Who would have believed it!

Two naked witches engage in a fierce fight as they fall. Below them, a feline-looking monster awaits them, raising its sharp claws wide open. The scene takes place at night, in a mountainous space.

In the Ayala manuscript the following is written about this engraving: "Two old men given to lechery are devoured by monsters". In the manuscript of the Prado Museum, the print is commented on as follows: "See here a cruel quarrel over which is the witchier of the two: who would think that the petite and the frizzy would repel each other like this: friendship is the daughter of virtue; the wicked may be accomplices, but not friends".

According to Edith Helman, the source of inspiration for this engraving could be the first canto of Paradise Lost (1667) by John Milton (London, 1608-1674), translated by José Cadalso (Cádiz, 1741-Gibraltar, 1728) and by Gaspar Melchor Jovellanos (Gijón, 1744-Navia, 1811). It tells how the rebellious spirits, plunged from the region of heaven, fall into the immense abyss.

It is likely that Goya may have become acquainted with this type of text during his stay in the Cadiz house of Sebastián Martínez y Pérez (1747-1800), a collector of engravings and paintings and the owner of an important library. At that time Cadiz had flourishing commercial relations with England, which would also have implied cultural exchanges. It is also possible that the Aragonese painter consulted this work in the library of the Duke and Duchess of Osuna, for whom he executed a series of paintings depicting scenes of witchcraft.