Witches' Sabbath
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"According to Jules Michelet in Satanism and Witchcraft (1862), medieval witchcraft was an act of popular rebellion against the oppression of feudalism and the Roman Catholic Church. This rebellion took the form of a secret religion inspired by paganism and fairy beliefs, organized by a woman who became its leader. The participants in the secret religion met regularly at the Witches' Sabbath and the Black Mass. Michelet's account is openly sympathetic to the sufferings of peasants and women in the Middle Ages."--Sholem Stein |
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The Witches' Sabbath or Sabbat is a supposed meeting of those who practice witchcraft, Satanism, or other rites.
European records tell of innumerable cases of persons being accused or tried for taking part in Sabbat gatherings, from the Middle Ages to the 17th century or later. However, there are no reliable reports on what actually happened during a Sabbat; and much of what was written about them may be the product of popular imagination or deliberate misinformation.
Depictions of witches' sabbaths in various art forms
As referenced earlier, Hawthorne seems to have been describing a witches' sabbath and the surrounding activity in his short story, "Young Goodman Brown." Musically, the supposed ritual has been used as inspiration for such works as Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky and the fifth movement of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.
Depictions in painting include the following:
- Witches' Sabbath by Francisco Goya (1798) Museum of Lázaro Galdiano
- Witches' Sabbath or The Great He-Goat by Francisco Goya (1823) Museo del Prado
- Witches' Flight by Francisco Goya (1798) Museo del Prado
- Muse of the Night (Witches' Sabbath) by Luis Ricardo Falero (1880)
- Witches' Sabbath in Roman Ruins by Jacob van Swanenburgh (1608)
- The Vision of Faust by Luis Ricardo Falero (1878)
- Witches' Sabbath by Frans Francken (1606)
See also
