A Witches' Sabbath
Cornelis Saftleven
1640–1660
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Dimensions
- 54.3 × 78.2 cm (21 3/8 × 30 3/4 in.); Framed: 77.1 × 101.6 × 10.2 cm (30 3/8 × 40 × 4 in.)
- Genre
- oil on panel
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
paintingpaintgoatssupernaturaldutchoil on panelpanel paintingoil paint (paint)painting (image making)mythical17th Centurypainting techniquesfigureswitchesoil paintingpanel (wood)european paintingfantastic beasts
About
A witch riding a goat and brandishing a broomstick charges out from the left edge of this scene to chase away dozens of devils. Such ghoulish subjects had long been appreciated in Northern Europe for the way they combined a sense of wild, supernatural threat with scientific observation of the natural world—seen here in the detailed moth wings of the howling figure on the right and the deft rendering of the frog’s splayed body. Cornelis Saftleven responded to Dutch buyers’ evolving taste by treating his fantastic subjects with fine brushstrokes and a limited color palette.
