Bon Voyage

A demonic being with outspread wings carries on his back a group of witches howling in the night over a barely suggested landscape.

The darkness of this print is achieved through the use of a very dense ink. In addition, Goya made profuse use of the burnisher, which gives the image a misty, spectral appearance. At a second stage, aquatint was applied again to increase the darkness. The drypoint is only visible in the proofs where the aquatint begins to wear away.

The Ayala manuscript describes the print as follows: "The vices fly with their wings spread across the region of ignorance, supporting each other". In the Prado Museum print, the engraving is explained as an infernal caterpillar howling in the darkness of the night, taking advantage of the complicity of the darkness. In the manuscript of the Biblioteca Nacional, the engraving is commented on as follows: "Vices take flight through the region of ignorance. Men fall into the nefarious vice of sodomy".

The source of inspiration for this engraving is to be found in the declarations of the Trial of Faith held in the city of Logroño on 6 and 7 November 1610, where the witches' journeys through the air to attend the witches' covens are recounted.