The Cleveland Museum of Art (spacer)
Special Exhibitions 		(spacer) (separator) (spacer) (spacer)
Conserving the Past for the Future 		(spacer)
(spacer)
Conserving the Past for the Future

A Conservation Tour

The Mass of Saint Gregory: Examining a Painting Using Infrared Reflectography


The Mass of Saint Gregory
Hans Baldung Grien (German, 1484/85-1545)
The Mass of Saint Gregory, 1511
Oil on panel, 89.2 x 125 cm
Gift of the Hanna Fund 1952.112

Hans Baldung Grien

1484/85-1545

Hans Baldung was born in late 1484 or early 1485 in Swäbish-Gmünd in the western part of Germany. He was from a family of scholars who came from Swabia; his father was a lawyer who settled in Strasbourg. Little is known of his early life, except that he was apprenticed to Albrecht Dürer in Nuremberg (the exact dates of the apprenticeship are not known). In 1508 Baldung married Margaretha Herlin. In 1511 he received an important commission for the high altar in St. Nicholas's Church, Freiburg (now the cathedral); by1512 he moved to Freiburg and completed the altar in 1516. Baldung continued working in Freiburg until 1517, after which he returned to Strasbourg establishing himself as a respected and prosperous citizen. In the last year of his life, 1545, he was named a member of the municipal council.

Page 3 of 9 | On the next page: The Transfer of the Support