The Four Witches
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''The Four Witches'' (German: ''Die Vier Hexen''), or ''The Four Naked Women'',Hutchison, p. 241 or ''The Four Sorceresses''Brion, p. 129 or ''Scene in a Brothel'', are titles given to a 1497
engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...
by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer. One of his earliest signed engravings,Stumpel, p. 143 it shows four nude, exuberant women gathered conspiratorially in a circle in a confined interior setting, perhaps a bath house,Stumpel, p. 157 which appears to have entrances from either side. Although clearly erotic, a small horned demon, perhaps representing temptation,Stumpel, p. 156 is positioned in the left hand portal, peering out and holding what may be a hunting object, and is engulfed in flames. Although the engraving has been subject to prolonged and significant scholarly analysis, it remains enigmatic, and there is nothing in his later writings to indicate his intent. There is no consensus as to its subject matter or its intended meaning, with art historians associating it with either
witch hunting A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern per ...
or figures from classical mythology. The women stand underneath a suspended globe or sphere, and before an open stone window, which, given the human skull and thigh bone placed across from it, may be a gateway to death,Nürnberg, p. 15 and that the women are engaged in some type of nefarious scheme, perhaps linked to the 1487
inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...
treatise
Malleus Maleficarum The ''Malleus Maleficarum'', usually translated as the ''Hammer of Witches'', is the best known treatise on witchcraft. It was written by the German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer (under his Latinized name ''Henricus Institor'') and first ...
.The Four Witches; a group of four nude women standing underneath a sphere
.
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
. Retrieved 1 September 2018
The alternative view is that the women represent Greek or Roman goddesses, perhaps
Hecate Hecate or Hekate, , ; grc-dor, Ἑκάτᾱ, Hekátā, ; la, Hecatē or . is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches, a key, snakes, or accompanied by dogs, and in later periods depict ...
, patroness of evil magic, poisonous plants, and ghosts, or her earthly counterpart Diana.The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650
. Rhode Island School of Design, 2009. Retrieved 2 September 2018
Dürer's monogram "AD" appears on the center of the floor. Numerous original prints exist, held at a number of major museums.


Description

The women are positioned in a small interior space which contains a window and can be entered or exited from two sides. The small devil in the left hand recess, who is intended to represent evil, as mammalian anatomy including hind legs, and holds a vaguely described object in his claw that appears to consist of sticks and a piece of string,Stumpel, p. 146 perhaps comprising a contemporary device for hunting birds and fowl.Stumpel, p. 150 The devil's form and gestures closely resembles a similar small bat-like monster in Durer's ''The Dream of the Doctor'' of 1498-99, an engraving close in date and style to the ''Four Witches''.Minott, p. 13Stumpel, p. 154 The differing hairstyles and headdress suggests that the women are from different social classes;Pelaez, p. 27 differing types of headdresses were often used in medieval and early Renaissance pictures to indicate social and moral aspects of the individual person. This was especially so in
Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
, where guidelines on the matter were issued by the Nuremberg council. The woman on the left wears a ''Haube'' (a type of
bonnet A Bonnet is a variety of headgear, hat or cap Specific types of headgear referred to as "bonnets" may include Scottish * Blue bonnet, a distinctive woollen cap worn by men in Scotland from the 15th-18th centuries And its derivations: ** Fea ...
, in German a ''Festhaube''), usually the preserve of married women. The woman to the far right, facing the viewer, wears a long folded
veil A veil is an article of clothing or hanging cloth that is intended to cover some part of the head or face, or an object of some significance. Veiling has a long history in European, Asian, and African societies. The practice has been prominent ...
(''Schleier''), indicating that she comes from the middle-class.Stumpel, p. 158 At this early stage in his life, Dürer was struggling with both the restrictions of drawing for engraving, and the portrayal of nudes. Compared to his nudes in the near contemporary ''Small Fortune'' which shows a female satyr nursing her infant, or ''The Penance of St John Chrysostom'', the current work seems more reliant on Renaissance proto-types, although they are, according to art historian Charles Ilsley Minott "taller, sturdier, and more graceful."Minott, p. 11


Interpretation

As with many of Dürer's engravings, the intended meaning or source is unclear; although it has been subject to wide scholarly analysis, no real consensus has emerged. Possible interpretations range from the four seasons and the
four elements Classical elements typically refer to earth, water, air, fire, and (later) aether which were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances. Ancient cultures in Greece, Tibet, and India had simi ...
, to
Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols inclu ...
(represented here by the woman to the right wearing a myrtle wreath) and the Graces, the Three Fates, or more simply four witches or four girls in a brothel.Stumpel, p. 144 The art historian Marcel Briton suggests that the work may not have any specific meaning, and is simply a portrait of four nudes, "the whim of a young artist annoyed by the puritanical conventionality of his fellow-citizens". Because Dürer did not title the work it has been given many titles over the centuries. When the painting was first described by Karel van Mander in 1604, he wrote that it contained "three or four nude women, looking just like the three Graces." Common titles have included ''Scene in a Brothel'', ''Scene of Witchcraft'', ''Venus and the Three Graces'', ''The Seasons of the Year'', ''The Four Temperaments'',Stumpel, p. 144 and ''Diana and Hecate Trivia''.Sullivan, pp. 332-401


