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Witches' Flight
Francisco Goya·1797
Historical Context
Goya's Witches' Flight from 1797-98, in the Prado, depicts three witches carrying a naked man through the air while terrified figures below cover their heads with sheets. The painting was one of six cabinet paintings commissioned by the Duchess of Osuna for her country estate at La Alameda, treating themes of superstition and witchcraft with Enlightenment irony. These works mark the beginning of Goya's sustained engagement with the dark, irrational forces of human nature that would culminate in the Black Paintings.
Technical Analysis
The nocturnal scene employs a dark, atmospheric palette with the three levitating figures creating an eerie triangle of light against the black sky. Goya's handling of the terrified earthbound figures and the supernatural airborne group creates a disturbing contrast between the natural and the uncanny.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the triangular arrangement of the three levitating witches: this geometrically stable formation floats eerily above the terrified earthbound figures, creating a spatial opposition between natural and supernatural.
- ◆Look at the earthbound figures covering their heads with sheets: this instinctive gesture of concealment against the supernatural is rendered with the convincing physical reality of observed behavior.
- ◆Observe the nocturnal palette: dark atmospheric tones punctuated by the witches' eerie light create the visual language that Goya would develop further in the Black Paintings.
- ◆Find the contrast between the painting's small scale and its disturbing power: these Osuna cabinet paintings are physically modest but psychologically enormous.
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