Witch Trials

30cm x 40cm (12" x 15.7")

“Witch Trials”  is a woodcut-inspired artwork that mirrors 16th and 17th century illustrations from witch trial accounts. Showing three hanged figures flanked by dancing demons which was a common motif emphasising the alleged witch-Devil connection. Such imagery proved instrumental in stoking Europe's witch persecution fervour.

The witch trials (circa 1550-1700) claimed between 40,000-60,000 lives across Europe and colonial America. Women over 40 comprised roughly 80% of the accused. Germany bore the heaviest toll with 16,000 executions (40% of total), whilst Scotland followed with 3,563 trials. Catholic regions like Spain and Italy saw markedly fewer prosecutions, accounting for merely 6% of cases. Whilst England and colonial America favoured hanging, Scotland and continental Europe typically employed burning at the stake.

The persecutions peaked from 1560-1630, amid fierce Catholic-Protestant tensions. The artworks artistic style deliberately employs the period's visual language of fear, with the demonic figures representing the diabolic forces that accusers believed threatened their communities. These widely-circulated illustrations served as potent propaganda, demonstrating how religious hysteria, misogyny and social turmoil converged with tragic results.