Scenes of Witchcraft: Morning

Rosa's Scenes of Witchcraft: Morning is part of his remarkable series of four witchcraft paintings now in the Cleveland Museum, depicting supernatural practices from morning through night. Rosa painted witchcraft subjects throughout his career, drawn to their combination of the grotesque, the supernatural, and the social critique — witchcraft as practiced in his pictures was a system of transgression that allowed him to explore the underside of established religious and social order. His witchcraft series was unusual in structuring the supernatural narrative across the cycle of a day, creating a temporal framework that suggested the constant presence of occult practice beneath the surface of ordinary life.

Rosa's dramatic technique renders the witchcraft scene with dark, atmospheric tones and energetic, gestural brushwork. The figures are painted with distorted, expressive forms that suggest supernatural transformation. The morning light is suggested through subtle warmth in the palette while maintaining the overall dark, sinister atmosphere.