Concertina and Witchcraft!

[robert stewart]

Perhaps this has been commented upon before (?) but in one of the famous Goya paintings of witches and their goat god, a witch is playing a concertina.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witches'_Sabbath_(Goya,_1798)#/media/File:Francisco_de_Goya_y_Lucientes_-_Witches'_Sabbath_(The_Great_He-Goat).jpg 

Look for the figure on the far right, with what looks like a typical Continental style concertina with the two-part bellows.

 

Is 1798 early for a concertina of any kind ?

 

So maybe the Salvation Army knew something about the concertina that needed redemption.

 

Robert

[Peter Laban]

42 minutes ago, robert stewart said:

Is 1798 early for a concertina of any kind ?

 

It is. Too early.

 

You may look at some of the work by Ana Maria Pacheco for similar subject matter. And spot the odd concertina.

 

[JimR]

Your Wikipedia link lists that painting as between 1821 and 1823, which is close, I believe.

[DickT]

Looks more like a hand muff to me.

 

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

Cackle cackle cackle.. here!

Frogs legs, toads knee caps, and mandrake I do mix here me dear, and thereof give to thee a muse to jest .....😁😁🤔🤔🤔🤔

[Paul Draper]

The Witches Sabbath picture seems to be dated 1821-1823.

 

[DaveRo]

I googled 'goya' and 'concertina' and found this:

Is it true that "concertina players appear in several other paintings by this artist"? He was court painter to the King of Spain, but he also he did a lot of paintings that he hid from the spanish court.

[David Barnert]

Francisco Goya died in 1828. The concertina was invented in 1829.

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

There's many similar looking instruments with bellows think of the portative organ of medieval period. ( Also featured in paintings of the time).And if you create discordant notes on concertinas.. ( deliberately or otherwise!)..then it is very jarring on the soul ( for certain)!!

[gcoover]

2 hours ago, David Barnert said:

Francisco Goya died in 1828. The concertina was invented in 1829.

 

And that's where the witchcraft comes in...

[Robin Madge]

And the one on the extreme left is looking at her smartphone.

 

Robin

[felix castro]

I think that it is a hand muff, but at first sight it seems a concertina. Perhaps a concertina hand muff?

Félix 

[fred v]

On 9/21/2023 at 12:17 PM, felix castro said:

I think that it is a hand muff, but at first sight it seems a concertina. Perhaps a concertina hand muff?

Félix 

Hands are on the outside!!

[David Barnert]

6 hours ago, fred v said:

Hands are on the outside!!

 

I think you’re referring to the Pacheco, which is 20th century and probably IS a concertina:

 

 

But in the Goya (which was painted before the concertina was invented) you can’t see detail on the hands (perhaps only the wrists) and they could easily be inside the muff:

 

 

 

 

[Jim2010]

On 8/21/2023 at 2:52 PM, robert stewart said:

Is 1798 early for a concertina of any kind ?

 

This paper seems to give hope to those who would like Goya's painting to depict some kind of early concertina=type instrument (possibly made by one of Edward Jay's ancestors, of conjured up by one of Ricky Jay's).

 

https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jasa/article/138/3_Supplement/1912/639760/Early-history-of-the-European-free-reed

[David Barnert]

2 hours ago, Jim2010 said:

This paper seems to give hope to those who would like Goya's painting to depict some kind of early concertina=type instrument (possibly made by one of Edward Jay's ancestors, of conjured up by one of Ricky Jay's).

 

https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jasa/article/138/3_Supplement/1912/639760/Early-history-of-the-European-free-reed

 

Free reeds are one thing, but if I’m not mistaken, nobody had affixed a bellows to a free reed instrument until 1829 or so. The older Asian instruments referenced in the paper (or abstract, anyway) were (are) mouth-blown. And if the object in the Goya is a free reed instrument, it appears to have a bellows.