I sat in as videographer on my wife's guest lecture at University of Maryland's Women's Studies dept. on women and spirituality. She touched on Baba Yaga, from her part of the world, as she was born in Eastern Europe.
Those versed in Eastern European folklore will recognize this wizened old hag, the Slavic version of the Bogeyman, who flies around in a mortar and pestle, abducting children to eat them.
Though her house is not made of gingerbread (but rather, is built upon chicken feet) some believe she was the inspiration for the witch in "Hansel and Gretel."
The wife did not like this portrayal. The idea of this benevolent figure abducting children was introduced by Christian missionaries to make way for their "new, improved!" belief system.
I became aware of Baba Yaga through Mussorgsky's penultimate "picture" in "Pictures at an Exhibition." (It's subtitled "the hut on fowl's legs.) My understanding was that she travelled in a house with chicken legs, but I like the mortar and pestle idea too (and it may represent a variation among eastern European oral traditions).
ReplyDeleteThe original painting by Hartmann that inspired the piece can be found here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f7/Hartmann_-_Hut_of_Baba_Yaga.jpg. It looks less witchy than I would've expected frankly. Perhaps your painting will inspire a similar musical homage one day. (Or perhaps you should next try "The Great Gate of Kiev.")