![Hans Baldung Grien - Portrait of a Man - Google Art Project](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Hans_Baldung_Grien_-_Portrait_of_a_Man_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
Hans Baldung (1484 or 1485 – September 1545), called Hans Baldung Grien, (being an early nickname, because of his predilection for the colour green), was a painter,
printer
Printer may refer to:
Technology
* Printer (publishing), a person or a company
* Printer (computing), a hardware device
* Optical printer for motion picture films
People
* Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist
* James ...
, engraver, draftsman, and
stained glass
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
artist, who was considered the most gifted student of
Albrecht Dürer and whose art belongs to both
German Renaissance and
Mannerism. Throughout his lifetime, he developed a distinctive style, full of colour, expression and imagination. His talents were varied, and he produced a great and extensive variety of work including portraits, woodcuts, drawings,
tapestries
Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...
,
altarpieces, and stained glass, often relying on allegories and mythological motifs.
Life
Early life, c. 1484–1500
Hans was born in
Schwäbisch Gmünd
Schwäbisch Gmünd (, until 1934: Gmünd; Swabian: ''Gmẽẽd'' or ''Gmend'') is a city in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. With a population of around 60,000, the city is the second largest in the Ostalb district and ...
(formerly Gmünd in Germany), a
small free city of the Empire, part of the
East Württemberg region in former Swabia, Germany, in the year 1484 or 1485. Baldung was the son of Johann Baldung, a university-educated jurist, who held the office of legal adviser to the bishop of Strasbourg (Albert of Bavaria) from 1492, and Margarethe Herlin, daughter of Arbogast Herlin. His uncle, Hieronymus Baldung, was a doctor in medicine, with a son, Pius Hieronymus, Hans' cousin, who taught law at
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...
and became chancellor of Tyrol in 1527.
Hans was not propertyless, but with unknown occupation. He was the first male in his family not to attend university, but was one of the first German artists to come from an academic family.
Life as a student of Dürer
![Hans Baldung Grien - Die Kreuzigung Christi - Google Art Project](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Hans_Baldung_Grien_-_Die_Kreuzigung_Christi_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
Baldung's earliest training as an artist began around 1500 in the Upper Rhineland with an artist from Strasbourg. Beginning in 1503, during the "Wanderjahre" ("years of wandering") required of artists of the time, Baldung became an assistant in Albrecht Dürer's studio in Nuremberg, where he perfected his art between 1503 and 1507.
Here, he may have been given his nickname "Grien". This name is thought to have come foremost from a preference to the color green: he seems to have worn green clothing. He may also have been given this nickname to distinguish him from at least two other Hanses in Dürer's shop, Hans Schäufelin and Hans Suess von Kulmbach. He later included the name "Grien" in his monogram, and it has also been suggested that the name came from, or consciously echoed, "grienhals", a German word for witch—one of his signature themes.
Hans quickly picked up Dürer's influence and style, and they became friends. Baldung seems to have managed Dürer's workshop during the latter's second sojourn in Venice. In a later trip to the Netherlands in 1521 Dürer's account book records that he took with him and sold prints by Baldung. Near the end of his Nuremberg years, Grien oversaw the production by Dürer of stained glass, woodcuts and engravings, and therefore developed an affinity for these media and for the Nuremberg master's handing of them. On Dürer's death Baldung was sent a lock of his hair, which suggests a close friendship.
Strasbourg
In 1509, when Baldung's time in Nuremberg was complete, he moved back to Strasbourg and became a
citizen there. He became a celebrity of the town and received many important
commissions. The following year, at age 26, he married Margarethe Herlin, a local merchant's daughter, with whom he had one child, Margarethe Baldungin. He also joined the
guild
A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...
"Zur Steltz", opened a workshop, and began signing his works with the HGB
monogram that he used for the rest of his career.
His style became much more deliberately individual—a tendency
art historians
The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic visu ...
used to term "
mannerist
Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Ita ...
." He stayed in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1513–1516 where he made, among other things, the .
Like Dürer and
Cranach Cranach is a German-language surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Augustin Cranach (1554–1595), German painter
*Hans Cranach (c. 1513–1537), German painter
*Lucas Cranach the Elder (c. 1472–1553), German artist
*Lucas Cranach th ...
