{{Short description|Painting by Francisco Goya}} {{Infobox artwork | image_file=Francisco de Goya - Vuelo de brujas (1798).jpg | image_upright=1.0 | title=Witches' Flight | other_language_2=Spanish | other_title_2={{lang|es|Vuelo de Brujas}} | artist=[[Francisco Goya]] | year=1797–98 | medium=[[Oil painting|Oil on canvas]] | height_metric=43.5 | width_metric=30.5 | metric_unit=cm | height_imperial={{frac|17|1|8}} | width_imperial =12 | imperial_unit=in | museum=[[Museo del Prado]] | city=[[Madrid]] }}
'''''Witches' Flight''''' ({{langx|es|Vuelo de Brujas}}, also known as '''''Witches in Flight''''' or '''''Witches in the Air''''') is an oil-on-canvas painting completed in 1798 by the Spanish painter [[Francisco Goya]].
The work was part of a series of six paintings related to [[witchcraft]] acquired by the [[Pedro Téllez-Girón, 9th Duke of Osuna|Duke]] and [[María Josefa Pimentel, Duchess of Osuna|Duchess of Osuna]] in 1798.{{efn|The six paintings were ''Witches' Flight'', ''[[The Spell (painting)|The Spell]]'', ''[[Witches' Sabbath (Goya, 1798)|Witches' Sabbath]]'', ''[[The Witches' Kitchen]]'', ''[[The Devil's Lamp]]'', and ''[[The Stone Guest (painting)|The Stone Guest]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sotheby's to sell original receipt for Goya painting in Danny Boyle's art heist movie Trance |publisher=ArtDaily |date=24 May 2013 |url=http://artdaily.org/news/62787/Sotheby-s-to-sell-original-receipt-for-Goya-painting-in-Danny-Boyle-s-art-heist-movie-Trance |access-date=31 August 2013}}</ref>}} It has been described as "the most beautiful and powerful of Goya's Osuna witch paintings."<ref name="hughes2003"> {{cite book |last=Hughes |first=Robert |title=Goya |publisher=Harvill |year=2003 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9wihUsJGg8sC&q=%22witches+in+the+air%22+goya&pg=PT253 |isbn=978-1-84343-054-4}}</ref>
==Description== At center point are three semi-nude witches wearing either penitential ''[[Sanbenito|coroza]]'' or [[dunce cap]]s.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Witches' Flight |publisher=Museo del Prado |url=http://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/online-gallery/on-line-gallery/obra/the-witches-flight/ |access-date=30 August 2013 |archive-date=19 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219101607/http://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/online-gallery/on-line-gallery/obra/the-witches-flight/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>} bearing aloft a writhing nude figure, their mouths close to their victim, as if to [[Human cannibalism|devour him]] or [[Vampirism|suck his blood]].{{efn| The Spanish-language page for the painting alternatively suggests that they are blowing air on their victim, as indicated by their swollen cheeks.<ref name="Vuelo de brujas">{{cite web |title=Vuelo de brujas |url=http://www.museodelprado.es/goya-en-el-prado/obras/ficha/goya/vuelo-de-brujas/?tx_gbgonline_pi1%5Bgocollectionids%5D=47-48&tx_gbgonline_pi1%5Bgosort%5D=b}}</ref>}} Below, two figures in peasants' garb recoil from the spectacle: one has thrown himself to the ground covering his ears, the other attempts to escape by covering himself with a blanket, making the [[Fig sign|''fig'' hand gesture]] to [[Apotropaic magic|ward off]] the [[evil eye]]. Finally, a donkey emerges on the right, seemingly oblivious to the rest of the scene.
==Interpretation==
[[File:Francisco de Goya y Lucientes - Witches Sabbath - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Goya, ''[[Witches' Sabbath (Goya, 1798)|Witches' Sabbath]]'', 1798. [[Museo Lázaro Galdiano]], Madrid]] The general scholarly consensus is that the painting represents a rationalist critique of superstition and ignorance, particularly in religious matters: the witches' ''[[capirote|coroza]]s'' are not only emblematic of the violence of the [[Spanish Inquisition]] (the upward flames indicate that they have been condemned as unrepentant heretics and will be burned at the stake),<ref name="curbet2002"> {{cite book |first=Joan |last=Curbet |editor-first=Avril |editor-last=Hormer |title=European Gothic: A Spirited Exchange, 1760-1790 |publisher=Manchester University Press |date=November 9, 2002 |pages=168–169 |chapter='Hallelujah to your dying screams of torture': representations of ritual violence in English and Spanish Romanticism |isbn=978-0-7190-6064-9 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ofIS6ZAdsZAC&q=flames+vuelos&pg=PA168}}</ref>{{efn|The Spanish-language page for the painting instead identifies the markings as snakes.<ref name="Vuelo de brujas">{{cite web |title=Vuelo de brujas |url=http://www.museodelprado.es/goya-en-el-prado/obras/ficha/goya/vuelo-de-brujas/?tx_gbgonline_pi1%5Bgocollectionids%5D=47-48&tx_gbgonline_pi1%5Bgosort%5D=b}}</ref>}} but are also reminiscent of episcopal [[mitre]]s, bearing the characteristic double points. The accusations of religious tribunals are thus reflected back on themselves, whose actions are implicitly equated with superstition and ritualised sacrifice.<ref name="boime1993"> {{cite book|first=Albert |last=Boime |title=Art in an Age of Bonapartism: 1800-1815 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TN1GznRC3nMC&q=%22witches+in+flight%22&pg=PA258|year=1993 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-06335-5 |page = 258 }}</ref> The bystanders can then be understood either as appalled but unable to do anything or willfully ignorant and unwilling to intervene.<ref name="boime1993"/><ref name="curbet2002"/><ref name="hughes2003"/>
