Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; ; Alastair Armstrong, "Henry VIII: Authority, Nation and Religion 1509–1540" – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a German painter and printmaker active in Switzerland and England. He worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century.Zwingenberger, 9. He also produced religious art, satire, and Reformation propaganda, and he made a significant contribution to the history of book design. He is called "the Younger" to distinguish him from his father Hans Holbein the Elder, an accomplished painter of the Late Gothic school.
Holbein was born in Augsburg to a family of Swiss descent but worked mainly in Basel as a young artist. At first, he painted murals and religious works, and designed stained glass windows and illustrations for books from the printer Johann Froben. He also painted an occasional portrait, making his international mark with portraits of humanist Desiderius Erasmus. When the Reformation reached Basel, Holbein worked for reformist clients while continuing to serve traditional religious patrons. His Late Gothic style was enriched by artistic trends in Italy, France, and the Netherlands, as well as by Renaissance humanism. The result was a combined aesthetic uniquely his own.
Holbein travelled to England in 1526 in search of work with a recommendation from Erasmus. He was welcomed into the humanist circle of Thomas More, where he quickly built a high reputation. He returned to Basel for four years, then resumed his career in England in 1532 under the patronage of Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell. By 1535, he was King's Painter to Henry VIII. In this role, he produced portraits and festive decorations, as well as designs for jewellery, plate, and other precious objects. His portraits of the royal family and nobles are a record of the court in the years when Henry was asserting his supremacy over the Church of England.
Holbein's art was prized from early in his career. French poet and reformer Nicholas Bourbon (the elder) dubbed him "the Apelles of our time", a typical accolade at the time.Wilson, 213; Buck, 50, 112. Apelles was a legendary artist of antiquity, whose imitation of nature was thought peerless. Holbein has also been described as a great "one-off" in art history since he founded no school.Wilson, 281. Some of his work was lost after his death, but much was collected and he was recognized among the great portrait masters by the 19th century. Recent exhibitions have also highlighted his versatility. He created designs ranging from intricate jewellery to monumental frescoes.
Holbein's art has sometimes been called realist, since he drew and painted with a rare precision. His portraits were renowned in their time for their likeness, and it is through his eyes that many famous figures of his day are pictured today, such as Erasmus and More. He was never content with outward appearance, however; he embedded layers of symbolism, allusion, and paradox in his art, to the lasting fascination of scholars. In the view of art historian Ellis Waterhouse, his portraiture "remains unsurpassed for sureness and economy of statement, penetration into character, and a combined richness and purity of style."Waterhouse, 17.
Biography
Early career
Holbein was born in the free imperial city of Augsburg during the winter of 1497–98.Ganz, 1; Wilson, 3. The date is deduced from the age noted by Holbein's father on the portrait of his sons. He was a son of the painter and draughtsman Hans Holbein the Elder, whose trade he and his older brother, Ambrosius, followed. Holbein the Elder ran a large and busy workshop in Augsburg, sometimes assisted by his brother Sigmund, also a painter.Müller, et al., 6.
By 1515, Hans and Ambrosius had moved as journeymen painters to the city of Basel, a centre of learning and the printing trade.Bätschmann & Griener, 104. Basel had allied itself in 1501 with the Swiss Confederates, a group of cantons that had broken free of imperial rule. Many Basel citizens, however, remained proud of their imperial connections: the Madonna that Holbein painted for Jakob Meyer, for example, wears the imperial crown. There they were apprenticed to Hans Herbster, Basel's leading painter.North, 13–14; Bätschmann and Griener, 11; Claussen, 47. Hans Holbein the Elder and his brother Sigmund also moved away from Augsburg at about this time, but the reasons for the Holbein family's disappointment in the city is not known. The brothers found work in Basel as designers of woodcuts and metalcuts for printers.Sander, 14. In 1515, the preacher and theologian Oswald Myconius invited them to add pen drawings to the margin of a copy of The Praise of Folly by the humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.Zwingenberger, 13; Wilson, 30, 37–42. For example: A Scholar Treads on a Basket of Eggs and Folly Steps Down from the Pulpit. The sketches provide early evidence of Holbein's wit and humanistic leaning. His other early works, including the double portrait of Basel's mayor Jakob Meyer zum Hasen and his wife Dorothea, follow his father's style.Sander, 15. See: Portrait of Jakob Meyer and Portrait of Dorothea Meyer. With Meyer zum Hasen, Holbein maintained a close working relationship until the latter was sacked in 1521.
