "Disasters of War" print series, another bold political statement published only