Hans Holbein the younger

Life and work.

The date of his birth has been estimated from his earliest signed painting, the Death of the Virgin (Budapest, Mus. F.A.), which is dated 148(?). His earliest surviving dated altarpiece is the St Afra Altarpiece, produced for the church of SS Ulrich and Afra, Augsburg (1490; Eichstätt, Bischöf. Pal.; Basle, Kstmus.). In 1493 he was recorded, buying a house in Augsburg, as ‘Hans Holbein the painter, citizen of Ulm’; he was then working in Ulm with the sculptor Michel Erhart on the Weingartner Altarpiece, depicting scenes from the Life of the Virgin, for the chapel of the Virgin in the Benedictine monastery at Weingarten (1493; panels, Augsburg Cathedral; carvings untraced); here the style of the paintings reveals the influence of the Netherlandish style of Rogier van der Weyden. By this date, however, Holbein had already developed stylistic traits of his own: the ability to depict individual facial characteristics, the clear and symmetrical organization of his figures within the available space (here placing them within various architectural structures, which serve both to delineate the subsidiary scenes and to unify the separate panels of the altarpiece) and the use of warm, glowing colour.

Holbein set up a large workshop in Augsburg, taking his first apprentices in 1496–8. In 1499–1500 he painted the Passion in grisaille, in which Netherlandish influence is again noticeable. The mostly frieze-like scenes are carefully linked by compositional echoes, while the figures are less static than in earlier work, and facial expressions are used to evoke a mood of pathos rather than to emphasize the brutality of the scenes.

In 1501 Holbein travelled to Frankfurt am Main, where he and his workshop painted an altarpiece for the Dominikanerkirche. The only complete surviving parts of the inner panels represent the Death of the Virgin (Basle, Kstmus.) and the Presentation in the Temple (Hamburg, Ksthalle); a carved statue and two wings are untraced. On the outside of the outer wings was the Tree of Jesse (Frankfurt am Main, Städel. Kstinst. & Städt. Gal.); the outside of the inner wings consisted of scenes from the Passion (seven, Frankfurt am Main, Städel. Kstinst. & Städt. Gal.; one, priv. col.). The Death of the Virgin shows an increased feeling for depth and spatial unity in the way in which the composition employs a recessed architectural background. Moreover, although Netherlandish influence is still evident, notably in the depiction of the kneeling saint, the heads are especially strongly characterized, and the use of colour (notably greens and reds) as well as the inclusion of striking, variegated marble columns give a particularly rich and luminous effect. Another major commission undertaken by Holbein and his workshop in this period was for an altarpiece for the Dominican Klosterkirche at Kaisheim, with panels of the Passion and the Life of the Virgin (1502; Munich, Alte Pin.). Holbein collaborated on this commission with sculptors from Augsburg, including Gregor Erhart and Adolf Daucher, whose work is untraced; only Holbein’s panels, with their rhythmically interlocking figures and flowing drapery, survive. Three panels, of the Crucifixion, the Deposition and the Entombment (Augsburg, Schaezlerpal.), may be connected with this altarpiece, or they may have formed a separate altarpiece in the same church.

Between 1499 and 1504 Holbein and other Augsburg painters, including Hans Burgkmair I and the Monogrammist LF, were commissioned to paint a series of scenes representing the seven main churches of Rome for the Katharinenkloster in Augsburg, in celebration of the Papal Jubilee of 1500. Holbein painted the Basilica of S Maria Maggiore (1499) and the Basilica of S Paolo fuori le Mura (1504; both Augsburg, Schaezlerpal.). The earlier painting shows the Coronation of the Virgin within Gothic tracery (above), with the basilica and the Nativity (below, left) and the Martyrdom of St Dorothy with the donor Dorothea Rehlinger (right). Most notable in the colourful and powerfully depicted scenes of the Basilica of S Paolo is the opening out of the space: in the central scene of martyrdom attention is directed to a considerable recession of space beyond the martyrdom itself by the careful placing, just off centre, of a female figure, her back elegantly turned to the viewer, thus leading the eye inwards. The left-hand scene contains a self-portrait of the artist with his two young sons.

