Artwork Page for The Bewitched Groom

Details / Information for The Bewitched Groom

The Bewitched Groom

1544

Hans Baldung

(German, 1484/85–1545)
Culture
Germany
Medium
woodcut
Credit Line
Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund 1930.539
Catalogue raisonné
Karlsruhe 279.77 ; Hollstein 237
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

Envious witches were maligned as deceitful, sexualized women, hags who toppled righteous men in their lustful quests. Baldung's bizarre and unsettling image depicts a noble male figure lying unconscious in an open room, as a glaring mare (a symbol of unrestrained sexuality) and flailing witch peer in. The angular nose and chin and sagging, bare breasts of the malevolent hag echo the face and bony chest of Veneziano's emaciated personification of Death.
A vertically oriented print in black ink on cream paper depicts an interior with a bearded man lying on the floor vertically across the page, feet facing us. A horse comb lies next to his left hand, and a pitchfork under his legs. A horse behind him, with its rear end facing us, turns its head back to face us. To the right, a woman with breasts sagging out of her clothing brandishes a flaming torch.

The Bewitched Groom

1544

Hans Baldung

(German, 1484/85–1545)
Germany

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