The Four Witches (Four Naked Women) (1497): Art, History and Details

The Four Witches (Four Naked Women) (1497) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Licentious witches occupied a precarious place during the 16th and 17th centuries, due to their perceived seductive powers that threatened to overturn the patriarchal order of society. The four fleshy women of Albrecht Dürer's beguiling Four Witches exchange vague and shifting glances that suggest sinister intentions. The threatening atmosphere is emphasized by a devil lurking behind an open doorway at the left, and a globe hanging from the ceiling inscribed O.G.H. (O Gott hüte), a proverb that means "Oh God, save us"—in this instance, from these sensual witches.

Object facts

• Title: The Four Witches (Four Naked Women)
• Date: 1497
• Creator attribution: Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving
• Dimensions: Sheet: 19 x 13.1 cm (7 1/2 x 5 3/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1990.85

Collection credit

Gift of Howard E. Wise in memory of his parents, Samuel D. and May W. Wise by exchange

Further reading listed by the museum

• Glaubinger, Jane. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147.
• Cowan, Dana. “Dürer’s Women: Printmaking, feminine authority, and the communication of ideas.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 54, no. 4 (July/August 2014): 10-11.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.