HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger Oil Painting Reproduction
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HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger
German painter (b. 1497, Augsburg, d. 1543, London).
Hans Holbein the Younger, born in Augsburg, was the son of a painter, Hans Holbein the Elder, and received his first artistic training from his father. Hans the Younger may have had early contacts with the Augsburg painter Hans Burgkmair the Elder. In 1515 Hans the Younger and his older brother, Ambrosius, went to Basel, where they were apprenticed to the Swiss painter Hans Herbster. Hans the Younger worked in Lucerne in 1517 and visited northern Italy in 1518-1519. On Sept. 25, 1519, Holbein was enrolled in the painters' guild of Basel, and the following year he set up his own workshop, became a citizen of Basel, and married the widow Elsbeth Schmid, who bore him four children. He painted altarpieces, portraits, and murals and made designs for woodcuts, stained glass, and jewelry. Among his patrons was Erasmus of Rotterdam, who had settled in Basel in 1521. In 1524 Holbein visited France. Holbein gave up his workshop in Basel in 1526 and went to England, armed with a letter of introduction from Erasmus to Sir Thomas More, who received him warmly. Holbein quickly achieved fame and financial success. In 1528 he returned to Basel, where he bought property and received commissions from the city council, Basel publishers, Erasmus, and others. However, with iconoclastic riots instigated by fanatic Protestants, Basel hardly offered the professional security that Holbein desired. In 1532 Holbein returned to England and settled permanently in London, although he left his family in Basel, retained his Basel citizenship, and visited Basel in 1538. He was patronized especially by country gentlemen from Norfolk, German merchants from the Steel Yard in London, and King Henry VIII and his court. Holbein died in London between Oct. 7 and Nov. 29, 1543. With few exceptions, Holbein's work falls naturally into the four periods corresponding to his alternate residences in Basel and London. His earliest extant work is a tabletop with trompe l'oeil motifs (1515) painted for the Swiss standard-bearer Hans Baer. Other notable works of the first Basel period are a diptych of Burgomaster Jakob Meyer zum Hasen and his wife, Dorothea Kannengiesser (1516); a portrait of Bonifacius Amerbach (1519); an unsparingly realistic Dead Christ (1521); a Madonna and Child Enthroned with Two Saints (1522); several portraits of Erasmus, of which the one in Paris (1523 or shortly after), with its accurate observation of the scholar's concentrated attitude and frail person and its beautifully balanced composition, is particularly outstanding; and woodcuts, among which the series of the Dance of Death (ca. 1521-1525, though not published until 1538) represents one of the high points of the artist's graphic oeuvre. Probably about 1520 Holbein painted an altarpiece, the Last Supper, now somewhat cut down, which is based on Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting, and four panels with eight scenes of the Passion of Christ (possibly the shutters of the Last Supper altarpiece), which contain further reminiscences of Italian painting, particularly Andrea Mantegna, the Lombard school, and Raphael, but with lighting effects that are characteristically northern. His two portraits of Magdalena Offenburg, as Laïs of Corinth and Venus with Cupid (1526),
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Painting ID:: 63713
The Oberried Altarpiece
1521-22 Tempera on wood Cathedral, Freiburg The picture shows a detail of the Adoration of the Magi.Artist:HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger Title: The Oberried Altarpiece (detail) Painted in 1501-1550 , German - - painting : religious
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Painting ID:: 63714
The Ambassadors
1533 Oil on oak National Gallery, London No preparatory drawings survive for The Ambassadors, nor is it clear how the commission for the work came about. Only the character and employment of the sitters are known. The identification of Jean de Dinteville has been aided through a portrait drawing by Jean Clouet of about the same date as the painting. Though Holbein's style changed little over the course of his career, the subtlety and opulence of the colours in this work are different from the starker tonalities he used in Basle. The green backdrop and the pink slashed shirt of the diplomat add a zest which is further enhanced by the juxtaposition of different textures of silk and woven cloth. Like Titian, Holbein was an assured painter of fur (a crucial ability for a court painter) and the contrast between the soft ermine and the glistening metal chain serves as a rich textural counterbalance. The intense realism Holbein achieved here was due to his prodigious visual memory and refusal to let either draughtsmanship or the application of paint alone dominate the execution.Artist:HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger Title: The Ambassadors (detail) Painted in 1501-1550 , German - - painting : portrait
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Painting ID:: 63716
Portrait of the Merchant Georg Gisze
1532 Oil on wood Staatliche Museen, Berlin On the rear wooden wall Holbein paints cartellino, supposedly attached to the wall with sealing wax, with a Latin couplet written on it saying: "Couplet on the portrait of Georg Gisze. What you see here is Georg's portrait showing his features; this is how lively his eye is, this is how his cheeks are shaped. In his 34th year, anno Domini 1532."Artist:HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger Title: Portrait of the Merchant Georg Gisze (detail) Painted in 1501-1550 , German - - painting : portrait
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Painting ID:: 63717
