Art Gallery

Baldung, Hans (1484/85 Swäbisch Gmünd - 1545 Strasbourg), Baldung probably completed his apprenticeship in Strasbourg at the early age of 15, when he was given the byname "Grien" (Green) because of his youth. In 1503 he entered the workshop of Dürer in Nuremberg to become one of his most prominent pupils. As one of the most eminent German artists of the 16e century, both as painter and as master of the graphic arts, his works are remarkable for their unusual combination of unveiled sensuality and dispassionate intellect which often produces a "cold fire".

Besides religious commission work, Baldung preferred secular themes in which the female body, worked up into a demonic frenzy in his witch scenes, is given major role. He was also highly regarded as a portraitist, and from about 1530 he was considered to be one of the best artists on the Upper Rhine. His development leads from the latest Gothic forms via the Italian Renaissance , whose harmony he never strove to achieve, into Mannerism. In his treatment of colour he rejected the conventional norm of clear, harmonious tones in favor of dissonance alien to nature. In this respect he represents a parallel to the masters of early Florentine Mannerism (Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino).