Hans Baldung Grien

Two paintings by Hans Baldung Grien, Las Tres Gracias and Las Edades y la Muerte, brought together in a small Museo del Prado exhibition that places the German Renaissance painter in his artistic context towards the end of his career.

The Museo del Prado presents in its Room D, in the Edificio Jerónimos, a compact exhibition devoted to two panels by Hans Baldung Grien, one of the leading names in German Renaissance painting. The works, La Armonía and Las Edades y la Muerte, are dated to around 1541–1544 and are among the last the artist produced. The route through the rooms revolves around three axes that help to understand what makes these two pieces distinctive.

The exhibition places Baldung within the wider panorama of the German Renaissance, with particular attention to Cranach, whom the painter must have known. The panels show an idealised human form, together with an interest in botanical detail and tonal contrasts between one and the other. The recent restoration has allowed these nuances to be better appreciated, and visitors will also find a section devoted to the discoveries that emerged during the cleaning, which offer clues about the creative process.

Baldung worked in Dürer's workshop in Nuremberg, where he received the nickname Grien, meaning green. He then settled in Strasbourg, where he obtained citizenship in 1509 and opened his own workshop, while maintaining close ties with his former master. The exhibition will particularly appeal to those who want to approach German painting of the early sixteenth century through a small, well-defined group of works.