Hans Baldung Grien

Hans Baldung Grien was Albrecht Dürer’s most gifted pupil, but his art is stranger and more unsettling than his master’s. He is known for his images of Adam and Eve, witches and Death, with pale, elongated figures and a touch of the macabre.

Born in Schwäbisch Gmünd, he trained in Dürer’s workshop in Nuremberg and settled in Strasbourg in 1509, where he lived for the rest of his life. His best-known work is the high altar of Freiburg Minster. He also painted portraits, allegories and religious works, and made many woodcuts and designs for stained glass.

His Death and the Maiden is in the Kunstmuseum Basel and Eve, the Serpent and Death is in the National Gallery of Canada. In his paintings of Adam and Eve, look at the smooth, glowing bodies set against dark backgrounds.