The Ages of Man and Death, Hans Baldung (Green)

Hans Baldung (circa 1484 / 1485-1545), nicknamed Green - a German painter and engraver, a disciple of Albrecht Durer, in whose workshop he worked in 1502-1504. Baldung was nicknamed Green, perhaps because he liked the green color. There is But there is another opinion regarding the nickname Baldung. It is due to the fact that in the Middle Ages the word "grienen" meant "mocking", and the nickname can be explained by the irony and sarcasm that filled up some of the artist's works. In this case, the nickname Green can be understood as "Hans-mocker". Creativity Baldung very diverse, it includes religious compositions, works on allegorical and mythological subjects, sketches of stained glass and tapestries, a lot of graphic works, especially book illustrations.

For the master, the philosophical elaboration of the theme of death in its allegorical variants was very important, which became an exceptional phenomenon in the art of Germany. The composition "The Ages of Man and Death" presents an allegory of three age periods of human life. Death is depicted as a skeleton with an hourglass in his hand. A sleeping infant symbolizes childhood, a young girl - a youth, an emaciated old woman - old age.
Baldung's image of female figures demonstrates how far his interpretation of nude nature is far from understanding antiquity in the art of the Italian Renaissance. The canvas gives the impression of belonging to the period of the late Middle Ages with its images of the Apocalypse in Gothic art.