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The Witch and the Mandrake (Ben Jonson, "Witch's Song," Masque of Queens)

1812
Not on view
Fuseli etched this unsettling portrayal of a witch about to pluck a mandrake by moonlight, a plant believed to possess magical powers. Crouched on a mountain top, the cloaked, bare-breasted hag reaches hungrily towards a tiny leaf-crowned form. Lines by Ben Jonson in the "Masque of Queens," a drama performed at the court of James I in 1609, inspired the subject. To throw the nobility of the queens into relief, the poet added a coven of witches, one of whom declares, "I last night lay all alone / On the ground, to hear the mandrake groan; / And plucked him up, though he grew full low, / And, as I had done, the cock did crow."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Witch and the Mandrake (Ben Jonson, "Witch's Song," Masque of Queens)
  • Artist: Henry Fuseli (Swiss, Zürich 1741–1825 London)
  • Date: 1812
  • Medium: Soft-ground etching; proof before letters
  • Dimensions: Plate: 17 11/16 × 21 5/8 in. (45 × 55 cm)
    Sheet: 18 1/8 × 22 1/16 in. (46 × 56 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1953
  • Object Number: 53.535.25
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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