Angels Served at a Table, illustration from Speculum Passionis, 1507

Art Historical Context

**Angels Served at a**, a captivating woodcut illustration from the1507 *Speculum Passionis*Mirror of the Passion), comes from the masterful hand of Hans Baldung Grien, a leading German artist of the Northern Renaissance. Trained under Albrecht Dürer, Baldung was renowned for his intricate woodcuts that blended religious devotion with dramatic expressiveness. This print, part of a devotional book meditating on Christ's Passion, depicts angels attending a table—evoking heavenly service amid sacred narratives, a motif blending the divine with the earthly to inspire contemplation. Created as a w...

About the Artist

Hans Baldung (called Hans Baldung Grien) · 1484–1545

Hans Baldung Grien (1484/85–1545), born in Schwäbisch Gmünd into an erudite family of jurists and physicians, forsook academia to pursue art. His early training around 1500 took place in the Upper Rhineland, likely Strasbourg, before he apprenticed under Albrecht Dürer in Nuremberg from 1503 to 1507. There, the young artist honed his skills in painting, printmaking, and stained glass, even managin...