Hans Baldung Grien's Witches' Sabbath and Fall of Man Intersection of the Secular and the Sacred

Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Carrasco, Magdalena

Keywords

Northern Renaissance, Art, Sexuality

Area of Concentration

Art History

Abstract

Hans Baldung Grien�s body of work is comprised mostly of prints and drawings. A significant component of his repertoire is charged with eroticism. Lasciviousness is infused in his secular and religious themes alike. Two of his woodcuts stand out as sister images because of their similarity in tone and technique, Witches� Sabbath and Fall of Man. Upon exploring other contemporary early modern German woodcut prints of both of the themes, it became apparent that Baldung Grien�s treatment of the themes was highly sexualized, aggressive, and also inviting. Agricultural, biblical, and sexual implications are embedded in both images that support Baldung Grien�s statement that aggressive female sexuality is dangerous, destructive, and in need of being controlled. Because of the woodcuts� more expensive chiaroscuro medium and more intricate cross-hatching technique, these woodcut prints would have been more time consuming and expensive to produce. They were the cream of the crop of available prints. Furthermore, evidence shows that images displaying erotically oriented female nudes were geared toward the intellectual wealthy males that the artist socialized with. It is because of these factors that it seems both Witches� Sabbath and Fall of Man were created as quasi-pornographic images for male enjoyment and arousal. Furthermore, ownership of such an image implies sexual and social control over typically unruly women, witches and Eve.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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