Unknown artist (German), 'Fantastic Horse and Rider'

Unknown artist (German)
'Fantastic Horse and Rider'
About 1600
Pen and ink and wash
Museum no. CAI 595
Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides

This spirited drawing depicts a naked witch mounted on a fiery steed and bearing her boiling cauldron aloft on a forked stick. It reveals the continuing taste for extravagant and macabre subject matter that had fascinated German and Swiss artists since the early 16th century.