University/Organization
Department of Art and Design
The University of Tampa
Tampa, Florida
Department of Art and Design
The University of Tampa
Tampa, Florida
Title
‘Every Woman without a Ring on her third finger is a witch’: Old Master Images of Witches as Inspiration for Otto Dix’s Paintings of Prostitutes
Synopsis
In his paintings, The Salon II of 1921 and Three Wenches of 1926, German New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) artist Otto Dix (1891-1969) referenced images of witches by Old Master artists such as Hans Baldung Grien, Albrecht Dürer, and Lucas Cranach the Elder. He updated past motifs by these artists in order to address Weimar-era gender conflicts and perceptions that liberated New Women and prostitutes were morally suspect femme fatales who exerted a corrupting influence on “good” German men.