Prado manuscript: ‘Little by little she is making progress. Already she is taking her first steps. Eventually, she will know more than her teacher.’

‘Goya's title below his preparatory drawing for this print is quite explicit: ‘Trial for novice and fearful witches who try to prepare themselves for their work.’ The very ‘human’ appearance of these witches shows the thin line that Goya draws between humans and witches, between the evils of humanity and those of witchcraft. In their descriptions of this print, it is to be noted that the Prado and Ayala texts are identical word for word. This leaves us with the possibility that the writers of the two texts (Goya or one of his circle?) were either the same person or that they knew each other. This is particularly significant as we see that in one case after the other, the Prado text seems to contradict or at least hide or veil the more explicit and usually more self-evident Ayala texts. Over the Prado texts, there seems to constantly hover the threatening presence of the Inquisition.’

Johnson, R. S., Francisco Goya, Los Caprichos, R.S. Johnson Fine Art, Chicago, 1992, p. 146.