Faust transformed into a young man by a magic potion supplied by a witch at the behest of Mephistopheles. Coloured etching.

  • Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832.
Date:
[between 1800 and 1899]
Reference:
46994i
  • Pictures

About this work

Description

An episode in Goethe's Faust, part 1, scene 8. Faust, as a young man with a feathered hat and a cape, holds an elixir from which a flame rises up, and looks out knowingly at the viewer, who, in the poem, is the image of a beautiful woman seen in a mirror. He stands inside a circle of occult signs. Also standing in the circle are Mephistopheles and the witch, and apes ("Meerkatzen", "Katzengeister") holding a grimoire and a torch. Left background, the witch's cauldron from which monstrous animals emerge. Right, more monstrous creatures

Publication/Creation

Nürnberg : Bei Friedrich Campe, [between 1800 and 1899]

Physical description

1 print : etching, with gouache ; platemark 17.8 x 25.5 cm

Lettering

Doctor Faust von Göthe. Hexe. Sinn und Verstand verlier' ich schier, Seh' ich den Iunker Satan hier ... Mephistopheles ... Bist mit dem Teufel du und du, und willst dich vor der Flamme scheuen? Lettering is quoted from "Faust", part 1 lines 25XX-2586

References note

To be investigated in W. Wegner, Die Faustdarstellung vom 16. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. Eine Enzyklopædie der Faustikonographie und der Faustillustration, Amsterdam 1962

Reference

Wellcome Collection 46994i

Type/Technique

Languages

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