St. Catherine
Medium
Woodcut
Dimensions
Sheet: 9 7/16 × 6 3/8 in. (23.9 × 16.2 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Grace M. Pugh, 1985
Accession Number
1986.1180.14
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the early 16th century, Hans Bald Grien, a brilliant German artist and protégé of Albrecht Dürer, created striking woodcut of *. Catherine* around 5. At just years old, Baldung already mastering the Northern Renaissance printmaking tradition, infusing religious subjects with dramatic intensity and emotional depth. Saint Catherine of Alexandria, a revered virgin martyr, is typically shown with her broken wheel—the instrument of her failed torture—and symbols of her faith, embodying resilience and divine protection in an era of fervent Catholic devotion. This woodcut exemplifies the woodcut...
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...