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