The Witch (Night Piece)
Medium
engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 24 × 31.5 cm · platemark: 21.6 × 29 cm
Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Williams Collection
Accession Number
1943.635
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
male
About this artwork
This nocturnal scene depicts a bare-breasted sorceress concocting her evil brew in the company of bizarre beasts. She stands within a "magic circle" scratched into the ground, the supernaturally consecrated space for witchcraft—a likely inspiration for the circular forms of Salvator Rosa's paintings. She overturns a horn into her cauldron engulfed in billowing flames; mixing with the powder are two streams of ash that spew forth from pipes held in the anus of a somersaulting demon at left. The s...