From the Bizarre to the Sublime: The Witchcraft Paintings of Salvator Rosa
- Lecture
Carolyn and Jack Lampl Jr. Family Recital Hall
Scene with Witches: Day (detail), 1645–1649. Salvator Rosa (Italian, 1615-1673). Oil on canvas; w: 54.5 cm. Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1977.37.2
About The Event
In Medicean Florence, where Salvator Rosa delighted his public with his extravagant Neapolitan persona, his scenes of witchcraft were intended to startle and intrigue; he chose unusual media to suggest the power of the artist to invent magical effects. In papal Rome he moved towards a darker satire, at times conveying dangerous hints of anticlericalism, but at others exploring those ‘secrets of nature’ which had enthralled ancient philosophers and which had many parallels with the interest of contemporary scientists in wonders and marvels. His latest works, such as Saul and the Witch of Endor, anticipate the Sublime of the 18th century. Helen Langdon, art historian and author of Salvator Rosa (2010) and Caravaggio: A Life (2000), explores the contrast between Rosa’s Florentine and Roman witchcraft paintings.
Free, no reservations required.