September 18th, 2009 -- by Bacchus
The Witches Of Hans Baldung
Is it almost Halloween yet? Because I stumbled over this “Three Witches” illustration by Hans Baldung:
And then, when I looked him up in the Wikipedia, I found his “Witch And Dragon”:
I never knew that, when slaying dragons in the nude, you had to worry about him slipping you some tongue.
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NICE pic.. love erotic art…
Actually, she’s not slaying him. Witches supposedly “consorted with the devil” in his many forms. Lots of similar old illustrations featuring various kinds of bestiality in the texts on the subject.
I wonder if dragons ever call afterwards.
I’m sure you meant to say “I don’t think she’s slaying him.” Unless you and the artist are drinking buddies? Or you’ve got some other source of surety about the artistic intentions of a man half a millennium dead?
I took her to be stabbing his tail-orifice with something, although perhaps she’s drawing something out. It’s hard to tell for sure. And “consorting” is such an unhelpfully general euphemism…
Okay, you’re right, I don’t know for sure, but having seen a number of similar pictures in books about occult history (I was a teenage weirdo) I’m pretty sure the illustration is meant to show the blasphemy she supposedly engaged in, rather than a heroic act. That being said, I also have no idea what’s going on at the funnel-shaped end. So who knows.
re: “…when slaying dragons in the nude, you had to worry about him slipping you some tongue.”
…dragons are like that…
The dragon’s tongue is visible below. It looks like the witch is pushing a…something (rope? Piece of wood? Beam of fire?…into the dragon’s rear, which is passing all the way through the beast and coming it its mouth, and there to the witch.
Apparently nothing supercharges a sex toy like running it through a dragon.
I think she’s pissing into the dragons’ mouth (or expelling diarrhea, perhaps?), the cherub is helping her by keeping the snout open. Fantasy art is best when it is based on some reality. The horn like tail of this beast matches nothing a similarly shaped reptile or aquatic creature might have. Without further explanation this part of the image is weak and difficult to fathom.
I took the item to be an umbilical cord. Over eager Devil/Dragon taking her newborn?
And is the whole scene underwater? No legs on the dragon. Hair floating up.
Umbilical cord might make a little sense (if she’s feeding her baby to this devil) and the idea that the scene is taking place underwater also makes a little sense (you’re right, the hair is floating and the creature does have flippers). I thought that was a vine she was hanging onto for support as she leaned over to expel whatever into the ‘dragons’ mouth, but I don’t understand why it is stiffly going into the creatures fluted rear end. And maybe that is steam or smoke coming out from there? This is less sexy than confusing. I feel embarrassed that I’ve spent so much time thinking about it. Like trying to figure out the events at an mtv awards show.
As long as everone’s speculating…
Being as upon further examination, the dragon already appears to have a tongue (which doesn’t appear to be bifurcated…), the dragon may be breathing fire on her “taint”, or into one of the contiguous orifices to the immediate north or south of it. Maybe that’s exhaust smoke emanating from the other end of the creature… or… more fire…
My guess is, that it’s more likely that the artist is trying to show either the dynamic motion of the (battling?) witch, with that flying hair, or a mysterious “stormy” environment caused by the magical altercation. More likely, the hair is blown by the forceful air flow shooting from the flame-throwing dragon. A good portion of the hair appears to be carefully groomed, and just a percentage of it agitated by a “puff”… (No pun intended).
If she was urinating, etc., into his mouth, this would be difficult to do underwater, from such a distance… Although I should admit here, that this artist IS known for various other depictions of women discharging what appears to be urine, menstrual fluid, or possibly diarrhea, depending on your interpretation, so…
The dragon, being traditionally seen as primarily a flying creature, probably has some sort of wings (or gliding appendages), rather than aquatic flippers.
Maybe the witch LIKES to have her private areas superheated, and is jamming a cornstalk into his anus/exhaust pipe trying to stimulate him to produce his firebreath…
Another possibility is that the artist purposefully made the “discharge” ambiguously look possibly like fire (meaning that the dragon itself was merely a “device”), in order to satisfy someone’s (patron with money)
“-philia”, such as urolagnia, in a depiction (early porn…) which would “pass muster” by the morality police (the church) at that time…
Another possibility is that the drawing is in actuality an allegory of the occult practice of the shaman (witch) delivering psychotropic drugs to the initiate (or vision quester), via first passing it through his or her own digestive system, and thereby concentrating the psychoactive ingredients, which, oddly (I swear I’m not making this up!), was a fairly common and accepted practice in Europe at the time, with such substances as Amanita Muscaria (Fly Agaric/magic) mushrooms, which is believed may have also been a secret ingredient of the witch’s famous “flying ointment”, which applyed properly to the mucous membranes of the genital areas with a broomstick, made the consumer believe that he or she was flying up through the chimney to consort with the devil in the air…
Hello! I was a teenage wierdo, too! Superstitious villagers, or perhaps perverted inquisitors, believed that witches rubbed the broom back and forth between their legs which excited them and gave them visions. The broom was a wild herb like jimson weed that would absorb thru the mucous membranes while the witch was rubbing and dancing around. That’s the first thing I thought when I saw this picture– medicine delivery system.