A dude by the name of Frans Francken II painted _The Witches' Kitchen_ 
in the sixteenth century. I very much desire a high-quality print of 
this work, larger rather than smaller. I'd like a high-quality digital 
image as well. 
 
I haven't had any luck obtaining either. I'd settle for a smaller, 
lower-quality rendition if big, beautiful prints are really expensive. 

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Request for Question Clarification by missy-ga on 27 Apr 2002 16:16 PDT

References to _The Witches' Kitchen_ point to a Dutch artist of Jaques
de Gheyn, who worked in the 1500s.  Are you certain of the title of
the work?
 
Can you describe what the painting depicts?  This would aid greatly in
pinpointing the exact work you have in mind. 

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Clarification of Question by allegory-ga on 28 Apr 2002 02:42 PDT

Hi! Thanks so much for the detailed comments! 
 
I'm familar with the work on the bestpriceart.com site, also by Francken II, 
also with witches -- unfortunately it's not the one I'm looking for. And yes, 
I'm sure I'm looking for a work by a Francken, and I have no reason to believe 
the title isn't as I gave it. 
 
Some features of the painting (from memory, unfortunately) include a witch 
tending a cauldron (center or a little to the left), a witch rubbing another 
with unguent (a little to the right) and others disrobing for the same 
treatment, and a witch flying away astride a broomstick (up a chimney perhaps?) 
mimbres.com is almost certainly talking about the same picture as I. 
Presumably the "reproductions" that site mentions are books that reproduce 
the work; short of finding an incredibly good color photocopier, this 
doesn't do me a lot of good. Note also that one of the two references 
(Gari 1987) doesn't seem to appear in the bibliography provided. 
 
I believe the work mentioned at saskia.com is the one I'm looking for. I'd 
actually run across this page earlier, but I don't have the necessary academic 
credentials. (High-quality slides for $7! *swoon*) Contacting the museum 
directly is a good idea, but I was hoping Google Answers could provide me 
with a solution that involves less legwork and a greater chance of success, 
such as a source for commercial prints. 
 
Elizabeth, thank you for the final link -- it is entrancing. 
 
Apologies for not being more specific about the content of the work; I 
had thought a name and a title would be enough. 

Hi,

The print you are looking for may take a little off line effort on
your part.

Saskia, Ltd.
http://www.saskia.com/Default.asp
Cultural Documentation
5 Horizon Lane
Freeport, Maine 04032

1 (877) Saskia-2
int'l +1-207-865-7080
Fax: (207) 865-4336
Does have a small slide of the panel, but as one of the comments below
indicates, in order to purcase slides from them you must be an
educational institutions, or a qualified professional affiliated with
an educational institution.

If that is the case just go to the site, set up an account and order
the slide. It costs $6.95 and you can bring it to any print shop to
have a poster made.

According to the citation the original oak panel can be found at
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. A search of their site and
collections does nor lead to any Francken pieces.
They do have some posters, but not the one you are requesting - none
by Francken.
http://ecomm.khm.at/cgi-bin/khmmuseumsshop.storefront/3ceca6751e2452ad271bc1ab3ff60718/Catalog/1011/9

http://www.ladythunder.com/postoffice.html
has a copy of the print available as a postcard.
"Witch 7 
Hieronymus Francken the Elder's The Witches' Kitchen (1610) reflects
the spirit of the painter's age in its fevered and fanciful
representation of a witches' coven..."
She attributes the work to the brother so I did another search using
his namne, but wasn't able to find a site that switched the painters.
Email:thunder@ladythunder.com - 
Chat: http://www.hotmessenger.com/ - she says that she is "bewitching"
there most evenings after 9pm EST, except for Tuesdays -
Her icq # is 9050652.
If you contact her you should be able to find out where she got the
copy of the print on her site and follow that route to getting one for
yourself.

In "The Holistic Path" Jonathon Ott states:"Frans Francken's sixteenth
century The Witches' Kitchen beautifully depicts the preparation,
application, aeronautic and visionary properties of the ointments (see
Gari 1987 and Harner 1973 for reproductions of Goya and Francken)."
The reference to Harner is the book "The Way of the Shaman " by
Michael Harner which you can find at Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0062503731/102-9572113-4958512

Michael Harner is closely associated with Esalen
http://www.esalen.org/info/information.index.shtml
By E-mail:info@esalen.org (please allow 72 hours for a reply)

The most likely avenues for obtaining the picture are ordering the
slide if you can; contacting ladythunder which would probably be the
simplest or emailing Michael Harner in care of Esalen.

It will take a little work, but you should be able to have the print
fairly soon.

