Hans Holbein the Younger

Self-portrait, 1542/43. Coloured chalks and pen, heightened with gold, Uffizi Gallery, Florence. This drawing has been enlarged, reworked, and coloured by later hands.[1]

Hans Holbein the Younger (c. 1497– between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known for his numerous portraits and his woodcut series of the Dance of Death, and is widely considered one of the finest portraitists of the Early Modern Period.

Contents

Early life and career

Hans (right) and Ambrosius Holbein, by Hans Holbein the Elder, 1511. Silverpoint on white-coated paper, Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin State Museums.

Holbein was born in Augsburg during the winter of 1497–98.[2] He was a son of the painter Hans Holbein the Elder, whose trade he and his older brother, Ambrosius, followed. By 1515, he and Ambrosius had moved to Basel, where they were apprenticed to the artist Hans Herbster. The following year, the preacher and theologian Oswald Myconius invited the brothers to add marginal pen drawings to a copy of The Praise of Folly, by the humanist Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.[3] Holbein's other works from the same year follow the late Gothic style of his father. In 1517, father and son began a project in Lucerne, painting internal and external murals for Jakob von Hertenstein, a merchant and occasional chief magistrate of the city. The town records show that on 10 December 1517, Holbein was fined five livres for fighting in the street with a goldsmith called Caspar, who was fined the same amount.[4] That winter, Holbein probably visited northern Italy, where, 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.[5]

In 1519, Holbein moved back to Basel, where he ran a busy workshop. Ambrosius fades from the historical record at about this time, and it is usually presumed that he died.[6] Holbein established himself rapidly in Basel after his return. He joined the painters' guild and within a year became chamber master of the guild, took out Basel citizenship, and married Elsbeth Schmid, a widow a few years older than him. Elsbeth, who had been running her late husband's tanning business while bringing up an infant son, bore Holbein a son of his own, Philipp, in the first year of their marriage.[7]

Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1523. National Gallery, London, on loan from Longford Castle. This is usually accepted as one of the two portraits Erasmus sent to England, probably the one owned by William Warham.[8]

Holbein was prolific and prospered during this period in Basel. He undertook a number of major projects, such as the external murals for The House of the Dance and the internal murals for the Council Chamber of the Town Hall.[9] He designed glass-paintings and altarpieces and produced a series of ambitious religious paintings. In a period of revolution in book design, he illustrated books for the publisher Johann Froben, producing many woodcut designs, including those for the Dance of Death and illustrations for the Old Testament.[10] Reconstructing this period of Holbein's career is difficult, however, owing to the loss of many of his murals through decay or as a result of the iconoclasm that attended the arrival of the Reformation in Basel.[11]

Holbein also painted the occasional portrait in Basel, such as that of the young academic Boniface Amerbach. In 1523, he painted his first likenesses of the great Renaissance scholar Erasmus,[12] who had moved to Basel in 1521 for the city's tolerant cultural atmosphere and required likenesses to send to his friends and admirers throughout Europe. Erasmus was a firm admirer of Holbein's talent and in 1526 recommended him to his friend, the statesman and scholar Thomas More, when Holbein decided to seek employment in England.[13] In the words of Erasmus: "The arts are freezing in this part of the world, and he is on the way to England to pick up some angels".[14]

England, 1526–1528

Portrait of Sir Thomas More, 1527. Oil on oak, Frick Collection, New York.

Sir Thomas More welcomed Holbein to England as his guest and found him a series of commissions. Holbein painted a famous portrait of More himself and another of More with his family that survives only in a preparatory sketch and copies by other hands.[15] During this stay in England, Holbein worked largely for a humanist circle that corresponded with Erasmus. His portraits within that circle included those of William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, who owned of one of the artist's portraits of Erasmus, and of the astronomer and mathematician Nicholas Kratzer, a tutor of the More family whose notes appear on Holbein's sketch for their group portrait [16] Although Holbein did not work directly for the king during this visit, he painted the portraits of court members such as Sir Henry Guildford and his wife Lady Mary, and of Anne Lovell, recently identified as the subject of Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling.[17] In May 1527, he also painted a panorama of the siege of Thérouanne for the visit of French Ambassadors and, with Kratzer, devised a ceiling covered in planetary signs, under which the visitors dined.[18]

Basel, 1528–1532

On 29 August 1528, Holbein bought a house in Basel. He presumably returned home to preserve his rights as a citizen, since the authorities had granted him only a two-year leave of absence.[19] Enriched by his activities in England, Holbein bought a second house in the city in 1531. During this period in Basel, he painted The Artist's Family. In the view of art historian John Rowlands, this work is "one of the most moving portraits in art, from an artist, too, who always characterized his sitters with a guarded restraint".[20]

The Artist's Family, c. 1528. Paper, cut out and mounted on wood. Kunstmuseum Basel. The portrait shows Holbein's wife, Elsbeth, with the couple's two eldest children, Philipp and Katherina.

