The Bewitched Groom
Dublin Core
Title
The Bewitched Groom
Description
Born in 1480 in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany, Hans Baldung Grien worked as master printmaker Albrecht Dürer’s assistant for a number of years. Like Dürer, Baldung made use of popular witchcraft imagery in his discussion of familial and domestic life. Almost a century before the height of witch trials, this piece comments on a societal fear of the “unruly woman”. Women, tied to the institution of marriage, ownership and procreation, were denied any other life course. Artists and satirists of the time utilized the imagery of the witch, and her fabled infanticide and overt female sexuality to instill fear. Here, Baldung symbolizes the fall of domestic order, with a fallen man, a frightening witch figure holding a flaming torch, and a horse symbolizing an uncontrollable female sexual appetite. He warns against the power of women.
Creator
Hans Baldung
Source
Witchcraft Collection
Publisher
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art
Date
ca. 1544
Contributor
Gift of Paul Ehrenfest, Class of 1932, and Elizabeth K. Ehrenfest
Format
Woodcut Sheet: 13 1/2 x 7 7/8 in. (34.3 x 20 cm).
Type
Prints
IIIF Item Metadata
UUID
dfb6ea08-5b6e-47e0-bc59-a0768d5d389c
Collection
Citation
Hans Baldung, “The Bewitched Groom,” The Power of Portrayal: Envisioning Women's Representation, accessed May 11, 2024, https://cornellcolab.net/suffrage/items/show/18.