Bruegel’s Witches

Museum Catharijneconvent presents Bruegel’s Witches: an exhibition about witches in art. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a unique collection of scenes from the turbulent period of witch hunting in the Low Countries. It turns out that it was none other than Pieter Bruegel the Elder who helped shape our modern idea of witches.

More than 150 Dutch and Flemish scenes of witches have survived - an output unmatched anywhere else in the world. You will discover impressive paintings, manuscripts, prints and drawings. The exhibits range from rare archival documents and manuscripts with the earliest depictions of witches to highly detailed paintings of their Sabbaths by Frans Francken and David Teniers the Younger

The exhibition will also examine the background to these scenes, for they are intimately bound up with witch hunts. Witches provided society with the ideal collective scapegoat.