In the 18th Century, Francisco de Goya (Spain, 1746 – France, 1828) described the many phobias and blunders of the human kind as a result of ignorance or the prejudices caused by the power of the Church and the authorities. His engravings are a criticism to the prudish Spanish society. The informality of those artworks, as the description on them, makes Goya a pioneer of Modernity. 

"El sueño de la razón produce monstruos", from the series Caprichos, shows a thinker who has fallen asleep (or in an emotional crisis) over his work desk. He is probably the "Reason" of the title and seems to be determined in some mental effort to solve a problem that has defeated him to exhaustion.  That's when the threatening animals of the night surround him and watch over from their world of darkness.

In another artwork, Goya addresses the subject of Witches, by representing their flights on brooms.  It was traditionally believed that witches used them to fly to the far away locations where their meetings were held (Sabbath). Goya depicts the moment in which an older witch teaches a younger one. Most of these works were interpreted as satiric approaches against the Church, its dogmas, its mysteries and, above all, its religious orders.

Goya shows those false believes and the superstitions of his time as a way to battle against the vices and nonsenses of human conduct due to ignorance. His series “Caprichos” are a way to protest against the power of the Church, the arrogance of the ruling classes and the injustice towards the ignorant.