Artwork Page for The Witch (Night Piece)

Details / Information for The Witch (Night Piece)

The Witch (Night Piece)

1626
(Dutch, c. 1593–1641)
Medium
engraving
Measurements
Platemark: 21.6 x 29 cm (8 1/2 x 11 7/16 in.); Sheet: 24 x 31.5 cm (9 7/16 x 12 3/8 in.)
Catalogue raisonné
Hollstein XXXIII.53.152
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view

Description

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 swirling, decorative composition and the variety of grotesque creatures making knowing and silly faces at the viewer add elements of whimsy and farce to the ostensibly serious occult subject.
A horizontally oriented print in black ink depicts a woman with a light skin tone. She wears a rippling dress uncovering her breasts, facing monsters gathering within the left-streaking flames of her cauldron. Her hair blows leftward, over her head, as she pours a powder from a horn into the cauldron. On the left, monsters grin, drink, play cards, and smoke a pipe. Powder arcs into the cauldron from two pipes sticking from a somersaulting monster's anus.

The Witch (Night Piece)

1626

Jan van de Velde II

(Dutch, c. 1593–1641)
Netherlands

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