Salvator Rosa - Witches At Their Incantations [c.1646]

Salvator Rosa - Witches At Their Incantations [c.1646], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Scenes of the occult were rare, though not unknown, in 17th century Italy. During his years in Florence (1640-49) Rosa produced a number of scenes of witchcraft, of which this (signed) painting is the most ambitious surviving example. It may be the painting referred to in a letter by Rosa of 1666 as having been painted twenty years earlier and one of his finest, and it is probably contemporary with one of Rosa's poems entitled The Witch. Spells are cast in the centre, below a man hanged from a withered tree. The brightly illuminated foreground is contrasted with the nocturnal landscape behind.

Rosa (1615 – 1673) was one of the least conventional artists of 17th century Italy, and was adopted as a hero by painters of the Romantic movement in the later 18th and early 19th centuries. He was mainly a painter of landscapes, but the range of his subject matter was unusually wide and included portraits and allegories. He also depicted scenes of witchcraft, influenced by Northern prints.

[Oil on canvas, 72 x 132 cm]