Baldung, Hans

Baldung or Baldung-Grien, Hans (häns bäl`dng,–grēn), c.1484–1545, German painter and printmaker, active mainly at Strasbourg. He was surnamed Grien or Grün because of his fondness for the color green. Although he probably studied with Dürer, he evolved a personal style revealing his interest in brilliant color, effects of light, and expressively contorted forms. He is best known as a painter of such disturbing subjects as Death and the Maiden (Basel) and for drawings and prints of witches and allegorical or mythological scenes. The high altar of the cathedral at Freiburg in Breisgau, with depictions of the Coronation of the Virgin, the Crucifixion, and other subjects (c.1515) is his most famous work. Baldung was also esteemed as a portrait painter and designer for stained glass.

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Baldung, Hans

 or Hans Baldung Grien

(born c. 1484, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Württemberg—died 1545, Imperial Free City of Strasbourg) German painter and graphic artist. He was assistant to Albrecht Dürer in Nürnberg and was active in Strasbourg as official painter to the episcopate. He is best known for the high altar of the cathedral at Freiburg, where he lived in 1512–17. His output was varied and extensive, encompassing religious paintings, allegories, mythologies, portraits, designs for stained glass, tapestry, and book illustration. His paintings are equaled in importance by his drawings, engravings, and woodcuts, frequently depicting the themes of the “dance of death” and “death and the maiden.” In his taste for the gruesome, Baldung is close in style and spirit to Matthias Grünewald.

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Baldung, Hans 

(nicknamed Grien). Born circa 1484-S5 in SchwäbischeGmünd(?), Württemberg; died 1545 in Strass-burg (present-day Strasbourg, France). German Renaissance painter and draftsman of the upper Rhine school. He was influenced by A. Dürer, in whose studio he worked from 1502 to 1504, and by M. Neithardt. He spent most of his life in Strassburg. Baldung’s art (portraits and religious compositions) is full of contradictions: Renaissance rationalism is combined with mysticism, and smoothly sculpted forms with broken rhythmic lines. His works include the main altar of the cathedral in Freiburg im Breisgau (1512–16) and Death and the Woman (1517, in the Public Art Collection, Basel).

REFERENCES

Escherich, M. Hans Baldung-Grien, Bibliographie, 1509 bis 1915. Strassburg, 1916.
Curjel, H. Hans Baldung-Grien. Munich, 1923.
Fischer, O. Hans Baldung-Grien. Munich, 1939. Second edition:Munich, 1943.
Hans Baldung-Grien:Ausstellung, 1959[catalog]. Staatliche Kunst-halle, Karlsruhe [1959].