Caspar Hedio
Medium
Woodcut in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 17.4 × 13 cm (6 7/8 × 5 1/8 in.); Sheet: 18 × 13.9 cm (7 1/8 × 5 1/2 in.)
Classification
woodcut
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
60995
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Here Hans Baldung Grien depicted the theologian Caspar Hedio, who may have been a longtime acquaintance of the artist, as an uncompromising individual with an intense gaze. The woodcut appeared as the author portrait in Hedio’s Selected Chronicle of the World, from Its Beginnings until the Year 1543. Hedio’s furrowed brow, darting eyes, and clenched fingertips reveal his aggressive character, an effect greatly enhanced by the change from the original soft silverpoint drawing to these harsh woodc...
About the Artist
Hans Baldung Grien
Hans Baldung, known by the nickname Grien, was born around 1484 or 1485 in Schwäbisch Gmünd, in the Swabia region of what is now Germany. He came from a distinguished academic family — his father Johann Baldung was a university-educated jurist who served as legal adviser to the bishop of Strasbourg — making Hans a notable exception as the first male in his family not to attend university, and one ...