The Bath of Leuk, 1597 by Hans Bock
Old women in early modern Germany were a group of people that according to Roper were potentially a despised segment of society and this image called The Bath of Leuk illustrates this mentality in multiple ways. The younger women are shown as expressing fertility with some such as the woman in the foreground and others appearing pregnant. Pregnancy was an important feature of fertility during the time period and presents the younger women in a positive light. Another positive aspect of the younger women in the image is that they appear to be wealthier than the other women with expensive looking necklaces and many of them are attracting male attention or are at least interacting with with others in the image. All of these attributes contrast with the older women portrayed in the image. The older women portrayed in this image are not socially interacting with anyone else in the image nor seem to be particularly enjoying themselves in contrast to basically everyone else in the image. The older woman on the far left with her arms crossed appears to be among only women in the image to not have a necklace of some type implying a difference in wealth between her and the younger fertile women in the scene. All of these differences between the older women and the younger serve to illustrate the mindset of German society at the time of old women as different from the rest of society.
Why is it that you think that old women in German society during the early modern era were targeted for witchcraft? Was it primarily about fertility or something more?
Thanks for the post Ian! I greatly appreciate getting to see the painting in color. I find it interesting to see that the main figure in the image is what appears to be a pregnant young woman. As we discussed the other day that women were often depicted as being pregnant to showcase their ability, and arguably their perceived social task, to produce offspring. Thus the likelihood that the woman in the painting is pregnant is doubtful. However the more significant aspect is the importance of the issue of fertility during this period of time. This aspect would come to play a role in the targeting of older women who had passed the age of child-bearing years, effectively becoming no longer useful in early modern society.
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