Georg Giese

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Portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1532
Portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1532

Georg Giese (Gisze according to the title of the Holbein painting) (2 April 1497 in Danzig (Gdańsk) in Poland - 3 February 1562 in Danzig) was a merchant.

The member of the Hanseatic League also worked in London where he was portrayed by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1532. After Giese returned to Danzig in 1535, he married Christine Krüger, daughter of a prestigous Danzig citizen.

His Danzig-based Patrician family, which included Albrecht Giese, bishop Tiedemann Giese etc., had come originally from Cologne.

[edit] Portrait

When Georg was stationed in the 1530s at the London branch of the Hanse, the Steelyard (Stalhof), the members of the Steelyard sat for a famous series of portraits by Hans Holbein the Younger.

The Holbein portrait commissioned by Giese, titled "Der Kaufmann Georg Gisze", identifies him by his clothing and instruments as a merchant. The painting also depicts him with carnations, at that time symbolizing his engagement. Also, a plaque depicted over his head identifies him, and states that it shows him in his 34th year, in 1532. He is holding a letter he received from his brother, written in Middle Saxon (“Middle Low German”): “Dem Erszamen/Jorgen gisze to lunden/in engelant mynem/broder to handen” (“To be handed to my brother, the honourable Jorgen gisze at London in England”).

A misaligned set of scales and the placing of a vase of flowers too close to the edge of the table is suggestive of the instability the world and our place within it.

[edit] Bibliography

  • T. Andratschke: Deme Ersamen syriacuß Kallen te Lunde up Staelueff sy desse breff, in: Praxis Geschichte 1/2001
  • Hermann Freytag: Das Bildnis eines Danzigers, von Hans Holbein gemalt, in: Zeitschrift des Westpreussischen Geschichtsvereins 40/1899, Seite 107-115
  • Gemäldegalerie Berlin / Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz: 200 Meisterwerke. Berlin 1998, S. 108-111.
  • Kurt Löcher: Der Londoner Stahlhof und Hans Holbein, in: Cord Meckseper (Hg.), Stadt im Wandel. Kunst und Kultur des Bürgertums in Norddeutschland 1150-1650, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1985, Band 3, Seite 667f.

[edit] External links


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