Basel was undergoing a period of turbulence, as the reformers carried out systematic acts of iconoclasm and imposed rules against imagery in churches. The free-thinking Erasmus felt obliged to leave his former haven for Freiburg im Breisgau in April 1529.[21] The reformers probably destroyed examples of Holbein's religious artwork, but details are unknown, as are Holbein's religious views, for which the evidence is fragmentary and inconclusive. In 1530, the authorities called Holbein to account for failure to attend the reformed communion.[22] According to the "Christian Recruitment" register, compiled to ensure that all major citizens subscribed to the new doctrines: "Master Hans Holbein, the painter, says that we must be better informed about the [holy] table before approaching it".[23] Shortly afterwards, however, Holbein's name appeared on a list of those "who have no serious objections and wish to go along with other Christians".[24]

Holbein evidently retained favour under the new order. The reformist council commissioned him to resume work on the Town Hall frescoes, with themes drawn from the Old Testament instead of from classical history as before. Holbein's old patron Jakob Meyer paid him to add figures and details to the family altarpiece he had painted for him in 1526. Holbein's last work in Basel was the decoration of two clock faces on the Rhinegate in 1531.[25] The reduced levels of patronage may have decided him to return to England early in 1532.[26]

England, 1532–1543

Double Portrait of Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve ("The Ambassadors"), 1533. Oak, National Gallery, London.

Holbein returned to an England in which the political and religious environment was changing radically.[27] In 1530, Henry VIII had been recognised as the the Supreme Head of the Church of England; and in 1532, he was preparing to repudiate Katherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn, in defiance of the pope. Holbein's former host and patron, Sir Thomas More, was among those who opposed Henry, and Holbein distanced himself from him on this visit: according to Erasmus, "[I]n England he deceived those to whom he was recommended".[28] Holbein now found favour among those close to the new power circles of the Boleyn family and Thomas Cromwell, who in 1534 became the king's secretary, controlling all aspects of the government.[29] More was executed in 1535, along with another of Holbein's former portrait subjects, John Fisher.

Holbein's commissions in the early stages of his second English period included portraits of Lutheran merchants of the Hanseatic League, who lived and plied their trade at the Steelyard on the north bank of the Thames, and of various courtiers and visitors—not all of them reformers. He rented a house in Maiden Lane, near the Steelyard, and designed the merchants' tableau for Anne Boleyn's coronation procession on 31 May 1533, an edifice representing Mount Parnassus.[30] He painted the merchants' portraits in a range of styles: his portrait of Georg Gisze of Danzig shows the merchant surrounded with symbols of his trade, painted in exquisite detail; his portrait of Derich Berck of Cologne, on the other hand, is classically simple, seemingly influenced by Titian.[31] Holbein's most famous, and perhaps greatest, painting of this period was The Ambassadors, a life-sized double portrait of Jean de Dinteville, an ambassador of Francis I of France in 1533, and of Georges de Selve, Bishop of Lavaur, who visited London in the same year.[32] The painting incorporates symbols—including an anamorphic (distorted) skull—that, according to scholars, encode enigmatic references to learning, religion, mortality, and illusion, in the tradition of the Northern Renaissance.[33]

No certain portraits of Anne Boleyn by Holbein survive,[34] perhaps because of the purge of her memory following her execution for treason, incest, and adultery in 1536. That Holbein worked for Anne and her circle is, however, clear. He designed a cup engraved with her device of a falcon standing on roses, as well as jewellery and books connected to her; he also drew a number of women attached to Anne's entourage, including Grace Parker, Anne's sister-in-law.[35] At the same time, Holbein began working under the patronage of Thomas Cromwell, the mastermind of Henry VIII's reformation, whose portrait he painted. Cromwell commissioned Holbein to produce royalist and reformist images, such as the title page to Myles Coverdale's English translation of the bible and a set of anti-clerical woodcuts. This period saw Henry VIII embark on a great programme of artistic patronage as he sought to bolster his new status as Supreme Head of the Church, culminating, from 1538, in the building of Nonsuch Palace.[36]

