Hans Holbein

About this book

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/8-1543) one of the most versatile and admired painters of the Northern Renaissance trained under his father in Augsburg and then worked for leading patrons in Switzerland before settling in England as Court Painter to Henry VIII. To commemorate the five-hundredth anniversary of the artists birth Oskar Btschmann and Pascal Griener offer this richly illustrated book--the first comprehensive monograph on the artist to appear in more than forty years--which is a major advance in our understanding of Holbeins contribution to European art. The authors reexamine every aspect of a remarkable career and further illuminate the artistic and cultural influences that affected the artist. Holbein was a hugely ambitious artist and even during his formative years in Lucerne and Basel made designs for jewelry stained glass and woodcuts and painted major altarpieces and portraits. He also carried out several monumental decorative schemes for private houses and civic buildings. In his commissions Holbein sought to rival the greatest masters of Germany and Italy most notably Drer and Mantegna and by the time of his visit to France in 1524 he was determined to secure a position as Court Painter. However Holbein soon found himself in a precarious situation as a result of the Reformations increasing hostility toward religious works and he left for England in 1532. While in England in addition to decorative schemes and Triumphs he both drew and painted numerous unrivaled likenesses of leading courtiers merchants and diplomats among which is his celebrated double portrait The Ambassadors. This book offers both a remarkable range of extant visual evidence and a rewarding and scholarly account of Holbeins oeuvre in its full historical and artistic contexts.