, Baldung supported the
Protestant Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
. He was present at the
diet of Augsburg
The Diet of Augsburg were the meetings of the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire held in the German city of Augsburg. Both an Imperial City and the residence of the Augsburg prince-bishops, the town had hosted the Estates in many such sessi ...
in 1518, and one of his
woodcut
Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...
s represents
Luther
Luther may refer to:
People
* Martin Luther (1483–1546), German monk credited with initiating the Protestant Reformation
* Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American minister and leader in the American civil rights movement
* Luther (give ...
in quasi-saintly guise, under the protection of (or being inspired by) the Holy Spirit, which hovers over him in the shape of a dove.
Witchcraft and religious imagery
In addition to traditional religious subjects, Baldung was concerned during these years with the profane themes of the imminence of death and the relation between the sexes, as well as with scenes of sorcery and
witchcraft
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...
. The number of Baldung's religious works diminished with the
Protestant Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
, which generally repudiated church art as either wasteful or idolatrous.
While Dürer had occasionally included images of witches in his work, Baldung was the first German artist to heavily incorporate witches and witchcraft and
erotic themes into his artwork. His most characteristic works in this area are small in scale and mostly in the medium of drawing; these include a series of puzzling, often erotic allegories and mythological works executed in
quill
A quill is a writing tool made from a moulted flight feather (preferably a primary wing-feather) of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, the metal- nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, eventual ...
pen and ink and white body color on primed paper.
His fascination with witchcraft began early, in 1510 when he produced an important
chiaroscuro woodcut
Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...
known as
''The Witches' Sabbath'', and lasted to the end of his career. Witches were also a local interest: Strasbourg's
humanists
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
studied witchcraft and its bishop was charged with finding and prosecuting witches.
Baldung's work depicting witches was produced in the first half of the 16th century, before
witch hunting
A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern per ...
became a widespread cultural phenomenon in Europe. According to one view, Baldung's work did not represent widespread cultural beliefs at the time of creation but reflected largely individual choices.
On the other hand, Baldung may have taken inspiration from the humanism of the early 16th century. Baldung, through his family, stood closer to the leading humanist intellectuals of the day than any of his contemporaries and partook in this culture, producing not only many works depicting Strasbourg humanists and scenes from ancient art and literature, but also works reflecting their attitude, drawn in large part from classical poetry and satire, toward witches. To take one example, Baldung is believed to have alluded to the notion expressed in Latin and Greek literature that witches could control the weather in his 1523 oil painting ''Weather Witches'', which showcases two attractive and naked witches in front of a stormy sky. As Gert von der Osten commented, "Baldung
reatshis witches humorously, an attitude that reflects the dominant viewpoint of the humanists in Strasbourg at this time who viewed witchcraft as 'lustig,' a matter that was more amusing than serious".
However, it has also proved difficult to distinguish between the satirical tone that some critics observe in Baldung's work and a more serious vilifying intent, just as it is for many other artists, including his rough contemporary
Hieronymus Bosch
Hieronymus Bosch (, ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch/ Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on o ...
. Baldung could also draw on a burgeoning literature on witchcraft, as well as on developing juridical and forensic strategies for witch-hunting. While Baldung never worked directly with any Reformation leaders to spread religious ideals through his artwork, even though he lived in fervently religious Strasbourg, he was a supporter of the movement, working on the high altar in the city of Münster, Germany.
Baldung also regularly incorporated scenes of witches flying in his art, a characteristic that had been contested centuries before his artwork came into being. Flying was inherently attributed to witches by those who believed in the myth of the Sabbath Flight; without their ability to fly, the myth fragmented. Baldung depicted this in works such as ''Witches Preparing for the Sabbath Flight'' (1514).
Work
Painting
![Hans_Baldung_Grien_-_Portrait_of_a_Lady_-_Google_Art_Project](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Hans_Baldung_Grien_-_Portrait_of_a_Lady_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
Baldung settled eventually in Strasbourg and then to Freiburg im Breisgau, where he executed what is held to be his masterpiece: an eleven-panel altarpiece for the
Freiburg Cathedral, still intact today, depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin, including ''The Annunciation'', ''The Visitation'', ''The Nativity'', ''The Flight into Egypt'', ''The Crucifixion'', ''Four Saints'' and ''The Donators''. These depictions were a large part of the artist's greater body of work containing several renowned depictions of the Virgin.
