Witches and Wicked Bodies

Book Ref: 'Witchcraft in England, 1558-1618', Barbara Rosen, University of Massachusetts Press, 1991

Book Ref: 'The Devil in the Shape of a Woman', Carol Karlson, New York Vintage Books, 1989

Exhibition and Internet Ref: 'Witches and Wicked Bodies', The British Museum, 25 September 2014 – 11 January 2015, http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/witches_and_wicked_bodies.aspx

'The Witches Rout', Agostino Veneziano, Engraving, 1520http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/witches_and_wicked_bodies.aspx

A key focal point within my personal development for the Elizabethan brief is that of 'counter beauty' and the features of the period considered ugly or undesirable within Renaissance beauty. For this my interests have been turned more towards the 'Darker Elizabethan' focusing on the representation and identification of women, in particular as witches. This was a concept I first came across within my research into the fashion show of Jean Paul Gaultier and contemporary take on Elizabethan beauty by Hyea W. Kang who both explored common Elizabethan elements of beauty but merged them amongst the unconventional colours and features of the Elizabethan period to convey a darker tone. This included simple tweaks such as dark hair, heavy eyes and deep set contours within the face while maintaining conventional Elizabethan elements of youthful beauty such as the pale face and rouged lip.

The above image is perhaps the perfect embodiment of all things considered sinful and signs of Elizabethan witchery, the engraving entitled 'The Witches Rout' depicts the classic conventions of a muscular, aged 'hag' riding a creature of evil through what appears as the route to Hell. Alongside her are her numerous monsters and pets, plus the children and men that she has tainted and used to commit her evil deeds. The whole image is a beautiful homage to the superstition of witchcraft and truly exercises the dramatic beliefs that surrounded the fear of sin within Elizabethan England.
The depiction of women as witches is a common element within both historical writings and visual artistic representations for the Elizabethan and Renaissance period, this fixation with the portrayal of evil and youthful beauty have much in common with often the most haggard of women, or most youthful beauty resented for being so, condemned to burn for witchcraft. Often the portrayal of these women was sexualised with them depicted as dancing naked through woodlands committing sexual and sinful acts to heighten the sense of evil around them. Otherwise they were regarded as dwelling in cave like homes committing acts of torture on both young children and animals for the purpose of raising demons from the fires of hell. These women were seen as solitary temptresses who would prey on the weak, such as men and children through the use of shapeshifting and seduction. In an era obsessed with virginal purity any women caught making engagements out of wedlock or entertaining adultery may have been immediately punished as a witch, even natural occurrences such as menstruation if seen out of wedlock or childbirth was regarded as a signifier of being tainted by the devil. The whole concept of witchcraft became an obsession with the punishment of the feminine nature and maintenance of a female society based on absolute virginal purity.