{
"data": {
"id": 149108,
"accession_number": "1977.37.4",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Scenes of Witchcraft: Night, c. 1645\u20131649. Salvator Rosa (Italian, 1615\u20131673). Oil on canvas; framed: 76.2 x 9.6 cm (30 x 3 3/4 in.); unframed: 54.5 cm (21 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1977.37.4",
"current_location": "217 Italian Baroque",
"title": "Scenes of Witchcraft: Night",
"creation_date": "c. 1645\u20131649",
"creation_date_earliest": 1640,
"creation_date_latest": 1654,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Italy, 17th century"
],
"technique": "oil on canvas",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "P - Italian 16th & 17th Century",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 76.2 x 9.6 cm (30 x 3 3/4 in.); Unframed: 54.5 cm (21 7/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"width": 0.762,
"depth": 0.096
},
"unframed": {
"width": 0.545
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Signed: \"SR [monogram]\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 220717,
"title": "The Night",
"description": "The Night. Haus der Kunst, Munich (organizer) (November 1, 1998-February 17, 1999).",
"opening_date": "1998-11-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 213572,
"title": "Salvator Rosa (1615-1673): Bandits, Wilderness, and Magic",
"description": "Salvator Rosa (1615-1673): Bandits, Wilderness, and Magic. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (organizer) (December 12, 2010-March 27, 2011).",
"opening_date": "2010-12-12T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 205152,
"title": "The Novel and the Bizarre: Salvator Rosa\u2019s Scenes of Witchcraft",
"description": "The Novel and the Bizarre: Salvator Rosa\u2019s Scenes of Witchcraft. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 15-June 14, 2015).",
"opening_date": "2015-02-15T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "CMA, January 1978: Year in Review, cat. no. 42. The Night, Haus der Kunst, Munich, November 1, 1998- February 7, 1999.",
"opening_date": "1998-11-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Kimbell Art Museum (12/12/2010 - 3/27/2011): \"Salvator Rosa (1615-1673): Bandits, Wilderness, and Magic\", ex. cat. no. 21d, p. 170-173.",
"opening_date": "2010-12-12T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art (2/15/2015 - 6/14/2015); \"The Novel and the Bizarre: Salvator Rosa's Scenes of Witchcraft\"",
"opening_date": "2015-02-15T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Family of the Marchese Giovanni Niccolini, Florence; [Heim Gallery, London]. Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1977.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
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"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [
"1977.37"
],
"did_you_know": "The artist chose the painting's shape to reference the foundational role of the circle in practicing magic.",
"description": "In the pitch black of night, two groups of men are gathered in a forest. To the left, travelers apprehensively pause to watch a magician conjure terrifying apparitions. Since the Middle Ages, necromancy, the act of communing with the dead, was associated with male sorcerers. In Rosa's painting, the wizened necromancer who stands tall and resolute directly below a classical column is reminiscent of Moses, a predecessor to Renaissance depictions of sorcerers. Rosa's learned magicians not only invoke associations with philosophers and intellects, but they would have also referred to the artist himself and the intellectual elite with whom he associated in Florence. Just as a powerful magician could conjure strange creatures with his wand, so too could Rosa shape a strange world with his originality, intelligence, and the skillful use of paint and brush.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60473377"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1977.37.4-scenes-of-witchcraft"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Langdon, Helen. Salvator Rosa Paint and Performance. London: Reaktion Books, Limited, 2022. .",
"page_number": "Chapter 2",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Fabbri, Sara. \u201cQuattro Tondi con Incantesimi di Salvator Rosa nella collezione del marchese Filippo Niccolini.\u201d Notizie da Palazzo Albani XXXVIII (2009): 81-104.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 3. European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cat. 176D, p. 398 - 403",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 138",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n158"
},
{
"citation": "Salerno, Luigi, and Ira Kohn. \"Four Witchcraft Scenes by Salvator Rosa.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 65, no. 7 (September 1978): 225-231.
Published as: Witches' Sabbath",
"page_number": "Mentioned: P. 224-231: Reproduced: P. 225, 229",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159591"
},
{
"citation": "Segrave, Hannah. \u201c The Novel and the Bizarre: A focus exhibition looks at four 17-th century tondi by Salvator Rosa.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 55, no. 1 (January/February 2015): 8-10.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 9; Mentioned: p. 10",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2015-01"
}
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"gallery_donor_text": "Donna and James Reid Gallery",
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"id": 2285,
"description": "Salvator Rosa (Italian, 1615\u20131673)",
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"alternate_titles": [
"Scene with Witches: Night",
"Witches Scenes"
],
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"updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:08:06.616000"
}
}