Goya's Black Paintings: The Darkness of the World

Abstract

This thesis analyzes three of Goya's works from the, so-called, Black Painting series: Witches Sabbath, A Pilgrimage to San Isidro, and Pilgrimage to the Fountain of San Isidro. It attempts to explain why Goya included paranormal and religious elements in these works. He made these somewhat gloomy murals in a specific condition of solitude. Goya's life was impacted by the violent events that were occurring around him in Spain and that led him to his retreat into seclusion. In these paintings, Goya seems to pessimistically allude to a dark future generated by superstition, religion, the Inquisition, widespread beliefs about witches and witchcraft, and the horrors Napoleonic Wars.