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
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