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) 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",