Why did Francisco de Goya paint a demonic goat on his own dining room wall?
In short: Between 1820 and 1823, a deaf, disillusioned Goya covered his farmhouse walls with fourteen haunting murals. Among them, Witches' Sabbath depicts a towering, goat-headed Satan preaching to a coven of terrified women. It was a secret, bitter protest against the political and religious regression that defined his final years in Spain.
Completed in the solitude of his home, the Quinta del Sordo, Witches' Sabbath is one of Goya's 'Black Paintings.' Unlike his earlier, more formal works, these murals were never intended for public view. Goya, then around 75 and suffering from physical and mental distress, applied oil directly to the plaster walls. The result was a series of dark, atmospheric visions that art historians interpret as a scathing satire on the superstition and reactionary politics of the restored Bourbon monarchy.
The central figure, a hulking Satan in clerical clothing, dominates the coven through fear and domination, a dynamic Goya compared to the absolute authority of the state. The painting reflects the artist's disillusionment after the Spanish Constitution of 1812 was rejected. For Goya, the resurgence of witch-hunting and the influence of the Catholic hierarchy represented a dangerous retreat into Medievalism. By inverting traditional iconography—such as the goat extending his left hoof—Goya mocked the irrationality of those who viewed scientific and social progress as subversive.
The work’s history is as troubled as its subject. In the 1870s, the murals were transferred from crumbling plaster to canvas, a process that saw about 140 cm of the painting cut from the right side. This loss shifted the composition's balance, removing a figure who may have been a postulant initiate. Today, the painting is in poor condition, with critics like Arthur Lubow suggesting the version in the Prado is a crude facsimile of Goya's original vision. Despite this, the painting remains a testament to an artist who, in his final years, used his private space to rail against the tyrants and quacks of his age.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat)
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