Saint Barbara
1505/07
Medium
Woodcut in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image/sheet, block mark not visible: 23.6 × 16.1 cm (9 5/16 × 6 3/8 in.)
Classification
woodcut
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
219077
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Collecting prints after cult statues and miraculous paintings was part of both the European and the Japanese pilgrimage traditions. These woodcuts (2009.43, 2013.172, and 2013.159) could be combined to create their own cult object. Saints Catherine and Barbara flank a frontal Virgin and Child, suggesting the works were intended to be mounted together as a folding domestic altarpiece. The letterpress below each image encouraged meditation and engagement. While only Catherine’s text survives in th...
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 ...