The young Holbein, alongside his brother and his father, is pictured in the left-hand panel of Holbein the Elder's 1504 altar piece triptych the Basilica of St. Paul, which is displayed at the Staatsgalerie in Augsburg.
In 1517, father and son began a project in Lucerne (Luzern), painting internal and external murals for the merchant Jakob von Hertenstein.See Leaina Before the Judges, a design for a Hertenstein mural. While in Lucerne, Holbein also designed cartoons for stained glass.Bätschmann and Griener, 11; North, 13. For example: Design for a Stained Glass Window with the Coronation of the Virgin. The city's records show that on 10 December 1517, he was fined five livres for fighting in the street with a goldsmith called Caspar, who was fined the same amount.Rowlands, 25; North, 13. On another occasion, Holbein was fined for his involvement in a knife fight. That winter, Holbein probably visited northern Italy, though no record of the trip survives. Many scholars believe he studied the work of Italian masters of fresco, such as Andrea Mantegna, before returning to Lucerne.Wilson, 53–60; Buck, 20; Bätschmann and Griener, 148; Claussen, 48, 50. Doubt has been cast on the tradition that Holbein visited Italy since artists' biographer Karel van Mander (1548–1606) stated that Holbein never went there. It has been argued by Peter Claussen, for example, that Italian motifs in Holbein's work might have derived from engravings, sculptures, and artworks seen in Augsburg. On the other hand, Bätschmann and Griener quote a document of 1538 in which the Basel authorities gave Holbein permission to sell his work in "France, England, Milan or in the Netherlands" as support for the view that he had travelled to Milan since he is known to have travelled to the other three places named. He filled two series of panels at Hertenstein's house with copies of works by Andrea Mantegna, including The Triumphs of Caesar.Bätschmann & Griener, 68. Holbein worked from prints, but Bätschmann & Griener argue that Hertenstein, who presumably requested these copies, might have sent the artist to Italy to view the originals himself.
In 1519, Holbein moved back to Basel. His brother fades from the record at about this time, and it is usually presumed that he died.Müller, et al., 11, 47; Wilson, 69–70. Wilson cautions against too readily accepting that Ambrosius died, since other explanations for his disappearance from the record are possible. However, only Hans Holbein claimed their father's estate when he died in 1524. Holbein re-established himself rapidly in the city, running a busy workshop. He joined the painters' guild and took out Basel citizenship.Müller, Christian (2006), pp.194–195 He married Elsbeth Binsenstock-Schmid in 1519, a widow a few years older than he was, who had an infant son, Franz, and was running her late husband's tanning business. She bore Holbein a son of his own, Philipp, in their first year of marriageWilson, 70. a girl called Katharina in 1526 and two more children, Jacob and Küngold in later years.
Holbein was prolific during this period in Basel, which coincided with the arrival of Lutheranism in the city.North, 17. Lutheran Protestantism was introduced in Basel in 1522. After 1529, the ideas of Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) became widely accepted there, through the preaching of Johannes Oecolampadius (1482–1531). He undertook a number of major projects, such as external murals for The House of the Dance and internal murals for the Council Chamber of the Town Hall. The former are known from preparatory drawings.For example: Design for façade painting for the House of the Dance The Council Chamber murals survive in a few poorly preserved fragments.Rowlands, 53–54; Bätschmann & Griener, 64. See: Samuel Cursing Saul, and The Humiliation of Emperor Valentinian by Shapur, King of Persia (designs for the Council Chamber murals), and Rehoboam, a fragment of the Council Chamber murals. Holbein also produced a series of religious paintings and designed cartoons for stained glass windows.For example: Stained Glass Window Designs for the Passion of Christ.
In a period of a revolution in book design, he illustrated for the publisher Johann Froben. His woodcut designs included those for the Dance of Death,Dance of Death woodcuts. cut by the formschneider Hans LützelburgerStein, Wilhelm (1920), p.108 the Icones (illustrations of the Old Testament),Six of the Icones woodcuts. and the title page of Martin Luther's bible.Strong,3; Wilson, 114–15; Müller, et al, 442–45. Title Sheet of Adam Petri's Reprint of Luther's Translation of the New Testament. Additionally he designed twelve alphabets, of those a Greek and Latin for Froben. The letters were ornamented with depictions of Greek and Roman gods, heads of Caesars, poets and philosophers.tein, Wilhelm (1920), pp.108–110 Through the woodcut medium, Holbein refined his grasp of expressive and spatial effects.Bätschmann & Griener, 63.