Blow

The scene features a woman with an extremely thin, naked torso and her hair tied up in a high bun. She holds a child by the ankles and wrists with both hands, using him as if he were a bellows to stoke the fire of a brazier made of bones. All this is observed by a group of characters seated around the witch, who look at her with wide eyes and open mouths. At the feet of the witch holding this improvised bellows we see another witch sucking a boy's penis and, further back, one carrying two creatures in her arms; she is protected by a strange naked creature with loose hair who spreads her wings.

Goya uses a fine aquatint in a single tone and makes profuse use of etching to define all the figures in the scene. He works in the same way as he does in most of the early engravings in this series.

The explanation given for this print in the manuscript in the Prado Museum is as follows: "There was undoubtedly a great catch of youngsters the night before, and the banquet being prepared will be sumptuous. Enjoy your meal". The one in the National Library is somewhat more specific in its interpretation: "The men, in a rage, do a thousand devilish things with the children; they fornicate with each other by force, sucking their penises, and various other obscenities".

This image captures with particular crudeness the atrocities to which the children were subjected in the acts of witchcraft that are unambiguously recounted in the Self-belief celebrated in the city of Logroño on 6 and 7 November 1610. Goya took these accounts as a starting point for recreating them by appealing to his imagination, generating an image full of excesses and aberrant acts that arouse rejection in the viewer.