{"id":14464,"date":"2013-10-30T02:26:56","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T02:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=14464"},"modified":"2013-10-30T02:26:56","modified_gmt":"2013-10-30T02:26:56","slug":"witches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2013\/10\/30\/witches\/","title":{"rendered":"Witches"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"witches02.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Scene of Witchcraft (1510) by Hans Baldung Grien.<\/em><\/p>\n

Earlier this year Pam Grossman<\/a> declared 2013 to be the Year of the Witch, so in honour of that (and the season) here’s a handful of sorceresses through the ages. Most can be found in higher quality at the Google Art Project<\/a> but a couple are from other sources. I’ve taken the liberty of attributing the drawing below to Hans Baldung Grien, not Albrecht D\u00fcrer as Google has it. Not only is this the attribution I’ve always seen for this picture but Baldung’s “HBG” monogram is clearly visible beneath the sprawling woman.<\/p>\n

\"witches01.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

New Year’s Greeting with Three Witches (1514) by Hans Baldung Grien.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"witches03.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Witches’ Sabbath (c.1640\u20131649) by Salvator Rosa.<\/em><\/p>\n

Salvator Rosa specialised in lurid depictions of bandits, executions and\u2014as here\u2014witches. The excessive imagery appealed to later generations, especially the Romantics. This painting is even more grotesque than usual with its flayed-bird abominations (below) looming out of the shadows.<\/p>\n

\"witches04.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"witches05.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Witches Sabbath (1797\u201398) by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"witches06.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Witches in the Air (1797\u201398) by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"witches07.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Macbeth (1820) by John Martin.<\/em><\/p>\n

Not one of John Martin’s best, it’s supposed to be Macbeth and Banquo encountering the Weird Sisters. As usual with Martin, the figures are perfunctory, he seems more interested in the flying clouds and the beetling crags which are more suited to the Lower Alps than the Scottish Highlands.<\/p>\n

\"witches08.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Forest Witches (1938) by Paul Klee.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"witches09.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Witch Louise Huebner (1969), photo for LIFE by Michael Rougier.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scene of Witchcraft (1510) by Hans Baldung Grien. Earlier this year Pam Grossman declared 2013 to be the Year of the Witch, so in honour of that (and the season) here’s a handful of sorceresses through the ages. Most can be found in higher quality at the Google Art Project but a couple are from … Continue reading “Witches”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,16,44,12],"tags":[68,5335,4854,471,3749,2342,4662,3731,5336,3552,5028,1770],"class_list":["post-14464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-occult","category-painting","category-photography","tag-albrecht-durer","tag-francisco-de-goya-y-lucientes","tag-google-art-project","tag-goya","tag-hans-baldung-grien","tag-john-martin","tag-louise-huebner","tag-macbeth","tag-michael-rougier","tag-pam-grossman","tag-paul-klee","tag-salvator-rosa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sq7rV-witches","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}