![]() She is both physically repellent through her masculine body but also strongly sexualised. Similarly, her hair flows in the opposite direction than it should, highlighting that she is outside nature. Her position riding backwards shows the inverse and unnatural role of witches in the world. For example, Dürer’s witch is depicted as a strong, muscled figure who looks wholly in charge while riding the goat. In Second Sight, we are lucky enough to have three early visual depictions of witchcraft: Albrecht Dürer’s Witch Riding Backwards on a Goat (1501–1502) Hans Baldung Grien’s The Bewitched Groom (1544) and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione’s Circe with Companions of Ulysses Turned into Animals (1650–1651).Īll of these works feature aspects of the now stereotypical witch. But one of the main ways in which ideas of witchcraft circulated was through visual culture. Key texts were influential in establishing this concept, such as Heinrich Kramer’s notorious Malleus Maleficarum ( The Hammer of Witches) of 1486 and a number of lesser known texts from the 1430s. Of course, most of these accusations were only true in the minds of accusers, but that didn’t stop the vast majority of men and women from believing in witchcraft.īut where did these ideas come from? Although witches were believed to exist in medieval Europe, it wasn’t until the fifteenth century that the idea of witchcraft as a diabolical crime rose to prominence. They were accused of killing children, making men impotent, ruining crops, causing storms and shipwrecks, attending the sabbath, and working together to cause evil and discord. Witches were most often believed to be women, frequently elderly, poor, widowed or childless. In the eyes of the law, and in much of society, witches were people who had made a pact with the Devil and who had then used their newfound demonic powers to harm their neighbours. Another 45 000 were tried but not convicted. During the early modern period (1450–1750), 45 000 women and men were executed in Western Europe under legislation specifically against witchcraft. But only 300 years ago, witchcraft was a crime punishable by death. For most people today, witches are the stuff of Halloween or Disney.
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