Artwork
Woman with Mirror, Serpent, Stag and Hind
Woman with Mirror, Serpent, Stag and Hind is an oil painting by the Early Baroque Italian artist Hans Baldung Grien. It dates from 1529 and is held in the collection of the Bavarian State Painting Collections.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Created in 1529, this oil painting by Hans Baldung Grien functions as an allegory, serving as the right-hand panel of a diptych titled "Music and Prudence.
Created in 1529, this oil painting by Hans Baldung Grien functions as an allegory, serving as the right-hand panel of a diptych titled "Music and Prudence." The work depicts a nude female figure accompanied by a mirror, a serpent, a stag, and a hind. These specific elements combine to construct a complex symbolic narrative centered on the themes of music and prudence.
The inclusion of the mirror and the serpent alongside the female figure suggests a moral or philosophical meditation on vanity, wisdom, or the duality of human nature, consistent with the allegorical genre of the period.
Technique & Style
Woman with Mirror, Serpent, Stag and Hind is executed in oil paint on panel, a support consistent with Hans Baldung Grien's Northern Renaissance allegorical practice. The work is a tall, narrow composition measuring 83 cm in height by 36 cm in width, a vertical format that suits its allegorical pairing with a pendant painting. Held in the Bavarian State Painting Collections at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, the painting is classified as an allegorical nude, combining symbolic figures, a woman, mirror, serpent, stag and hind, within a single pictorial field.
The narrow dimensions and oil-on-panel technique reflect the cabinet-picture tradition of small-scale, finely handled allegories produced by Baldung Grien in the late 1520s.
History & Provenance
Woman with Mirror, Serpent, Stag and Hind was created by Hans Baldung Grien in 1529, executed in oil paint on panel. The work forms part of a picture pair alongside Music and Prudence, of which it is the right panel, and is held in the Bavarian State Painting Collections at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, Germany. The sources do not record a commission, a specific prior ownership chain, or a more precise creation date beyond the year 1529.
The painting is part of the collection of the Bavarian State Painting Collections and is displayed at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, Germany. It is cataloged under the inventory number 2153. Exhibition history includes its display as part of the Alte Pinakothek's permanent collection and inclusion in the exhibition "Music and Prudence" at the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany.
Overview
Woman with Mirror, Serpent, Stag and Hind is an allegorical oil painting created by Hans Baldung Grien in 1529. It is a representative work of the artist's vivid and imaginative style, characteristic of the transition between the German Renaissance and Mannerism.
Artist & collection
Artist
Hans Baldung (1484 or 1485 – September 1545), called Hans Baldung Grien, (being an early nickname, because of his predilection for the colour green), was a painter, printer, engraver, draftsman, and stained glass…