In 1509–10 Holbein interrupted work for Augsburg Cathedral to travel to Alsace, probably to undertake a commission for an altarpiece for the Hohenburg Klosterkirche on the Odilienberg, near Strasbourg. The powerful yet still graceful figures of the grisaille wings show the Legend of St Ottilie (Prague, N. Mus); for the first time the figures in the main scenes are set within a Renaissance-style border of foliage. A further change of style is evident in the wings of the altarpiece of SS Katherine and Peter (1512; Augsburg, Schaezlerpal.), in which the martyrdom of each saint is vigorously depicted. In all the scenes the figures are more solidly drawn, and some are more grotesque, than the earlier figures in the Netherlandish style. In addition, a Renaissance-style border and architecture emphasize a particularly strong sense of decorative surface pattern: the figures themselves are carefully placed to form mirror-image patterns of each other, and there is little sense of recession. Holbein’s last important work at Augsburg was an altarpiece of St Sebastian (1515–16; Munich, Alte Pin.), probably painted for the Dominican Katharinenkloster. In this work the saints in the wings are placed in a Renaissance framework, and the figure of St Sebastian himself adopts a contorted Italianate contrapposto; the sense of space is again shallow.

In the winter of 1516–17, after Holbein had left Augsburg, his brother Sigmund Holbein lodged a complaint against him. Hans the elder is reported to have gone to ‘Eyssnen’ (Isenheim), where he may have worked for the monastery of St Anthony. In 1517 he was in Lucerne, working with his son (3) Hans Holbein (ii) on the decoration of the house (destr.) of Jacob von Hertenstein. In the Fountain of Life (1519; Lisbon, Mus. N. A. Ant.) the Virgin and saints are depicted in a dramatically receding perspective background dominated by a classical triumphal arch of a pattern already used in Augsburg sculpture, which suggests that it was painted at Augsburg, although it also reveals a knowledge of the work of Martin Schongauer, with which Holbein had probably renewed acquaintance in Alsace. In 1520–21 father and son again collaborated on the Oberried Altarpiece (Freiburg im Breisgau Cathedral), for which the elder Hans probably painted the donor figures.

Holbein appears to have painted few independent portraits, although some of his religious commissions, for example the Schwarz Family votive picture (?1508; Augsburg, Schaezlerpal.), included donor portraits, here showing his skill in the characterization of individuals as well as the increasing solidity of his figures. The independent Portrait of a Woman Aged 34 (c. 1512; Basle, Kstmus.), shows the vivacity that he could impart to his portraits, making the sitter glance out of the portrait, her head tilted and her body slightly turned.

2. Working methods and technique.

Holbein ran a workshop that must have been fairly large to cope with the commissions for traditional large-scale altarpieces that he undertook, and he collaborated with sculptors as well as goldsmiths and stained-glass painters. In 1496 he took on as an apprentice Sebastian Kriechbaum, who was probably the brother of an apprentice in Gregor Erhart’s workshop; the following year Holbein had two pupils, probably Leonhard Beck and his own brother Sigmund.

Holbein shared with most German and Netherlandish artists of the 15th century the practice of making preliminary drawings for commissions, usually in metalpoint on prepared paper or in pen and ink. An exceptionally large number of his drawings survive, around 200 probably by his own hand and further drawings that were probably produced in his workshop. The inventory (1586) of the Amerbach collection in Basle records 56 drawings by Holbein (now Basle, Kstmus.); and a particularly large collection of portrait drawings is preserved at the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin. The surviving drawings can be loosely divided into two groups according to their technique: sketches and more finished compositional studies in pen and wash; and studies of details of figures, especially heads, which are mostly in metalpoint. Large numbers of copies of drawings have also been preserved, but since it is not known exactly how Holbein’s workshop functioned, the precise use of many of these drawings remains unknown. A pattern book (Schloss Wolfegg, Fürst. Kstsamml.) contains many motifs taken from works by Holbein and his workshop, but it cannot be established with certainty whether this book was used by the workshop or was made for use in another. A few drawings in which Holbein used a chiaroscuro technique may have been made for glass painting or prints, but others can be connected with specific paintings.

It is possible, though the evidence is not straight-forward, that Holbein used preparatory metalpoint drawings for his painted portraits: for example, there is a clear relationship between a drawing of an Unknown Woman (London, BM) and the painted Portrait of a Woman Aged 34 (Basle, Kstmus.), but the drawing appears to copy the painting rather than being a study for it, and it may be a workshop record. In the case of the portrait of an Unknown Man (?1517; Norfolk, VA, Chrysler Mus.), the drawing of the same man (Berlin, Kupferstichkab.) faces in the opposite direction and cannot have been used directly as the basis for the portrait. Most of the portrait drawings, however, which include some of Holbein’s most beautiful and vigorous work (often depicting Augsburg citizens), appear to have been executed independently. Many were probably executed for their own sake rather than for particular commissions, but some were certainly used in paintings, for example the Basilica of S Paolo fuori le Mura (see fig. above), while others remained as independent studies, for example his drawing of Ambrosius and Hans Holbein the Younger (1511; Berlin, Kupferstichkab.).

Susan Foister. "Holbein." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T038595pg1 (accessed April 27, 2012).