Lycanthropy

Firestorm Foundation acquired Lycanthropy at the exhibition Mentors (CFHILL, Stockholm, 3 December 2021 - 7 January 2022). The group exhibition, curated by Sandra Weil (art curator living in Tel Aviv who promotes cultural exchange Sweden-Israel and is active in the Robert Weil Family Foundation’s work to defend and nurture democratic society), brought together international contemporary artists like Barbara Kruger (U.S.A., born 1945), Olafur Eliasson (Denmark, born 1967), Klara Lidén (Sweden, born 1979) and Rithika Merchant.

In the exhibition catalogue Saskia Neuman (Swedish writer and curator, regular contributor to publications such as Vogue and Artlover, in addition to curating solo exhibitions. Formerly the director of the Market Art Fair, Stockholm and director of the Absolute Art Award) wrote the following about Rithika Merchant:

Rithika Merchant studies epic mythology that reaches beyond the barriers of geography, all while evolving her own visual language, based on a vast collection of figures, and symbols. Inspired by, among other things, traditional Indian art and Mongolian miniature painting, her fundamental knowledge in Indian mythology and iconography allows her to expand the language she builds throughout her artistic practice, a language that has the ability to transcend boundaries and differing beliefs, and still is easily interpreted by the viewer. Her work, a fantasy marred with animal and plant life, can be read, and seen as a narration of a collective human history. […] Through her work the artist creates a red thread binding together our understanding of the power of human relationships, and the dependance we have in one another. […] Even though Merchant creates enormous detail in outlines and composition in the highly figurative paintings she paints she should not be identified as a graphic artist. Additionally, the artist uses her work to recognize global issues such as climate change, evident in her praised painting Harvest of the Land of Plenty, a mixed media collage from 2020. The five paintings presented in this exhibition offer insight into the artist’s world, allowing the viewer to delve into this continuous artistic language where nature and ritual collide. With titles such as Lycanthropy, 2015 the artist offers us a glimpse into her fascination with the mythology and the occult. This theme is continued throughout, evident in the painting Hildegard von Bingen, 2014 a reference to the revered 11th century saint-like mythicist, nun and writer. Time and again Merchant draws upon history intertwined with beautiful botanical imagery, references to folk art and mythology to create very dramatic, and romantic examinations of her own imagination.

In folklore, a werewolf (from Old English: werwulf, ’man-wolf’), or occasionally lycanthrope(from Ancient Greek: λυκάνθρωπος, lykánthrōpos, ‘wolf-human’), is an individual who can shape-shift into a wolf, or especially in modern film: a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature (either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction; often a bite or the occasional scratch from another werewolf) with the transformations occurring on the night of a full moon.

Early sources for belief in this ability or affliction, called lycanthropy, are Gaius Petronius Arbiter (c. 27 – c. 66 AD, Roman courtier during the reign of Emperor Nero. Petronius is generally believed to be the author behind satirical novel, Satyricon) and Gervase of Tilbury (Latin: Gervasius Tilberiensis; c. 1150 – 1228, English canon lawyer, statesman and cleric. He enjoyed the favour of Henry II of England and later of Henry’s grandson, Emperor Otto IV, for whom he wrote his best known work, the Otia Imperialia).

The werewolf is a widespread concept in European folklore, existing in many variants, which are related by a common development of a Christian interpretation of underlying European folklore, developed during the medieval period. From the early modern period (c. 1500 - 1800), werewolf beliefs spread to the New World with colonialism. Belief in werewolves developed in parallel to the belief in witches, during the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period. Like the witchcraft trials as a whole, the trial of supposed werewolves emerged in what is now Switzerland, especially the Valais and Vaud, in the early 15th century and spread throughout Europe in the 16th, peaking in the 17th and subsiding by the 18th century.

The persecution of werewolves, and the associated folklore, is an integral part of the ‘witch-hunt’ phenomenon, albeit a marginal one (accusations of lycanthropy being involved in only a small fraction of witchcraft trials). During the early modern period, accusations of lycanthropy were mixed with accusations of wolf-riding or wolf-charming. The case of Peter Stumpp (c. 1530 - 1589, German farmer and alleged serial killer, accused of werewolfery, witchcraft and cannibalism. He was known as ‘the Werewolf of Bedburg’), in 1589, led to a significant peak in both interest in and persecution of supposed werewolves, primarily in French-speaking and German-speaking Europe. The phenomenon persisted longest in Bavaria and Austria, with persecution of wolf-charmers recorded until well after 1650, the final cases taking place in the early 18th century in Carinthia (today the southernmost and least densely populated Austrian state, in the eastern Alps, noted for its mountains and lakes) and Styria (today an Austrian state in the southeast of the country).

After the end of the witch trials, the werewolf became of interest in folklore studies and in the emerging Gothic horror genre. Werewolf fiction as a genre has premodern precedents in medieval romances, like Bisclavret (one of the twelve Lais of Marie de France written in the 12th century, telling the story of a Lord who is trapped in lupine form by the treachery of his wife) and Guillaume de Palerme (French romance poem, composed c. 1200, later translated into English where it is also known as William and the Werewolf ), and developed in the 18th century out of the ‘semi-fictional’ chapbook tradition. The trappings of horror literature in the 20th century became part of the horror and fantasy genre of modern popular culture.

Provenance

CFHILL, Stockholm, Mentors, 3 December 2021 - 7 January 2022.

Firestorm Foundation (acquired at the above).