Escena de Inquisición (The Inquisition Tribunal)

Francisco Goya

Oil on panel

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando

This haunting oil-on-panel masterpiece by Francisco Goya depicts an auto-da-fé — a public act of penance carried out by the Spanish Inquisition — staged inside a darkened church, where accused heretics wearing tall conical hats known as corozas are subjected to judgment before a crowd of monks and onlookers. Goya's loose, expressive brushstrokes and somber palette of browns, grays, and blacks create a suffocating atmosphere that transforms a historical scene into a timeless indictment of institutional cruelty and the abuse of power. Born in 1746 in Zaragoza, Spain, Goya rose to become the royal court painter, but after a severe illness left him permanently deaf in 1792, his art darkened profoundly — shifting from Rococo lightness to raw, emotionally charged social critique. Part of a celebrated series alongside The Madhouse and A Procession of Flagellants, this small yet monumental work now resides in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, and commands the wall of any home as a conversation-starting testament to artistic courage and moral witness.