Witches in Art, After the Trials
After the horrors of the European witch trials, witches took on new roles in art, and the possibilities were infinite.
A circle of witches gather with the Devil beneath a waxing moon.
Upon first glance, Francisco Goya’s Witches’ Sabbath (1798) may not appear too different from depictions of witches during the height of the trials. The women in this coven are elderly and haggard in appearance. One is holding a skeletal, malnourished child as an offering to the horned devil, and hanging from a spear are what appear to be spit-roasted infants. Gathered in one painting are a number of “witchy” stereotypes that convey suspicion and bigotry toward post-menopausal women: symbols of infertility, quite literally eating babies.
But the date of this painting should be your first clue that not all is what it seems.
Goya painted his Witches’ Sabbath at the very end of the 18th century. By now, witch trials in Europe were largely a thing of the past, and Goya wanted to keep it that way. This painting, as well as his later Sabbath painting, The Great He-G…
