ABSTRACT
In 2007, the Stadel Museum presented "Witches' Lust and the Fall of Man: the Strange Fantasies of Hans Baldung Grien." Curated and documented by Bodo Brinkmann, the show exhibited Baldung's 'Witch's Sabbath' works alongside his 'Fall of Man' themed images. One image among Baldung's idiosyncratic oeuvre stands out as embodying a stunning range of discourses, emblems and tropes informing Renaissance ideas around toxic, feminine physiology and Woman's 'natural' ability to inflict her fatal 'witchcraft' through sex. The youthful woman of a highlighted pen and ink drawing created in 1515, most often recognized by the title of the Witch and Dragon, presents a comprehensive 'buffet' of sixteenth-century medical and theological figures informing the idea of the dangerous, female, sexual ingenue. The Baldung clan's professional rank necessitated a familial closeness to the disciplinary discourses of medicine, law and the theology of the Witch Hunt.
