Found in Celtic and Germanic folklore, they first become popular in Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and established a sub-genre in the 19th century.
van Wijnen
Interest in paintings of witchcraft grew in the Age of Enlightenment, with a series painted by Goya for the Duchess of Osuna.
Domenicus van Wijnen’s paintings are radically original, quite unlike other works before him, and not matched for more than a century after. Why don’t we know him and these paintings better?
An unusual story of sorcery used to restore youth has seldom been painted – even after Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein became popular.
The ‘divine whirlwind’ seems distinctive of Blake. This traces its origin, and his development of this visionary image.
For two centuries, Bosch’s innovative ideas and symbols were used in northern Europe. But after 1700, all changed again.
The Eclectic Light Company 