_Hans Baldung_ (German-Swabian: 1476-1545). _See 245._
Signed and dated "Hans Baldung, 1512." The Virgin's attitude is
expressive of intense sorrow. "Her mouth is drawn convulsively down in
the manner usual in the pictures of Burgkmair and the school and epoch
to which he and Baldung belonged. On our right is St. John. Behind the
group is Joseph of Arimathea. Behind, God the Father appears, robed
in blue under a red mantle, and holding across His knees the drooping
corpse of the Redeemer. Clouds form the background, and among them the
Holy Ghost is hovering. The heads of all the figures bear plain nimbi
of metallic gold. The draperies, except the loin-cloth of Christ, are
somewhat tortured in the manner of the German painters of the fifteenth
century. On the front of the balcony in which they are placed are
depicted the donor and his family; in one corner is their escutcheon,
bearing three money bags and a broad bar" (_Athenæum_, Jan. 11, 1895).