Witch hunting, magic, and the new philosophy by Brian Easlea

Teniers appears to use these commonly used motifs to connect his subjects.

35).ĭavid Tenier’s the Younger, Temptation of St Anthony, c.1650, This cloaked demon possibly makes a satirical reference to mythology surrounding demon horses sent to deceive humanity (Howey, 2003, p. Anthony and of witches’, it is used as a mask of a cloaked demon which is sometimes represented with a demon peasant riding it (Davidson, 1979, p. When the horse skull motif manifests itself in his representations of St. What connects these subjects with the representation of the alchemist are his signature use of hanging animal specimens which often do not explicitly correlate to an identifiable species and horse skulls. These demons known as grotesques were often represented as possessing different animal parts (Gibson, 2006, pp. Both subjects are represented with numerous demons. The recurring motifs in Antwerp-born David Teniers the Younger’s (1610- 1690) representations of alchemists are also found in his numerous highly moralising paintings depicting witches and on the traditional religious theme of The Temptations of St. Follower of Paracelsusian alchemy who discovered the existence of multiple gasses such as Flemish Jan Baptista van Helmont (1577-1644) came under virtual house arrest for much of two decades for his writings which brought him accusations of dabbling in black magic (Butterfield, 1965, p. Alchemists in the Catholic Spanish Netherlands became subject to the Spanish Inquisition. They attributed marvellous events to the work of demons and proclaimed that magicians were agents in disguise (Easlea, 1980, p. Protestant reformers in northern Netherlands dealt with the threat by declaring magic as false and inefficacious as the true God could not be manipulated into revealing his secrets of nature (Tambiah, 1990, pp. AnthonyĪlchemy was resisted by both the Catholic and Protestant Church. Keywords: Alchemy, David Teniers the Younger, devil and demons, The Temptations of St.

Witch hunting, magic, and the new philosophy by Brian Easlea