Hans Baldung: 12 works

'Hans Baldung Grien was Dürer's most gifted pupil, and an artist who soon developed a distinctive style of his own. While his output was varied and extensive, this panel is his only surviving female portrait.'

'Baldung Grien, a journeyman in Dürer's workshop, is considered one of the most original artists of the first half of the sixteenth century. One characteristic aspect of his diverse oeuvre consisted of nudes and scenes of witches in which he showed seductive and deceptive beauty.'

'Hans Baldung Grien arranged the tight composition between two columns, framed by intertwining branches above. A gifted pupil of Albrecht Dürer, Baldung Grien had an idiosyncratic style of drawing.'

'The small figures kneeling on the grass below are probably the family who commissioned the painting from Baldung.'

'Baldung depicted him as a respectable gentleman, whose face and powerful grip on his fur cloak are intended to express resoluteness.'

'As he practiced drawing different heads for use in later paintings and prints, Hans Baldung Grien created a pattern unified by abstract hatching.'

'Baldung is thought to have worked in Albrecht Dürer's workshop; his portraits tend to be less psychologically penetrating than Dürer's.'

'The effeminate face of the count palatine is surprising given his later epithet: "the Warlike."'

'Despite the work being dated 1519, it is difficult to identify the sitter, but it has been noted that she bears similarities to the female donor in Baldung's Baptism of Christ (Städel, Frankfurt am Main).'

'Particularly fond of the theme of the demonic power stemming from female sexuality was Hans Baldung, perhaps Dürer's best pupil, who was dubbed 'Grien' after his favourite shade of metallic green which here covers the snake's body.'

'His oeuvre, which includes many mythological scenes, betrays the influence of the Italian Renaissance.'

'Baldung's pair of pictures (originally part of a series complemented by Judith with the severed head of Holofernes, and Venus and Cupid) focuses clearly on the story's erotic content.'