The Evil Procession

Attributed to Marcantonio Raimondi, who was close to Raphael and mainly known for having copied engravings by Dürer (we can recognize his Witch of 1500, hair blowing in the wind, figure perched like a pagan deity on top of the largest carcass), this engraving from the early 16th century depicts a monstrous cavalcade, a macabre parody of the processions of gods or of noble hunters. Hybrid skeletons, one of which is carried like a chariot of triumph by muscular young men, stand alongside Satan's goats in a night run through the swamps. The presence of many terrified children, held as prisoners, evokes the systematic accusations of ritual infanticide in witchcraft trials.