Any Witch Way - Part 2
Last week we took a look at one piece of imagery from the Witch of Walpugis painting from the Disney World Haunted Mansion's Sinister 11. This week we look at the concept painting that Marc Davis created and the imagery in it.
Many of the Sinister 11 paintings at one time were meant to be changing portraits for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. Some remain in the gallery such as Medusa and the defunct April/December. In the Witch of Walpurgis painting, the witch would mysteriously change into a goat-like creature. In the cave setting around her were some interesting items. A skull with a dagger stabbed into it, a weird bat stanchion-esque creature and a hand with all 5 fingers lit as though they were candles.
What is more interesting is that all three items were found in an illustration entitled "An Assembly of Witches" by Frans Francken. This painting was also featured in last weeks book about witchcraft. It is know that Marc and Alice Davis have an interesting home collection of books, but they were also adamant about books from the WDI library. This is yet another amazing detail by the Imagineers to further the realism in our favorite attractions.
Many of the Sinister 11 paintings at one time were meant to be changing portraits for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. Some remain in the gallery such as Medusa and the defunct April/December. In the Witch of Walpurgis painting, the witch would mysteriously change into a goat-like creature. In the cave setting around her were some interesting items. A skull with a dagger stabbed into it, a weird bat stanchion-esque creature and a hand with all 5 fingers lit as though they were candles.
What is more interesting is that all three items were found in an illustration entitled "An Assembly of Witches" by Frans Francken. This painting was also featured in last weeks book about witchcraft. It is know that Marc and Alice Davis have an interesting home collection of books, but they were also adamant about books from the WDI library. This is yet another amazing detail by the Imagineers to further the realism in our favorite attractions.
posted by Ghost Relations Dept. at 1:12 PM
2 Comments:
The hand is probably a Hand of Glory - the dried hand of a hanged murderer coated in wax. In folklore it's used by thieves to unlock doors and prevent anyone in a house from waking (they will remain asleep as long as the hand is lit). This can even be seen in The Wicker Man (original version), though in the film the attempt to keep the intended victim asleep fails because he is only pretending to be asleep when the hand is lit.
Interesting history behind The Witch painiting.
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