The earliest pictures assigned to him by some are altar-pieces with the monogram H. B. interlaced, and the date of 1496, in the monastery chapel of
Lichtenthal
Lichtenthal Abbey (german: Kloster Lichtenthal) is a Cistercian nunnery in Lichtenthal in the town of Baden-Baden, Germany.
History and buildings
The abbey was founded in 1245 by Irmengard bei Rhein, widow of Margrave Hermann V of Baden, whose ...
near
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...
. ''The Martyrdom of St Sebastian and the Epiphany'' (now Berlin, 1507) was painted for the market-church of
Halle in Saxony.
Baldung is well known as a portrait painter, known for his sharp characterization of his subjects. His works include historical pictures and portraits, such as
Maximilian I and
Charles V Charles V may refer to:
* Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558)
* Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain
* Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise
* Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690)
* Infan ...
. At a later period he had sittings with Margrave Christopher of Baden, Ottilia his wife, and all their children, and the picture containing these portraits is still in the gallery at
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
.
While Dürer rigorously details his models, Baldung's style differs by focusing more on the personality of the represented character, an abstract conception of the model's state of mind.
Printmaking
His prints are more important than his paintings. Baldung's
prints, though Düreresque, are very individual in style, and often in subject, showing little direct Italian influence. He worked mainly in
woodcut
Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...
, although he made six
engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...
s, one very fine. He joined in the fashion for
chiaroscuro woodcut
Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...
s, adding a tone block to a woodcut of 1510. Most of his hundreds of woodcuts were commissioned for books, as was usual at the time; his "single-leaf" woodcuts (i.e. prints not for book illustration) are fewer than 100, though no two catalogues agree as to the exact number.
Unconventional as a draughtsman, his treatment of human form is often exaggerated and eccentric (hence his linkage, in the art historical literature, with European
Mannerism), whilst his ornamental style—profuse, eclectic, and akin to the self-consciously "German" strain of contemporary
limewood
''Tilia'' is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. In Britain and Ireland they ...
sculptors—is equally distinctive. Though Baldung has been commonly called the
Correggio
Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sens ...
of the north, his compositions are a curious medley of glaring and heterogeneous colours, in which pure black is contrasted with pale yellow, dirty grey, impure red and glowing green. Flesh is a mere glaze under which the features are indicated by lines.
His works are notable for their individualistic departure from the Renaissance composure of his model, Dürer, for the wild and fantastic strength that some of them display, and for their remarkable themes. In the field of painting, his ''
Eve, the Serpent and Death'' (
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the ...
) shows his strengths well. There is special force in the ''Death and the Maiden'' panel of 1517 (Basel), in the ''Weather Witches'' (Frankfurt), in the monumental panels of ''Adam'' and ''Eve'' (Madrid), and in his many powerful portraits. Baldung's most sustained effort is the altarpiece of Freiburg, where the ''Coronation of the Virgin'', and the ''Twelve Apostles'', the ''Annunciation'', ''Visitation'', ''Nativity'' and ''Flight into Egypt'', and the ''Crucifixion'', with
portraits of donors, are executed with some of that fanciful power that
Martin Schongauer
Martin Schongauer (c. 1450–53, Colmar – 2 February 1491, Breisach), also known as Martin Schön ("Martin beautiful") or Hübsch Martin ("pretty Martin") by his contemporaries, was an Alsatian engraver and painter. He was the most important ...
bequeathed to the Swabian school.
Other works
One of his earliest works is a portrait of the
emperor Maximilian, drawn in 1501 on a leaf of a sketch-book now in the print-room at
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
.
His bust of Margrave Philip in the
Munich Gallery tells us that he was connected with the reigning family of Baden as early as 1514.
Selected works
![Hans Baldung - Mater Dolorosa (detail) - WGA01206](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Hans_Baldung_-_Mater_Dolorosa_%28detail%29_-_WGA01206.jpg)
*''Phyllis and Aristotle'', Paris, Louvre. 1503
*Two altar wings (Charles the Great, St. George), Augsburg, State Gallery.
