Witches' Flight are implicitly equated with superstition and ritualized sacrifice. The bystanders can then be understood either as appalled but unable to do anything or willfully ignorant and unwilling to intervene. The donkey, finally, is the traditional symbol of ignorance. Witches' Flight Witches' Flight (; also known as Witches in Flight or Witches in the Air), is an oil on canvas painting completed in 1798 by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya. It was part of a series of six paintings related to witchcraft acquired by the Duke and Duchess of Osuna in 1798. It has been described as "the most beautiful and
Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat) any of the fourteen "Black Paintings"; their modern names came about after his death. They are not inscribed, mentioned in his letters, and there are no records of him speaking of them. The works today are known by a variety of titles, most of which date to around the 1860s: his children were largely responsible for the names, with close friend contributing the rest. The title "El Gran Cabron" ("The Great He-Goat") was given by painter Antonio Brugada (1804–63). The Basque term for a Witches' Sabbath, "akelarre", is the source of the Spanish title "Aquelarre" and a derivation of "akerra",