Witchcraft

The human skull and bone left on the floor are intended as either reminders of death, or symbols of magic and invocation. The witches interpretation may be misogynistically linked to the "Malleus maleficarum" (''The Witches' Hammer'') the "virulent diatribe"Sullivan, p. 337 written in 1487 by the Dominican friars and inquisitors
Heinrich Kramer Heinrich Kramer ( 1430 – 1505, aged 74-75), also known under the Latinized name Henricus Institor, was a German churchman and inquisitor. With his widely distributed book ''Malleus Maleficarum'' (1487), which describes witchcraft and endorse ...
and
Jacob Sprenger Jacob Sprenger (also James, 1436/1438 – 6 December 1495) was a Dominican inquisitor and theologian principally known for his association with a well-known guide for witch-hunters from 1486, ''Malleus Maleficarum''. He was born in Rheinfelden, ...
. The book endorsed the extermination of witches and so developed a convoluted and detailed legal and theological theory to justify its treatise. Because the women's hands are largely hidden, it is not supposed that the image refers to any specific activity or event. However it was at the time commonly believed that men who had sex with so called she-devils would later suffer from illness and impotence. Around 1500 Durer produced ''Witch Riding Backwards on a Goat'', which, according to art historian Margaret Sullivan, like the current work, reflects "a fascination with the underside of the ancient world rather than an interest in witch manuals or a compelling concern with witchcraft as a punishable offense."Sullivan, p. 334 In this context, the engraving is sometimes examined alongside The engraving resembles in a number of ways
Hans Baldung Grien Hans Baldung (1484 or 1485 – September 1545), called Hans Baldung Grien, (being an early nickname, because of his predilection for the colour green), was a painter, printer, engraver, draftsman, and stained glass artist, who was considered t ...
's ''Bewitched Groom'', completed the year before his death in 1545. However, it is important to note that Dürer and Baldung's works, while contemporary with the "Malleus maleficarum", come before the widespread outbreak of moral panic leading to the
witch-hunt A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern per ...
ing of the later 16th and 17th centuries. According to Sullivan, "The work of Direr and Baldung belong to an earlier era, they testify to a different sensibility and were produced by artists who could not have foreseen the terrible times to come"


Classical mythology

The most accepted meaning is that the work is an allegorical warning against discord, and it's inevitable lead to hell and death. Compositionally, the positioning of the women matches a marble group of the three graces known in the
early Renaissance Renaissance art (1350 – 1620 AD) is the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occ ...
, and likely Dürer would have seen it from copies. A common interpretation is that figures represent Hecate, who according to the "often represented with three faces or bodies, probably to suggest that she could look in all directions at doorways or crossings". Alternatively, the woman from the second right wearing a wreath may represents
Discordia Eris (; grc-gre, Ἔρις ', "Strife") is the Greek goddess of strife and discord. Her Roman equivalent is Discordia, which means the same. Eris's Greek opposite is Harmonia, whose Roman counterpart is Concordia. Homer equated her with th ...
, the Roman goddess of strife and discord, who threw an apple amongst Juno,
Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Rom ...
and
Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
, igniting the
Trojan War In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and ...
. Or it may be that that woman is being initiated by three witches. The globe hanging above the figures is divided into twelve segments, and contains two inscriptions; the year 1497, and, outlined with girdling, and the letters "OGH" - perhaps meaning "Odium generis humani" ('' Odium (disgust or ambush) against the human race''), or "Oh Gott hüte" (''Oh God Forbid'') as suggested in 1675 by the German art-historian and painter
Joachim von Sandrart Joachim von Sandrart (12 May 1606 – 14 October 1688) was a German Baroque art-historian and painter, active in Amsterdam during the Dutch Golden Age. He is most significant for his collection of biographies of Dutch and German artists the '' T ...
, or "Ordo Graciarum Horarumque" (''Order of the Graces and Hours'').


Influence

The image has been copied and adapted a number of times. Nicoletto da Modena (1490-1569) produced a version based on the
Judgement of Paris Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct uses. Aristotle ...
interpretation, changing the inscription on the globe to "Detur Pulchrior" (''To the fairest''), and omitted the devil and bones. The Austrian artist Adolf Frohner (b. 1934) produced a version where the women are shown wearing bras and garter belts.Hutchison, p. 222


See also

*
List of engravings by Albrecht Dürer The following is a very incomplete list of engravings by the German painter and engraver Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften ...
* List of woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer


Sources


Notes


References

* Brion, Marcel. ''Dürer''. London: Thames and Hudson, 1960. * Callow, John. ''Embracing the Darkness: A Cultural History of Witchcraft''. I.B.Tauris, 2017. * Hutchison, Jane Campbell. ''Albrecht Durer: A Guide to Research''. New York: Garland, 2000. * Hults, Linda. ''The Witch as Muse: Art, Gender, and Power in Early Modern Europe''. University of Pennsylvania, 2005. * Minott, Charles Ilsley. "Albrecht Dürer: The Early Graphic Works". ''Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University''. Volume. 30, No. 2, 1970. pp. 7–27. * Nürnberg, Verlag Hans Carl. ''Dürer in Dublin: Engravings and woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer''. Chester Beatty Library, 1983. * Pelaez, Joe. ''An Outline of the Original Witchcraft''. AuthorHouse, 2014. * Sander, Jochen (ed). ''Dürer: His Art in Context''. Frankfurt: Städel Museum & Prestel, 2013. * Schoch, Rainer; Mende, Matthias; Scherbaum, Anna. ''Albrecht Dürer: Das druckgraphische Werk, Bd. 3: Buchillustrationen''. Prestel; Auflage, 2004. * Stumpel, Jeroen. "The Foul Fowler Found out: On a Key Motif in Dürer's ''Four Witches''". ''Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art''. Volume 30, No. 3/4, 2003. pp. 143–160. * Sullivan, Margaret. "The Witches of Durer and Hans Baldung Grien". ''Renaissance Quarterly''. Volume 53, Nr 2, 2000. pp. 332–401. {{DEFAULTSORT:Four Witches, The 1497 works Prints by Albrecht Dürer Witches in art Demons in art 15th-century engravings Hecate Paintings depicting Diana (mythology)