The donkey is a traditional symbol of ignorance.<ref>{{cite web |title=Vuelo de brujas |publisher=Museo del Prado |url=http://www.museodelprado.es/goya-en-el-prado/obras/ficha/goya/vuelo-de-brujas/?tx_gbgonline_pi1%5Bgocollectionids%5D=47-48&tx_gbgonline_pi1%5Bgosort%5D=b |access-date=30 August 2013}}</ref>
==Provenance== The painting was sold to the Duke and Duchess of Osuna on 27 June 1798, to decorate their villa [[Parque de El Capricho|La Alameda]], on the outskirts of Madrid. It was then sold in 1896 at the public auction of the Osuna estate to Ramón Ibarra, and again in 1985 to [[Jaime Ortiz-Patino|Jaime Ortiz Patiño]]. Finally, it was acquired by the [[Museo del Prado|Prado]] in 1999, where it remains to this day.<ref name="pradoes"> {{cite web |title=Vuelo de brujas |publisher=Museo del Prado |url=http://www.museodelprado.es/goya-en-el-prado/obras/ficha/goya/vuelo-de-brujas/?tx_gbgonline_pi1%5Bgocollectionids%5D=47-48&tx_gbgonline_pi1%5Bgosort%5D=b |access-date=30 August 2013}} <br />{{cite web |title=Sotheby's to sell original receipt |url=http://artdaily.org/news/62787/Sotheby-s-to-sell-original-receipt-for-Goya-painting-in-Danny-Boyle-s-art-heist-movie-Trance}}</ref>
==See also== * [[List of works by Francisco Goya]] * ''[[Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat)]]'', Goya, c. 1820–1823
==Footnotes== {{Notelist}}
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== * {{cite book |first=Albert |last=Boime |title=Art in an Age of Bonapartism: 1800-1815 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TN1GznRC3nMC&q=%22witches+in+flight%22&pg=PA258 |year=1993 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-06335-5 |page = 258}} * {{cite book |first=Joan |last=Curbet |editor-first=Avril |editor-last=Hormer |title=European Gothic: A Spirited Exchange, 1760-1790 |publisher=Manchester University Press |date=November 9, 2002 |pages=167–170 |chapter='Hallelujah to your dying screams of torture': representations of ritual violence in English and Spanish Romanticism |isbn=978-0-7190-6064-9 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ofIS6ZAdsZAC&q=flames+vuelos&pg=PA168}} * {{cite book |first1=Rose-Marie |last1=Hagen |first2=Rainer|last2=Hagen |title=Francisco Goya, 1746-1828 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S-Fu4fGHnlAC&q=%22witches+in+the+air+%28ill.%29%22&pg=PA36 |year=2003 |publisher=Taschen |isbn=978-3-8228-1823-7 |page = 36}} * {{cite book|first=Robert |last=Hughes |title=Goya |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9wihUsJGg8sC&q=%22witches+in+the+air%22+goya&pg=PT253 |year=2003 |publisher=Harvill |isbn=978-1-84343-054-4}} * {{cite book |first=Elizabeth |last=Nash |title=Madrid: A Cultural and Literary Companion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y91AY-zuME0C&q=%22Witches%27+Flight%22&pg=PA113 |year=2001 |publisher=Interlink Books |isbn=978-1-56656-368-0|page=113 }} * {{cite web |title=Sotheby's to sell original receipt for Goya painting in Danny Boyle's art heist movie Trance |publisher=ArtDaily |url=http://artdaily.org/news/62787/Sotheby-s-to-sell-original-receipt-for-Goya-painting-in-Danny-Boyle-s-art-heist-movie-Trance |date=24 May 2013 |access-date=31 August 2013}} * {{cite web |title=The Witches' Flight |url=http://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/online-gallery/on-line-gallery/obra/the-witches-flight/ |publisher=Museo del Prado |access-date=30 August 2013 |archive-date=19 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219101607/http://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/online-gallery/on-line-gallery/obra/the-witches-flight/ |url-status=dead }} * {{cite web|url=http://www.museodelprado.es/goya-en-el-prado/obras/ficha/goya/vuelo-de-brujas/?tx_gbgonline_pi1%5Bgocollectionids%5D=47-48&tx_gbgonline_pi1%5Bgosort%5D=b |title=Vuelo de Brujas |publisher=Museo del Prado |access-date=30 August 2013}}
==External links== *{{commons-inline}}
{{Francisco Goya}} {{Museo del Prado}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Witches' Flight}} [[Category:Witches in art]] [[Category:Paintings by Francisco Goya in the Museo del Prado]] [[Category:Paintings of donkeys]] [[Category:Nude paintings of women]] [[Category:Oil paintings on canvas]] [[Category:1798 paintings]]