The witches and alchemists, saints and scientists behind my 'Sabbat' Collection..
"In an obscure outskirt of Milan, near the Porta Vercellina, the Customs House, and the canal called the Acqua Cantarana, stood an old house, very solitary, and remarkable for the smoke which day and night ascended in large spirals from an immense, winding, and blackened chimney. Here dwelt Monna Sidonia, the wise woman. The upper floor she hired to Messer Galeotto Sacrobosco, an alchemist; and in the lower she lived herself with Cassandra, his niece, the young daughter of Luigi Sacrobosco, a celebrated traveller, who had traversed Greece, the islands of the Archipelago, Syria, Asia Minor, and Egypt, in the quest for specimens of ancient art.."
Witches' Sabbath - Francisco Goya
All my works originate in books, but if there is the one that I return to over the years, it's the Christ and Antichrist trilogy by Dmitry Merezhkovsky. This is a truly unique monument of Russian and world literature, and unlike the well-known books of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, it was Merezhkovsky's works that made my imagination work.
Last year I decided to return to his book "The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci" to create some accessories for these amazing characters: Cassandra and Sidonia. Because, in my opinion, Merezhkovsky's description of the witches' sabbath is the best in the history of literature. I decided to create something like romantic and symbolic works, so that they would be just a hint and keep a secret about what happens at night behind closed doors..
Discover ‘Cassandra’ Boots and ‘Sidonia’ Bag
Witches' Sabbath - Francisco Goya
"Without haste the old woman went about the room, shut the shutters, stuffed rags into the chinks, locked all doors, poured water on the fire, lighted a black candle endued with magical properties, and from an iron locker took an earthen vessel containing a pungent ointment. She made show of being deliberate and sensible, but her hands shook as though she were drunk, her sunken eyes were at times turbid, at times they sparkled like coals. Cassandra had dragged the two great troughs used for the kneading of dough into the centre of the room. Now Monna Sidonia stripped herself, and sitting astride of a broomstick on one of the troughs, she smeared herself with the ointment which she had taken from the locker. A hideous odour filled the room; the medicament, infallible for making witches fly, was composed of poisonous lettuce, hemlock, nightshade, mandragora, poppy, henbane, serpent's blood, and the fat of unchristened children.."
The 'Sabbat' Collection itself has developed into a story called 'Hexenkönigin'.
