Hexenschlaf (Witch’s Sleep, or, Burning a Witch)details

Hexenschlaf (Witch’s Sleep, or, Burning a Witch)

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The title of this painting, Hexenschlaf, refers to the idea that witches went into a lethargic state and became insensitive to pain during torture.

Here we see a teenage girl convicted of “witchcraft” tied to the stake and about to be burned to death.

At the time Keller exhibit the picture, though, it was pointed out that witches were burned in grey clothing with yellow crosses, and not with exposed breasts, and that it was not normal to sentence a teenager to death.

Keller, however, was interested in the occult, and in the trance state that witches supposedly entered. He used a live model, Lina Matzinger, who was hypnotized for the painting.

The painting was later retouched, as shown here, to cover the exposed breast.

The original painting was lost in the Second World War, although it seems there are some studies and a smaller version in Munich.

torture, occult, hypnotism, witches, women, people, anger, grief, execution, punishment

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1800 dots per inch