Search terms used: Frans Francken II Witches' Kitchen

Hope it works out. It is a fantastic piece.

Be well,
bcguide-ga

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Clarification of Answer by bcguide-ga on 23 May 2002 03:38 PDT

Hi allegory-ga,
Getting a print of the other one you liked "Devilīs Sabbath" from
http://www.zpr.uni-koeln.de/~nix/hexen/galerie/d-magie.htm 
can probably be obtained the same way.
Dr. Dietmar Nix is the one who put the page together. He is at the
University of Cologne.
His email is: d.nix@gmx.de 

Enjoy,
bcguide-ga

Do you by any chance have this painting in mind:

http://www.bestpriceart.com/painting/?image=francken2-1.jpg

http://130.226.236.8/flamsk/franckenf.htm
This is one mention of the "Witches Kitchen by Frans Franken 11 (or in
some cases his signature appears as "the young" or "the old" depending
on the date of the work, whether his father was alive or dead and
whether his three sons had begun to paint).


http://www.mimbres.com/holp/holpath/pi_ott.htm

This is a short blurb from the above web site which chronicles this
genre of work.  It also lists a possible source for a reproduction:

"Frans Francken's sixteenth century The Witches' Kitchen beautifully
depicts the preparation, application, aeronautic and visionary
properties of the ointments (see Gari 1987 and Harner 1973 for
reproductions of Goya and Francken)."

http://www.saskia.com/Query/Selected_Work.asp?WorkID=1673

This is a short blurb from the above site giving the stats of this
particular piece, and where the original wood panel is now.  If you
can find no other source, you might correspond with this museum and
ask if they sell reproductions or know where you can find one.  If you
are in the "right" professional field you can purchase material here:

 "Title:Witches' Kitchen
 Artist:FRANCKEN, Frans II (1581-1642)
 Period:Baroque, 17th & 18th c.
 Materials:oak panel
 Dimensions:51.8x66 cm
 Museum:Austria, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
 Inv. #:1074"

http://www.zpr.uni-koeln.de/~nix/hexen/galerie/e-magie.htm

The above Web site is a good example of many works in this genre and
some excellent examples.  Your particular work by Francken is not
here, but another of his is.

Hope this helps.

Hello, allegory!

Is this possibly the painting you are searching for?

http://www.ashira.freehomepage.com/images/unbek-04-ausflug.jpg

It is called "Hexen auf dem Flug durch den Schornstein zum Convent"
(German for 'Witches flying through the chimney to their assembly')
and fits quite well with your description, but unfortunately it is not
by Frans Francken the Elder but by an unknown artist.

Regards,
Scriptor

Thanks for the link, Scriptor!  I wish I knew who the artist was, and
where I could get a
higher-resolution version.

It's not the Francken work, but it does have very similar subject
material. One way the Francken
is different is that it is larger and has a lot more small details.

(For those following along at home, the posted link doesn't work
because Freehomepage doesn't
allow direct linking to images. Google finds the page that links to
the image:

http://www.ashira.freehomepage.com/bildarchiv.htm

The only other occurance of the painting's title is on another page
that has the same content:

http://www.zpr.uni-koeln.de/~nix/hexen/galerie/d-magie.htm

which seems to be the German version of a gallery that was mentioned
earlier.)

Hello, allegory!

I did not find a painting by Francken the Younger yet ... but here's a
second try: Is this the picture you have in mind?

http://www.steigrad.com/Face/Ljpg/08Teniers.jpg

This fits, in my humble opinion, perfectly with your description. It's
"Witches Preparing For A Sabbath" from the atelier of David Teniers
the Younger (Flemish painter, 1610-1690).

I strongly hope I finally found what you were looking for...
Regards,
Scriptor

Hello, there!

I don't know if you were able to source a print from any of the
sources listed above, but....

When this question was "live" I e-mailed the kunsthistorisches museum
and relayed your request.  Today (8 June) I received the following
reply:

***Unfortunately there is no reproduction of the the painting by Frans
Francken: Witches' Kitchen (GG 1074) in our museumsshop available.
But we can make you an enlarged coloured photo of the painting.
The costs for size 18 x 24 cm EURO 23,25 / size 24 x 30 cm EURO 34,16
/
size 30 x 40 cm EURO 51,60 / size 40 x 50 cm is EURO 63,04  / size 50
x
70 EURO 87,21 (exclusive service charge about EURO 14,53.
To your question about digital images - digital images will be only
provided for reproduction purposes.
In case of a defintive order we need to know your address or of your
client.
For further information, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely,


Ilse Jung****

The e-mail address was:      info.pr@khm.at

Hope this is helpful!