The Virgin on the Grassy Bank
Medium
Woodcut; second of two states
Dimensions
Sheet: 9 3/16 × 6 1/4 in. (23.3 × 15.9 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1954
Accession Number
54.573.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the early 16th century, during the Northern Renaissance, German artist Hans Baldung G—often called Baldung for his greenish tint in self-portraits—created *The Virgin on the Grassy Bank* in 1505. This woodcut, the second of two states, depicts the Madonna and Child in a serene setting, with the Virgin seated on a grassy bank, embodying tender maternal devotion. Measuring just 9 3/16 × 6 1/4 inches, its intimate scale made it ideal for personal piety, a hallmark of the era's printed imagery. Baldung, a protégé of Albrecht Dürer, mastered woodcuts, carving intricate designs into wood blocks ...
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...