*''Portrait of a Youth'', Hampton Court, Royal Collection 1509
*''The birth of Christ'', Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel, 1510
*''The Adoration of the Magi'', Dessau, Anhalt Art Gallery, 1510
*''
The Witches'', 1510
*''The Mass of St. Gregory'', Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1511
*''The crucifixion of Christ'', Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel, 1512
*''The crucifixion of Christ'', Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, 1512
*''The Holy Trinity'', London, National Gallery, 1512
*''The Rest on the Flight into Egypt'', Vienna, Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts, 1513
*''Portrait of a Man'', London, National Gallery, 1514
*''The Lamentation of Christ'', Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, 1516
*''
Death and the Maiden'', Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel, 1517
*''The Baptism of Christ'', Frankfurt am Main, Städel, 1518
*''Two Witches'', Frankfurt am Main, Städel, 1523
*''Venus with Cupid'', Otterlo, Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, 1525
*''Pyramus and Thisbe'', Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, around 1530
*''
Ambrosius Volmar Keller'', Strasbourg, Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame, 1538
*''Christ as a Gardener'', Darmstadt, Hessen State Museum, 1539
*''Adam and Eve'', Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi - Uffizi
*''The unlikely couple'', Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, 1527
*''
The Three Ages of Man and Death'', Museo del Prado, Madrid
*''Mercury as a Planet God'', Stockholm,
Nationalmuseum, 1530–1540
*''Harmony, or The Three Graces'' ''Die Jugend (Die drei Grazien) The youth (the three graces) Museo del Prado between 1541 and 1544''
File:Hans Baldung - Die Heilige Jungfrau als Königin des Himmels mit dem Christkind.jpg, ''The Virgin as Queen of Heaven with the Christ Child in her arms''
File:Hans Baldung - Mater Dolorosa - WGA01205.jpg, ''Mater Dolorosa''
File:Hans Baldung Grien - Ruhe auf der Flucht der heiligen Familie nach Ägypten.jpg, ''Rest on the Flight into Egypt''
File:Baldung FR Hochaltar.02.JPG, ''Nativity''
File:Hans Baldung Grien - Adam - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Adam''
File:Hans Baldung Grien - Eve - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Eve''
File:649_z-hans_baldung_grien-lucretia-1520.png, ''Lucretia''. Drawing with bodycolor
File:1510 Baldung Der Heilige Johannes auf Patmos anagoria.JPG, ''John of Patmos'' Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1510
File:Hans Baldung - The Mass of Saint Gregory - 1952.112 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tiff, ''The Mass of St Gregory'', 1511
File:Aristotle and Phyllis.jpg, Woodcut of Phyllis and Aristotle
The tale of Phyllis and Aristotle is a medieval cautionary tale about the triumph of a seductive woman, Phyllis, over the greatest male intellect, the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. It is one of several Power of Women stories from that tim ...
, 1515
File:Hans Baldung 004.jpg, ''The Lamentation of Christ'', 1516
File:Hans Baldung Grien Enthauptung der hl Dorothea.jpg, ''Beheading of St Dorothea'', 1516
File:Gw11 0001031 20170619 001 Baldung Der Tod und das Maedchen.jpg, '' Death and the Maiden'', 1517
Two Witches (SM 1123).png, ''Two Witches'', 1523
File:Hans Baldung Grien - Venus and Amor - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Venus with Cupid'', 1525
File:Mercury (Hans Baldung Grien) - Nationalmuseum - 18076.tif, '' Mercury , 1530–1540
File:Hans Baldung - The Three Graces - WGA01196.jpg, ''Harmony'', 1541
Baldung Vierge treille mba mb.jpg, '' Madonna in the Vine Arbour'', 1541–1543
See also
*
Early Renaissance painting
Early may refer to:
History
* The beginning or oldest part of a defined historical period, as opposed to middle or late periods, e.g.:
** Early Christianity
** Early modern Europe
Places in the United States
* Early, Iowa
* Early, Texas
* E ...
*
Old master print
Notes
References
Citations
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Attribution:
*
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Hans Baldung (see index)
*
ttp://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/tbio?person=1200,http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg35a/gg35a-45878.0.html "Hans Baldung Grien" ''National Gallery of Art''
Hans Baldung in the "A World History of Art"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldung, Hans
1480s births
1545 deaths
People from Schwäbisch Gmünd
16th-century German painters
German male painters
German Renaissance painters
Woodcut designers