Label Text:
Dürer’s Witch is a study in contradictions that portray her as a terrifying figure, and emphasize her power. At first glance, she has many feminine characteristics: she wears a ring on her left hand, signifying marriage or betrothal; and holds a distaff and spindle, common weaving tools. But Dürer depicted the rest of her body as old, and even masculine, with a thick neck and heavily muscled arms and legs.
To further unsettle his viewers, Dürer emphasized the contradiction between the divine nature of the cherubs and their contorted poses and anguished faces. The artist arranged the witch and cherubs geometrically to form a pentagram, an occult symbol, and the arrangement of the figures with no gaps among them creates an unnatural unification between the angelic and satanic that contributes to the prevalent sense of horror in the work.
Jeff Lancaster, Class of 2018
Subjects:
Engraving Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1969.4 |
