Dubitando: Studies in History and Culture in Honor of Donald Ostrowski

Caught in the Act: An Illustration of Erotic Magic at Work

Dubitando: Studies in History and Culture in Honor of Donald Ostrowski. Brian J. Boeck, Russell E. Martin, and Daniel Rowland, eds. Bloomington, IN: Slavica Publishers, 2012, 285–99.       Caught in the Act: An Illustration of Erotic Magic at Work   Valerie Kivelson       Images   were   part   and   parcel   of   the   witch-­‐‑craze   that   blazed   across   Western   Europe   in   the   early   modern   period.   Together   with   demonological   treatises   and   popular   pamphlets   recording   strange   happenings   or   sensational   trials,   images   circulated   widely   in   both   manuscript   and   printed   form.   In   a   recent   book,   Charles   Zika   has   tracked   the   movement   of   particular   images   from   sketch  to  etching  to  print,  from  one  medium  to  another,  following  the  persist-­‐‑ ent  use  of  particular  tropes  of  witchcraft  and  the  use  and  reuse  of  particular   images  in  changing  texts  and  contexts,  but  always  unambiguously  associating   witchcraft   with   a   core   set   of   practices   and   meanings.1   For   example,   in   the   1480s,  an  influential  demonological  tract,  Ulrich  Molitor’s  De  Lamiis  appeared   in   print   accompanied   by   a   striking   set   of   simple   but   expressive   woodblock   prints.  Those  prints  depicted  clearly  the  central  associations  that  would  sensa-­‐‑ tionalize   Western,   particularly   German   and   French,   ideas   about   witchcraft:   witches  were  female,  and  as  such  were  particularly  susceptible  to  the  sexual   seductions  of  the  devil.  The  big  three  of  Western  witch-­‐‑lore,  the  perverse  trin-­‐‑ ity  that  composed  the  inverted  anti-­‐‑world  of  witchcraft,  was  already  apparent   in   these   efficient   illustrations.   They   confirm   a   simple   equation:   (Women   +   Satan)   +   Sex   =   Witchcraft.   De   Lamiis   was   a   hit,   and   went   through   multiple   reprints,   sometimes   with   new   illustrations   but   always   sticking   close   to   the   central  thematic.  (See  figs.  14,  15,  and  16  in  the  gallery  of  illustrations  follow-­‐‑ ing  p.  242.)  Demonological  views  of  witchcraft  effectively  entered  the  visual   mainstream,   reinforcing   the   sense   that   witches   were   female,   sexually   unbridled,  discontented  with  mortal  men,  and  eager  to  receive  sexual  satisfac-­‐‑ tion  at  the  hands,  or  hoofs,  of  the  devil.     If  the  15th  century  set  the  tone  and  the  theological  and  visual  terms  of  en-­‐‑ gagement  with  witchcraft,  the  16th  century  witnessed  the  explosive  growth  of   a  print  market  eager  to  absorb  as  many  images  of  witches  engaged  in  their   nefarious  and  titillating  doings  as  possible.  Hans  Baldung  Grien  created  some   of  the  most  memorable  sexualized  witch  images  ever  put  to  paper,  such  as  A   Group  of  Witches,  a  pen  and  ink  drawing  (c.  1514),  and  Witch  and  Dragon  (1515)   (figs.  17  and  18).  The  most  pornographic  of  these  drawings  remained  unpub-­‐‑ lished,  but  Baldung  Grien  released  his  definitive  witch  image  as  a  chiaroscuro                                                                                                                             1  Charles  Zika,  The  Appearance  of  Witchcraft:  Print  and  Visual  Culture  in  Sixteenth-­‐‑Century   Europe  (London:  Routledge,  2007).   286 VALERIE KIVELSON woodcut,   to   great   effect.   His   The   Witches’   Sabbath   (1510)   defined   witch   illustrations  for  the  rest  of  the  century:  the  wild-­‐‑haired  naked  female,  flying   through  the  sky  backwards  on  a  goat,  legs  outstretched  (fig.  19).  This  image   appears  in  other  illustrations  throughout  the  century  (figs.  20  and  21).   If   images   served   to   consolidate   and   solidify   ideas   about   what   witches   were  and  how  they  behaved,  they  also  functioned  in  a  more  applied  way  to   bolster  belief  in  the  idea  that  witches  were  living  and  working  their  malevo-­‐‑ lent  magic  in  real  time,  that  they  posed  an  immediate  danger  and  needed  to   be  eradicated.  Images  of  spirit  possession  and  exorcism,  of  witch  trials,  and  of   executions,  confronted  viewers  with  irrefutable  evidence  of  real  and  present   danger  (figs.  22,  23,  24).  Not  only  were  witches  a  theoretical  threat  to  commu-­‐‑ nity,  Christianity,  and  the  entire  social  order,  as  depicted  in  the  fantastic  texts   and  images  of  satanic  Sabbaths  and  seductions,  but  they  were  populating  the   actual  towns  and  villages  of  Europe.  They  could  be  next  door,  or  inside  one’s   own  walls,  disguised  as  pious  women  but  actually  doing  the  disruptive  work   of  the  devil.  The  proof  was  everywhere  on  display:  they  had  been  caught  red-­‐‑ handed,  convicted  and  executed  in  neighboring  towns  and  kingdoms.  Actual   witches  had  actually  been  executed,  and  so  witches  must  exist.  Whatever  hu-­‐‑ mor  may  have  rested  in  the  Lutheran  “devil  books”  or  the  off-­‐‑color  fables  of   the  Malleus  must  have  dissipated  at  the  sight  of  “actual  witches”  going  up  in   flames,  whether  witnessed  in  person  or  depicted  in  a  popular  pamphlet.   So  much  for  Europe.  Let  us  turn  now  to  Muscovy.  What  is  the  equivalent   scenario?  It  will  come  as  no  surprise  that  images  of  witches  were  extraordi-­‐‑ narily  rare  in  Russia  prior  to  the  19th  century.  While  heavily  invested  in  the   visual  aspects  of  Orthodox...