Sobre a inconstância das bruxas: o profano feminino na ilustração sabática de Jan Ziarnko

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the engraving "Sabá dos bruxos" (Witches' Sabbath) by Jan Ziarnko, created to illustrate Pierre de Lancre's "Treatise on the Inconstancy of Demons" (1613), identifying the discursive relations of opposition and subversion to Christian morality and ethics between text and image that characterize the witches' sabbath. Our goal is to understand how Lancre's demonological literature was articulated and shaped in Ziarnko's illustration to represent the sabbath as a profane and demonic ritual, essentially feminine. Ziarnko's sabbatic image is recognized in witchcraft studies as a turning point in the representation of witches in the early modern period. It signals a transition from the idea of witchcraft to a kind of conspiratorial anti-religion, diffused within Christian society and centered on the witches' sabbath ceremony. Using a discursive and anthropological approach to the image, we investigate how Ziarnko situated his illustration within the modern imaginary of witches in an innovative manner. Thus, we trace a discursive network that situates Ziarnko's image in relation to an entire iconographic memory of 16th-century witchcraft, analyzing how he works with this memory in the conception of his work. Furthermore, we highlight within this network other feminine representations linked to profane rituals that contribute to the otherness of witchcraft, such as the cannibalistic savages of the New World and the Bacchantes of classical mythology