Group of Horses in a Wood

Expand

IIIFView PDF

Group of Horses in a Wood

Artist Hans (Grien) Baldung (1484/85 - 1545)

Date1534

DimensionsOverall: H. 8 1/4 in. (21 cm): W. 12 5/16 in. (31.3 cm)

MediumWoodcut

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineFrederick B. and Kate L. Shoemaker Fund

Object number

1950.74

Not on View

Label TextBy 1503 Hans Baldung had became an apprentice in Dürer’s workshop at Nuremberg. It was probably there that Baldung was given the name “Grien” (green), perhaps because he favored the color. Whereas Dürer’s works – stimulated by Italian art and humanistic writing – tend to be dignified and often concerned with theory, measurement, and formal perfection, Baldung’s art is impetuous, often intentionally informal, highly spirited, and at times mischievous. Baldung became deeply involved in two subjects that influenced his art and life, to a greater or lesser degree, for years: witchcraft and the inevitability of death. Baldung used animals to express his feelings about the demonic forces of nature in a series of three compelling woodcuts showing rampaging horses. This print is the first in that series, with horses furiously kicking and biting each other, their manes and tails flying in frenzy, rendered with expressive lines.Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art Museum News, New Series, Vol. 5, No.2, Summer 1962, (also published as An Introduction to Prints), repr. p.27, detail p.29Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Renaissance Prints: Fable, Faith and Folk, Oct 16 to December 16. 1958.

Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Museum of Art, All Creatures Great and Small, 1989.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Painter Was a Printmaker, June 23 - September 9, 1984.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Passion and the Apocalypse: Albrecht Dürer's Renaissance, Oct 1, 2004 - Jan 2, 2005