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Scenes of Witchcraft: Morning

c. 1645–1649

Part of a set. See all set records

Salvator Rosa

(Italian, 1615–1673)

Italy, 17th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 76.2 x 9.6 cm (30 x 3 3/4 in.); Unframed: 54.5 cm (21 7/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1977.37.1

Location

217 Italian Baroque

Did you know?

The artist chose the painting's shape to reference the foundational role of the circle in practicing magic.

Description

Rosa's first scene depicts a young witch who plunges her knife into a writhing amphibian at dawn. The dark clouds of daybreak and anthropomorphic crags provide a gloomy atmosphere, while malevolent birds with piercing beaks hover around the central stabbing, focusing the viewer's attention on the witch's vicious act. The only beautiful enchantress Rosa ever painted, her elegance and ability to transform men into animals evokes the goddess Circe. But Rosa wasn't interested in classical imagery; he inverted expectations by transforming Circe into an explicitly violent sorceress. Her calm expression makes the terrifying gesture of upraised human hands among the birds even more disturbing.

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Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed: "SR [monogram]"

Provenance

Niccolini Family (Florence, Italy) by 1657

Private collection (Florence, Italy)

Heim Gallery (London, England), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1977.

Citations

Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 3. European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Reproduced: cat. 176A, p. 398 - 403

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 138 archive.org

Salerno, Luigi, and Ira Kohn. "Four Witchcraft Scenes by Salvator Rosa." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 65, no. 7 (September 1978): 225-31.
Published as: Witches' Scene Mentioned: P. 224-231: Reproduced: P. 224, 228 www.jstor.org

Cleveland Museum of Art. Images of the Mind. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1987. Reproduced: [p. 12 - 13]

Exhibition history

CMA, January 1978: Year in Review, cat. no. 42. Omaha, NE: Joslyn Art Museum 9/13 - 11/2/97. Little Rock, AR: Arkansas Art Center 11/20/97 - 2/6/98. Sarasota, FL: John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2/27 - 4/26/98. "Hot Dry Men, Cold Wet Women: The Theory of Humor and Depictions of Men and Women in Western European Art of the 1600s."pp. 180-181, no. 62.

Kimbell Art Museum (12/12/2010 - 3/27/2011): "Salvator Rosa (1615-1673): Bandits, Wilderness, and Magic", ex. cat. no. 21a, p. 170-173.

The Cleveland Museum of Art (2/15/2015 - 6/14/2015); "The Novel and the Bizarre: Salvator Rosa's Scenes of Witchcraft"

Hot Dry Men, Cold Wet Women: The Theory of Humor and Depictions of Men and Women in Western European Art of the 1600s. Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE (September 13-November 2, 1997); Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Little Rock, AR (November 20, 1997-February 6, 1998); John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL (February 27-April 24, 1998).

Salvator Rosa (1615-1673): Bandits, Wilderness, and Magic. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (organizer) (December 12, 2010-March 27, 2011).

The Novel and the Bizarre: Salvator Rosa's Scenes of Witchcraft. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 15-June 14, 2015).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Scenes of Witchcraft: Morning|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1977.37.1|author=Salvator Rosa|year=c. 1645–1649|access-date=03 October 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Scenes of Witchcraft: Morning

Scenes of Witchcraft: Morning

Salvator Rosa

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