By 1536, Holbein had been appointed the King's Painter, though he was never the highest-paid artist on the royal payroll.[37] The royal miniaturist Lucas Horenbout, who taught Holbein the art of limning, earned twice as much, and many other continental artists worked for the king.[38] In 1537, Holbein produced what is now perhaps his most famous image,[39] that of Henry VIII standing with his feet planted apart in a heroic pose. A section of Holbein's cartoon containing the king's figure and that of his father, from a composition that also depicted Jane Seymour and Elizabeth of York, survives; but his life-sized wall-painting for Whitehall Palace was destroyed by fire in 1698 and is known from printed copies and from a 1667 copy by Remigius van Leemput.[40] Holbein also painted a half-length portrait of Henry in a similar pose,[41] but all the surviving full-length portraits of the king based on the Whitehall work are copies.[42] The figure of Jane Seymour in the mural is related to Holbein's sketch and painting of her.[43] Jane died in October 1537, shortly after giving birth to Henry's only son, the future Edward VI. About two years later, Holbein painted a portrait of the prince, who clutches a sceptre-like gold rattle.[44] Holbein's final portrait of Henry, from about 1543, depicts the king with a group of barber surgeons.[45]

Holbein's portrait style altered after he entered the king's service. He focused more intensely on the sitters' faces and clothing, largely omitting props and three-dimensional settings.[46] Holbein applied this clean, craftsmanlike style both to miniature portraits, such as that of Jane Small, and to grand portraits such as that of Christina of Denmark, sketched in Brussels in 1538 for King Henry, who was considering the young widow as a prospective bride.[47] In Wilson's view, Holbein's oil portrait of Christina is "the loveliest painting of a woman that he ever executed, which is to say that it is one of the finest female portraits ever painted".[48] That year, Holbein also painted Louise of Guise and Anne of Lorraine for Henry,[49] breaking his stay in France to visit Basel, where he was fêted by the authorities and granted a pension.[50] Holbein painted Anne of Cleves, King Henry's eventual choice of wife, at Düren in summer 1539. Henry was disappointed with Anne in the flesh, and he divorced her after a brief, unconsummated marriage, but there is no evidence that he felt Holbein's portrait had flattered her. Holbein painted Anne square-on and in elaborate finery, perhaps to distract attention from her weak points, such as a bulbous nose, but, unlike Henry's ambassadors, he was not accused at the time of misrepresenting her appearance.[51]

While Holbein was working on another portrait of Henry, he died in London, apparently a victim of the plague.[52] He made his will on 7 October 1543, and a document attached to it, dated 29 November, describes him as recently dead.[53]

Portrait techniques

"The Abbot being taken by Death", woodcut by Holbein from the cycle The Dance of Death, 1524–26.

Holbein always made highly detailed pencil drawings of his portrait subjects, often supplemented with ink and colored chalk. The drawings emphasize facial detail and usually did not include the hands; clothing was only indicated schematically. The outlines of these drawings were then transferred onto the support for the final painting using tiny holes in the paper through which powdered charcoal was transmitted; in later years Holbein used a kind of carbon paper. The final paintings thus had the same scale as the original drawings. Although the drawings were made as studies for paintings, they stand on their own as independent, finely wrought works of art.

He painted a few, superb, portrait miniatures, having been taught the art by Lucas Horenbout, a Flemish illuminator who was also a court artist of Henry.[54] Horenbout painted Holbein in perhaps his best miniature, and the best portrait we have of Holbein, who never made a self-portrait (illustration).

David Hockney has speculated in the Hockney-Falco thesis that Holbein used a concave mirror to project an image of the subject onto the drawing surface. The image was then traced. However this thesis has not met with general acceptance from art historians.

A subtle ability to render character may be noted in Holbein's work, as can be seen in his portraits of Thomas Cromwell, Desiderius Erasmus, and Henry VIII. The end results are convincing as definitive images of the subjects' appearance and personality.

