Category Archives: art

Grace, age, woman and the Northern Renaissance

Coming back to the Northern Renaissance of earlier posts, I’d like to introduce you to the work of Hans Baldung Grien (c. 1480 – 1545). German Renaissance artist as painter and printmaker in woodcut. He was considered the most gifted student of Albrecht Dürer:

The 7 Ages of Woman – Hans Baldung Grien (1484-1545)

Three Ages of Man and Three Graces (1539) – Hans Baldung Grien
Image sourced here.

On the representation of the Graces, Pausanias wrote,

“Who it was who first represented the Graces naked, whether in sculpture or in painting, I could not discover. During the earlier period, certainly, sculptors and painters alike represented them draped … but later artists, I do not know the reason, have changed the way of portraying them. Certainly to-day sculptors and painters represent Graces naked.”

Death and Woman (1517) – Hans Baldung Grien

Baldung was extremely interested in witches and made many images of them in different media, including several very beautiful drawings finished with bodycolour, which are more erotic than his treatments in other techniques.

On the grotesque nature of his work the 1911 Brittanica remarked:

“Without absolute correctness as a draughtsman, his conception of human form is often very unpleasant, whilst a questionable taste is shown in ornament equally profuse and baroque. Nothing is more remarkable in his pictures than the pug-like shape of the faces, unless we except the coarseness of the extremities. No trace is apparent of any feeling for atmosphere or light and shade. Though Grün has been commonly called the Correggio 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.”

Three Ages of the Woman and the Death (1510) Hans Baldung Grien (1484 – 1545)
image sourced here. [Mar 2005]

Typical for his subject matter are also the Danse Macabre, the Three Graces and Death and the Maiden.

Death and the maiden () Hans Baldung Grien
image sourced here.

Thou shalt not tempt

Yesterday as I went for a quick book shopping trip to the city, I glimpsed a detail of the The Temptation of St. Anthony painting by Patinir and Matsys on the cover of a Dutch language book on the history of witchcraft in the Low Countries.

That Northern Renaissance gets my vote over Italian Renaissance any day was confirmed once more.

Detail Temptation Metsys Patinir

Temptation of Saint Anthony by Patinir and Metsys (detail)

Temptation of Saint Anthony by Patinir and Metsys (detail)

Temptation of Saint Anthony by Patinir and Metsys (detail)

Temptation of Saint Anthony by Patinir and Metsys (detail)

Temptation of Saint Anthony by Patinir and Metsys (detail)

Temptation of Saint Anthony by Patinir and Metsys

Temptation of Saint Anthony by Patinir and Metsys (detail)

 

Please excuse the poor quality of the scans compared to the image I saw on the cover of that book. I would need a photographic cliché to reproduce the details well enough.

Thanks La boîte à images.

I acquired a copy of Marvellous Méliès. More on The Temptation of St. Anthony and the allure of Northern Renaissance later.

La tristesse durera toujours

Auberge Ravoux

The Auberge Ravoux, Auvers-sur-Oise, in 1890

On this day in 1890, Vincent Van Gogh – at the age of 37 – walked into the wheat fields in Auvers-sur-Oise and shot himself in the chest with a revolver. Without realizing that he was fatally wounded, he returned to the Ravoux Inn (pictured above), where he died in his bed two days later. His brother Theo hastened to be at his side and reported his last words as “La tristesse durera toujours” (French for “[the] sadness will last forever”).  After Vincent’s death, Theo was not able to come to terms with the grief of his brother’s absence, and died six months later.