The Passion
1524-25 Oil on limewood, 39 x 31 cm (size of detail) Kunstmuseum, ?ffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basle The picture shows a detail of the scene Via Crucis. The background of the scene opens up as a broad landscape. The perspective effect of distance is achieved by traditional colourist means, with the foreground, centre ground, and background being clearly distinguished in brown, greenish, and blue tones respectively. Continuity is provided by a procession of riders and infantry, whose size diminishes steadily towards the background, taking the eye into the landscape.Artist:HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger Title: The Passion (detail) Painted in 1501-1550 , German - - painting : religious
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Painting ID:: 63718
The Passion
1524-25 Oil on limewood Kunstmuseum, ?ffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basle Here the Italianate influences are slightly stronger than in the scene of Christ before Pilate above, though no direct borrowing is observable. Holbein has adapted the smoothly elegant contrapposto stance that Andrea Mantegna had rediscovered in Roman statuary to suggest the nonchalance of the guards, just doing their job. Mantegna's frescoes in the Eremitani chapel at Padua (now damaged) are oblique sources for Holbein's, perhaps through engravings. The parallel placement of limbs, as with the green-cloaked soldier's right leg and the left arm of the guard casting lots, and the antique-style leggings and body-hugging jerkin of the guard in yellow, are southern in design. Otherwise, a sense of northern flurry and activity displaces Mantegna's calm grandeur; the touch of orientalism in the turbaned figure to the right may imply Venetian influence (through artists like Vittore Carpaccio) and contemporary chain-mail, armour and axes underpin the stark emotionalism of the figure of Saint John, with his fists clenched, behind the grieving Virgin; a combination that balances the dourly painful chiaroscuro treatment of the crucified trio overhead.Artist:HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger Title: The Passion (detail) Painted in 1501-1550 , German - - painting : religious
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HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger
German painter (b. 1497, Augsburg, d. 1543, London).
Hans Holbein the Younger, born in Augsburg, was the son of a painter, Hans Holbein the Elder, and received his first artistic training from his father. Hans the Younger may have had early contacts with the Augsburg painter Hans Burgkmair the Elder. In 1515 Hans the Younger and his older brother, Ambrosius, went to Basel, where they were apprenticed to the Swiss painter Hans Herbster. Hans the Younger worked in Lucerne in 1517 and visited northern Italy in 1518-1519. On Sept. 25, 1519, Holbein was enrolled in the painters' guild of Basel, and the following year he set up his own workshop, became a citizen of Basel, and married the widow Elsbeth Schmid, who bore him four children. He painted altarpieces, portraits, and murals and made designs for woodcuts, stained glass, and jewelry. Among his patrons was Erasmus of Rotterdam, who had settled in Basel in 1521. In 1524 Holbein visited France. Holbein gave up his workshop in Basel in 1526 and went to England, armed with a letter of introduction from Erasmus to Sir Thomas More, who received him warmly. Holbein quickly achieved fame and financial success. In 1528 he returned to Basel, where he bought property and received commissions from the city council, Basel publishers, Erasmus, and others. However, with iconoclastic riots instigated by fanatic Protestants, Basel hardly offered the professional security that Holbein desired. In 1532 Holbein returned to England and settled permanently in London, although he left his family in Basel, retained his Basel citizenship, and visited Basel in 1538. He was patronized especially by country gentlemen from Norfolk, German merchants from the Steel Yard in London, and King Henry VIII and his court. Holbein died in London between Oct. 7 and Nov. 29, 1543. With few exceptions, Holbein's work falls naturally into the four periods corresponding to his alternate residences in Basel and London. His earliest extant work is a tabletop with trompe l'oeil motifs (1515) painted for the Swiss standard-bearer Hans Baer. Other notable works of the first Basel period are a diptych of Burgomaster Jakob Meyer zum Hasen and his wife, Dorothea Kannengiesser (1516); a portrait of Bonifacius Amerbach (1519); an unsparingly realistic Dead Christ (1521); a Madonna and Child Enthroned with Two Saints (1522); several portraits of Erasmus, of which the one in Paris (1523 or shortly after), with its accurate observation of the scholar's concentrated attitude and frail person and its beautifully balanced composition, is particularly outstanding; and woodcuts, among which the series of the Dance of Death (ca. 1521-1525, though not published until 1538) represents one of the high points of the artist's graphic oeuvre. Probably about 1520 Holbein painted an altarpiece, the Last Supper, now somewhat cut down, which is based on Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting, and four panels with eight scenes of the Passion of Christ (possibly the shutters of the Last Supper altarpiece), which contain further reminiscences of Italian painting, particularly Andrea Mantegna, the Lombard school, and Raphael, but with lighting effects that are characteristically northern. His two portraits of Magdalena Offenburg, as Laïs of Corinth and Venus with Cupid (1526),
. Related Artists to HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger: | Domenico Quaglio | kilian zoll | William Parrott | TOURNIER, Nicolas | Thomas Frye |
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