My project revolves around the witch-trials and the various methods used to identify a witch across Europe and America during medieval times.
Initially I was interested in the Pendle Witches of Lancashire, which is a part of history closer to home. However, after lightly researching this topic I was unsure that this was going to keep me interested and motivated for a prolonged project. I needed to ensure that I was going to be able to create something interesting and readable.
Staying on the topic of witches, I began thinking more about the ways in which they were tried and tested, how you were to go about identifying one according to witch-finder logic.
For centuries, the witch has been a powerful visual figure, the creation and development of this figure is something I aim to explore with this project; exploring how the traditional imagery of magic and sorcery of medieval Europe transformed into artist interpretations and visual depictions of witches around the 16th century. Furthermore, I aim to explore how the rise of witch trials in Europe affected illustration at this time.
I plan to experiment with traditional printmaking methods, to echo the work that was produced during the pinnacle period of witch trials.
Through illustration and text, my intention is to simultaneously communicate the obscene absurdity of this era and the various ways that these individuals were tried and tested.
Once I had decided upon the topic of witches and sorcery, I began by taking a few books out from the library and seeing if I could narrow down my topic to something a bit more specific.
I was interested in the illustration at that time and how witches became to be the figure that they’re known as today through portrayal in visual culture. Looking at books such as “The appearance of witchcraft: print and visual culture in sixteenth-century Europe” by Charles Zika gave me an in-depth insight and further understanding into the art world of this time. In addition to the visual element of the witch-hunt era, I was also interested in the absurd nature of the witch trials in the medieval times and was beginning to think that this would be a good solid starting point for my project, narrowing down my subject material into something more concise that I could focus on.
I began my research by exploring early indications and depictions of witchcraft from sources such as the Bible and Greek mythology, moving on to the appearance of witchcraft in visual culture and how it has developed over time to become the iconic visual figure that it is today. I also looked into the connections with sorcery and the church, investigating any correlations between religion and volume of witch trials.
From there, I began researching into the depiction of witches and witchcraft. The visual images created at this time were predominantly through print such as woodcuts or etchings. This is an aspect I wanted to echo through my own work so that my piece can correlate with the art from this era.
I also began looking into the iconography of the witch and her characteristics and the visual profile that artists began to create.
While researching the iconography of the witch in popular culture, the misogyny and oppression during this time was overt. The infamous 15th century witch hunting manual Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches) is known as the most thorough discourse on witchcraft; this book details that women’s lack of intelligence made them submissive to demons. Due to this, a strong view of women as particularly susceptible to witchcraft arose and is why many more women were tried and tested for witchcraft and sorcery than men.
My research progressed into investigating what would cause an individual to be suspected of witchcraft, how little evidence was needed for an accused to be tried and tested.
Bringing me to the final stage of my factual research, the trial methods. This is the area of subject matter that I wanted to focus on for my final outcome. Across several sources, I looked into the most renown methods of testing an accused witch.
Taking research compiled from witch hunting guides and pamphlets, in addition to recounts of trials, I constructed thorough research of the popular trial methods of this time to ensure that final outcome would be well informed.
I decided upon an informational book detailing the ways to identify or test an accused witch in medieval times, taking information from extensive research about witch trials in Europe and America during that time.
However, I also wanted to touch upon the absurdity of it, not to make light of the subject but to highlight how patently ridiculous this all was, it was an absolute farce.
Monty Python’s Holy Grail is a brilliant ex - ample of this, with his witch scene he pokes fun at the witch-finder’s logic.
This is a creative profile I would like to mirror with my writing, hopefully making it an easier and more engaging read while remaining factual.