Hans Baldung (1484/85–1545) was a German artist. Baldung trained in the workshop of Albrecht Dürer before developing his own practice as a painter and printmaker. He also designed stained glass and produced drawings and engravings. His art repeatedly explores bodies, mortality and supernatural subjects. The two selected prints offer an especially direct route into those concerns: their unusual settings remain full of closely described material details, which make the unsettling events feel present within a world the viewer can recognise.
The Witches and The Bewitched Groom show different ways of making the supernatural visible. One builds a crowded gathering around smoke and bodies; the other turns a domestic interior into a scene of disturbed perspective and unexpected encounters.
The selected pictures
The Witches: Baldung fills a night scene with witches, curling smoke and strange animals. Closely worked lines give the supernatural gathering its restless energy. The Bewitched Groom: A man lies sprawled on the floor beside a horse while a witch appears at a window. Baldung uses steep perspective and contrasting textures to heighten the scene’s unease.
A printed image asks the viewer to distinguish several kinds of mark. An outline establishes a boundary, closely gathered strokes create depth or shadow, and an open passage lets the paper remain part of the picture. Those differences can describe a material surface while also guiding attention through the whole composition. Begin with the main grouping, then follow one smaller passage into its surroundings. The connection between the two scales is often where a simple subject becomes a more complex image, with repeated lines and carefully spaced shapes contributing as much as the objects they describe.
Looking closely
Expressive figures and sharply observed details in an unsettling imagined world.
Begin with the largest forms, then follow the smaller marks that connect them. In The Witches, compare the subject with the space around it and the way light moves between them. Return to the complete picture after looking at a detail: its effect depends on the relationship of those parts, and the arrangement often reveals something different on a second visit.
Art to live with.
Fine-art prints on 200 gsm paper. Choose unframed or explore the available frame finishes, in a size that suits your space.
