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) 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