HANS BALDUNG-GRIEN

Painter and graphic artist, one of the most outstanding figures in northern Renaissance art.

He was an assistant to Albrecht Dürer, whose influence is apparent energy in his early works, although the demonic energy of his later style is closer to that of Matthias Grünewald.

His work is extensive and varied. It ranges from religious paintings and secular portraits to designs for tapestries and stained glass. He is noted for representations of the Virgin Mary, in which he combined landscapes, figures, light, and colour with an almost magical serenity. His portrayals of age, on the other hand, have a sinister character and a manered virtuosity.

His best known work in painting is the High Altar of the cathedral at Freiburg im Breisgau, for which he also designed the stained-glass choir windows.

Baldung-Grien´s paintings are equalled in importance by his extensive body of drawings, engravings, and woodcuts of an intensive vitality.

The Todentanz or dance of death and the death and the maiden theme occur frequently in his graphic works. An early suporter of the Reformation, he executed a woodcut in which Martin Luther is protected by the Holy Spirit in the form of a hovering dove.

Baldung-Grien was a member of the Strasbourg town council, as well as official painter to the episcopate. As well as Freiburg im Breisgau Cathedral, his works appear in the church at Elzach and the museums of Basel, Karlsruhe, Cologne, Freiburg and Nürnberg.