The Trinity and Mystic Pietà 1512

Hans Baldung’s ‘The Trinity and Mystic Pietà’ was painted in the first half of the sixteenth century, probably in Strasbourg, using oil on wood. It’s an ambitious combination of two distinct devotional images: the Holy Trinity and the Pietà. Baldung was working in the shadow of the Reformation. His Germany was fractured and in the throes of religious conflict. So, what do we make of this work? On one hand, the painting serves the traditional function of religious art. It prompts contemplation of a divine mystery. On the other hand, it seems to respond to the reformist critique of religious imagery. At the bottom, we see two groups of figures with different relationships to the divine tragedy above. To the left are members of a religious confraternity in ceremonial garb, to the right, humble supplicants. To understand this painting better, we might research the kinds of devotional brotherhoods that existed in Strasbourg. In the end, interpretation always comes back to history.