The Witches
Medium
Woodcut; first of two states
Dimensions
Sheet: 14 7/16 × 10 3/16 in. (36.6 × 25.9 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1917
Accession Number
17.50.46
Tags
Art Historical Context
Hans Baldung Grien, brilliant German artist and protégé of Albrecht Dürer created *The Witches* in 1510 as a striking woodcut print—the first of two states, meaning this retains its original, unaltered lines before later revisions. Measuring about 14½ by 10¼ inches, this Northern Renaissance masterpiece captures the era's fascination with the supernatural through bold black-and-white contrasts typical of woodcuts, a medium Baldung mastered for its dramatic expressiveness and wide dissemination. The scene teems with eerie energy: nude female figures, likely witches in ritual, cavort with fanta...
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...