Gallery

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Rowlands, 239; Buck, 6.
  2. ↑ Ganz, 1. This date is deduced from the age noted by his father on the portrait of his sons.
  3. ↑ Zwingenberger, 13; Wilson, 37–42.
  4. ↑ Rowlands, 25.
  5. ↑ Wilson, 53–60; Buck, 20. Buck points out that 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, Buck notes, that Italian motifs in Holbein's work might have derived from engravings, sculptures, and from Augsberg artists. Buck nevertheless sides with the view that Holbein did visit Italy.
  6. ↑ Wilson, 69–70. Wilson cautions against too readily accepting that Ambrosius died, since other explanations for his disappearance from the record are possible.
  7. ↑ Wilson, 70.
  8. ↑ Rowlands, 128.
  9. ↑ Rowlands, 53–54. Holbein's decorations for the Haus "zum tanz" are known now from his preparatory drawings; the Town Hall wall paintings survive only in a few poorly preserved fragments.
  10. ↑ Strong,3; Wilson, 114–15.
  11. ↑ Strong, 3.
  12. ↑ Strong, 3; Rowlands, 56–59. Many copies of Holbein's portraits of Erasmus exist, but it is not always certain whether they were produced by the artist himself or by his studio.
  13. ↑ "For a generation or more popular and establishment piety had led to the adornment and embellishment of churches, chapels, and cathedrals. Now there were different religious priorities and the overswelled ranks of the artists' guilds were feeling the pinch." Wilson, 116.
  14. ↑ Letter to Pieter Gillis (Petrus Aegidius), August 1526. Quoted by Wilson, 120. An angel was an English coin.
  15. ↑ Strong, 4; Wilson, 157–58. Strong suggests, with others, that More sent the sketch, which is now in Basel, to Erasmus as a gift; Wilson casts doubt on this, deducing from remarks by Erasmus that the gift was a finished version of the group portrait, since lost.
  16. ↑ Strong, 4.
  17. ↑ Wilson, 140; Foister, 30; King, 43–49. Anne Lovell's husband was Sir Francis Lovell, an esquire of the body to Henry VIII.
  18. ↑ Strong, 4.
  19. ↑ Strong, 4.
  20. ↑ Rowlands, 76.
  21. ↑ Wilson, 156–57.
  22. ↑ Buck, 134.
  23. ↑ Doctrinal issues concerning the communion were at the heart of Reformation theological controversy.
  24. ↑ Wilson, 163.
  25. ↑ Rowlands, 76.
  26. ↑ Strong, 4.
  27. ↑ Rowlands, 81. Holbein was in England by September 1532, the date of a letter from the Basel authorities asking him to return.
  28. ↑ Letter to Boniface Amerbach, quoted by Wilson, 178–79.
  29. ↑ Wilson, 213.
  30. ↑ Wilson, 183–86.
  31. ↑ Wilson, 184.
  32. ↑ Buck, 98; North, 7. North calls the identification of the figure on the right as Dinteville's brother, the Bishop of Auxerre, in an inventory of 1589, a mistake; the bulk of scholarship follows M. F. S. Hervey (1900), who first identified the bishop as de Selve. See also Susan Foister, "Jean de Dinteville and the Château of Polisy", in Foister et al, 21–29.
  33. ↑ Buck, 103–104; Wilson, 193–97. For a detailed online analysis of the painting's symbolism and iconography, see Mark Calderwood, "The Holbein Codes". Retrieved 29 November 2008.
  34. ↑ Parker, 53–54; Wilson, 209–10. A drawing inscribed "Anna Bollein Queen" has been discounted by K. T. Parker and other scholars, citing heraldic sketches on the reverse, as incorrectly labelled; Derek Wilson, however, follows some recent scholarship in arguing that the drawing is of Anne. He doubts that John Cheke, who made the attribution in 1542, was mistaken, since Cheke knew many who had seen Anne.
  35. ↑ Wilson, 208–209.
  36. ↑ Strong, 5.
  37. ↑ Buck, 112. The precise date of Holbein's appointment is unknown; but in 1536, he was referred to as the "king's painter" in a letter from the French poet Nicholas Bourbon, whom Holbein painted in 1535.
  38. ↑ Strong, 6.
  39. ↑ Strong, 5. Strong calls it "arguably the most famous royal portrait of all time, encapsulating in this gargantuan image all the pretensions of a man who cast himself as 'the only Supreme Head in earth of the Church of England' ".
  40. ↑ Buck, 115.
  41. ↑ Buck, 119; Strong, 6. This is the portrait now in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid.
  42. ↑ Rowlands, 224–26.
  43. ↑ Buck, 117.
  44. ↑ Buck, 120.
  45. ↑ Buck, 128–29. A preparatory drawing for this composition also survives, painted in by a later hand.
  46. ↑ Strong, 7.
  47. ↑ Wilson, 251. The likeness met with Henry's approval, but Christina declined the offer of marriage: "If I had two heads," she said, "I would happily put one at the disposal of the King of England".
  48. ↑ Wilson, 250.
  49. ↑ Wilson, 251–52. Neither portrait has survived.
  50. ↑ Wilson, 252–53.
  51. ↑ Wilson, 260.
  52. ↑ Wolf, 2004, p. 91
  53. ↑ Michael Levey, The German School; National Gallery Catalogues, 1959, National Gallery, London
  54. ↑ According to Karel van Mander who refers to a "Lucas", assumed to be Horenbout.

References

Further reading

External links