Il volo delle streghe

Goya painted this small night scene around 1797, one of six pictures on witchcraft bought by the Duke and Duchess of Osuna, friends of his who shared the enlightened, reform-minded outlook of Spain in those years. Three witches in the tall pointed caps of the Inquisition's condemned lift a half-naked man into the dark air, their mouths at his body. Below, one figure covers his ears and another hides beneath a cloth, warding off the sight. For all the horror, this is not a picture that believes in witches. The educated set Goya moved in read such superstition as the fruit of ignorance, and the pointed caps aim the mockery squarely at the men who hunted witches. He kept working these themes long after, alone, on the walls of his own house.