Saint Anthony and scene of witchcraft attributed to Cornelis Saftleven

This is a characteristic scene of the painter who describes in this painting the madness of the world confronted with religion and political power. The animals on the right side of the painting are probably caricatures of people expressing their judgments about the witchcraft prosecuted by the political and religious powers during the 17th century. This painting can be compared to the paintings of the same style in the Dallas Museum and the Rijksmuseum.
The coloring of the characters suggests that this is a work from the last period of the artist to compare with his painting of the Gates of Hell, former collection of Johnny van Haften.

Monogram partly erased and numbers 70 (1670 ?)

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)