Salvator Rosa, 'Witches at their Incantations', about 1646

Witches at their Incantations

Salvator Rosa

Room 32

About the work

Overview

Beneath a pitch-dark sky, bizarre and terrifying magical spells are being cast. Monstrous figures, some of them naked, are arranged as if on a stage set, illuminated by scattered pools of light.

In the centre, one witch smokes the corpse of a criminal that hangs from a withered tree while her companion cuts its toenails. In front of them, naked witches use a wax effigy to cast a love spell; another, surrounded by a catalogue of magical aids, stirs a cauldron. On the extreme left, two men exhume a corpse and force it to sign a document while away to the right, a swaddled infant is held above the gaping jaws of a monster.

This macabre scene evokes a witches' sabbath, a gathering where the devil was worshipped. Salvator Rosa developed an interest in the supernatural while working in Florence in the 1640s and probably painted this remarkable picture around 1646.

In-depth

Beneath a pitch-dark sky, bizarre and terrifying magic spells are being cast. Monstrous figures, some of them naked, are arranged as if on a stage set, illuminated by scattered pools of light. This macabre scene evokes a witches‘ sabbath, a gathering where the devil was worshipped.

At the centre of this ghastly image, a witch smokes the corpse of a criminal that hangs from a withered tree, while a hooded figure cuts its toenails. Seated in front of them on a block of stone, another witch holds a mirror and toys with a small wax effigy. A catalogue of magical aids surrounds the naked figure slumped on ground who squeezes blood out of a rag, or possibly a human organ, and into a cauldron. Nearby, a man in armour bends over a white hare burning inside a magic circle. He is accompanied by two other men: one holds up a broom, the other has a sword upon which a human heart is impaled.

On the left, two ghoulish figures exhume a skeleton and force it to sign a document: this was a form of necromancy, the practice of communicating with the dead. A veiled figure wearing a garland performs a mysterious ceremony behind them. On the right, demonic creatures emerge from the shadows. A giant amphibian-like beast with gaping jaws and bones for arms is ridden by a woman in a yellow turban, while a skeletal bird with a sharp beak looms over the swaddled infant held aloft by a screaming witch. She is seemingly about to sacrifice the child to the monster below.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it was still common for people to be accused of and executed for supposed acts of witchcraft and sorcery. Salvator Rosa settled in Florence in 1640, where he developed an avid interest in the supernatural and became part of a group of intellectuals, actors, scientists and artists who shared his fascination with the occult. There are clear parallels between this picture and Rosa’s own satirical poem, La Strega (’The Witch'), which tells of a spurned lover seeking revenge through sorcery. Rosa was a close friend of the Florentine painter poet Lorenzo Lippi, who encouraged his love of the macabre. Both were inspired by the prints of Northern artists such as Hans Baldung and Albrecht Dürer, who also explored themes of witchcraft.

Rosa probably painted this remarkable picture for the Florentine banker and collector Carlo Rossi in around 1646. Such pictures would have appealed to learned collectors who appreciated the bizarre and outlandish, filling their cabinets with natural and artistic curiosities. According to a letter written by Rosa, the painting hung behind a curtain at the end of a long gallery so that it could be dramatically revealed to unsuspecting visitors.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Witches at their Incantations
Artist: Salvator Rosa
Artist dates: 1615 - 1673
Date made: about 1646
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 72 × 132 cm
Inscription summary: Signed
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1984
Inventory number: NG6491
Location: Room 32
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 18th-century Roman Frame

Provenance

Purchased, 1984.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Michael Levey, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2010

Salvator Rosa (1615 - 1673): Bandits, Wilderness and Magic

Dulwich Picture Gallery

15 September 2010 - 28 November 2010

Kimbell Art Museum

12 December 2010 - 27 March 2011
2013

Witches and Wicked Bodies

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

26 July 2013 - 3 November 2013
2014

Bassifondi del Barocco. Roma dei vizi, della miseria e degli eccessi. / Les Bas-fonds du baroque. La Rome des vices, de la misère et des excès

Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris

24 February 2015 - 24 May 2015
2018

Spellbound: Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft

The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology

31 August 2018 - 6 January 2019
2021

Creating a National Collection

Southampton City Art Gallery

28 May 2021 - 2 September 2021

Bibliography

1824

S. Morgan, The Life and Times of Salvator Rosa, London 1824
1888

G. Redford, Art Sales: A History of Sales of Pictures and other Works and Art, with Notices of the Collections Sold, Names of Owners, Titles of Pictures, Prices and Purchasers, 2 vols, London 1888
1908

L. Ozzola, Vita e opera di Salvator Rosa, pittore, poeta, incisore con poesie e documenti inediti, Strasbourg 1908
1924

H. Voss, Die Malerei des Barock in Rom, Berlin 1924
1963

L. Salerno, Salvator Rosa, Milan 1963
1974

H. Langdon, 'Salvator Rosa in Florence, 1640-1649', Apollo, C/151, 1974, pp. 190-7
1975

L. Salerno, L'opera completa di Salvator Rosa, Milan 1975
1978

W.W. Roworth, Pictor Succensor: A Study of Salvator Rosa as Satirist, Cynic and Painter, New York 1978
1978

L. Salerno and I. Kohn, 'Four Witchcraft Scenes by Salvator Rosa', Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, LXV/7, 1978, pp. 225-31
1985

National Gallery, The National Gallery Report: January 1982 - December 1984, London 1985
1986

Levey, Michael, National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1986
1986

M. Helston, 'Some Recently Cleaned Seicento Paintings at the National Gallery', The Burlington Magazine, CXXVIII/996, 1986, pp. 209-17
1987

J.P. Davidson, The Witch in Northern European Art, Freren 1987
1991

L. Salerno, 'Due momenti singolari di Salvator Rosa', Artibus et historiae, XII/23, 1991, pp. 121-8
1995

J. Scott, Salvator Rosa: His Life and Times, New Haven 1995
1997

K. Sloan, 'Sir William Hamilton's "Insuperable Taste for Painting"', Journal of the History of Collections, IX/2, 1997, pp. 205-27
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2004

A. Campoli, 'Le "stregonerie" di Salvator Rosa', in S. Macioce (ed.), L'incantesimo di Circe: Temi di magia nella pittura da Dosso Dossi a Salvatore Rosa, Rome 2004, pp. 158-80
2004

C. Zika, 'The Corsini Witchcraft Scene by Salvator Rosa: Magic, Violence and Death', in D.R. Marshall (ed.), The Italians in Australia: Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Art, Florence 2004, pp. 179-190
2005

L.C. Hults, The Witch as Muse: Art, Gender and Power in Early Modern Europe, Philadelphia 2005
2006

G. Tal, Witches on Top: Magic, Power, and Imagination in the Art of Early Modern Italy, Indiana 2006
2008

S. Cassani, Salvator Rosa: Tra mito e magia (exh. cat. Museo di Capodimonte, 18 April - 29 June 2008), Naples 2008

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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