The Examination of a Witch - T H Matteson

Tompkins Harrison Matteson was an American portrait painter born in Peterboro, New York, in 1813. Matteson studied at the National Academy of Design and was inspired by the works of William Sidney Mount, a contemporary of the Hudson River School.  He ran a studio in New York City from 1841 to 1850 and he died in Sherburne, New York, in 1884.  His works focused on rural everyday life, historical events and, patriotic and religious figures. His widely known for his depiction of George Washington at Valley Forge (circa 1854), The Spirit That Won the War (circa 1855) and The Spirit of '76 (circa 1845).  In the Examination of a Witch (circa 1853), Matteson re-tells an event that possibly occurred during the Salem witch trials in 1692, where Mary Fisher, a young girl, is arrested by Deputy Governor Bellingham of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and forced to disrobe. The deputy tries to ascertain if she is a witch with the Devil's mark upon her.  Matteson assists the viewers with describing the event by using the facial expressions of the constables, the direct pointing and fainting of the trial room attendees, to suggest a serious transgression has taken place. (source:http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/intro.html) 

Examination of a Witch

The Sin - Franz Von Stuck

Franz Von Stuck (1863 - 1928) was a German symbolist painter, sculptor, and engraver.  His works focused mainly on the use of female nudes to express serious and immediate danger of the subject and viewer.  The Symbolist movement or symbolism peaked in Europe between 1886 and 1900, and unlike realism, which was concern with the ordinary: the working class, and gritty street life, symbolism seeks to express greater emotion and states of the mind.  In The Sin (circa 1893),  von Stuck displays a temptress; a semi-nude female with her face slightly hidden by shadow, embraced by a serpent whose head is positioned to strike and her upper nude body glows with a desire. The use of the snake clearly points to the fall of eden when the serpent tempts Eve to eat from the tree of wisdom, and with her face slightly darken tends to symbolize an importance of body instead of mind.  Franz von Stuck crafts the emotion of lust, desire with foreboding. The Sin visually informs the viewer that her body comes with a payment of one's mortality. 

The Sin circa 1893