Hans Holbein, the Younger, (c. 1497 – 1543) revolutionizied portrait painting in sixteenth-century England. It was he whobrought the Renaissance concept of portraiture to England: a portrait should convey the appearance, character and personality of the sitter, and not just his or her social position and virtue as evidenced in dress, jewelry and accessories. Of course Holbein gave his sitters these worldly trappings, but his strength lay in his ability to combine them with personality, and so to produce a fully realized portrait of a unique individual. At the end of the century, Shakespeare was to do the same, but on the stage, not on canvas.

Holbein is having his first major exhibition in more than 50 years at Tate Britain, in London. The exhibition will not travel to any other museums and closes on January 7, 2007. This extraordinary show was the reason for my trip to London. Twenty-eight years ago, I saw a small exhibit of Holbein’s portrait sketches at Buckingham Palace. However, this current exhibit (filling nine of the museum’s galleries) explores the vast range of the artist’s bravura skills with 40 paintings, sketches, decorative designs, and prints from public and private collections around the world.

The Artist’s Early Years

Although an abundance of Holbein’s portraits and sketches have survived, little is known about the man himself. After almost 500 years, few original documents remain; and so much of his personal life continues to be an enigma.

We do know, however, that Hans Holbein was born about 1497 in Augsburg. While he was still young, he surpassed his artist father, Hans Holbein, Sr., with whom he served his apprenticeship. Hans Jr. and his brother, Ambrosius, moved to Basel before 1515. Four years later, Hans became a member of the painter’s guild – a necessary requirement, if he was to be employed. It was here that Holbein met the great humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam. Due mainly to religious unrest, it was difficult for an artist to find enough work in Basel. So, as one of Erasmus’ friends wrote to him (in Latin): “Here the arts are freezing, (so Holbein) is on his way to England to pick up some angels (coins) there.”

Holbein arrived in London in December, 1527, carrying a letter of introduction from Erasmus to Sir Thomas More, the author of Utopia, who became the artist’s patron. On this first trip to London, Holbein’s portraits were largely confined to More’s family: his lawyer father Sir John More, sketched c.1527; and Sir Thomas’s son, Sir John More the Younger. Holbein also painted Sir Thomas’s portrait (now at The Frick Collection, New York) and also the beautiful 1528 The More Family Group (of which only the sketch has survived). The rest of his perceptive portraits made history.

Holbein stayed in London until 1528 and then returned to Basel. However, the ongoing Reformation chaos throughout Europe was a destabilizing factor for many artists; a number of Holbein paintings were destroyed in Basel during the religious violence. Leaving his wife and children behind, Holbein returned to London in 1532. Word of Holbein’s genius quickly spread and he began his most successful period as the king’s painter.

The King’s Painter

Holbein’s portrait of Sir Thomas More and his family dramatically changed the direction of art in England. When King Henry VIII saw More’s portrait, he, too, wanted Holbein to paint his portrait. What we know of the king’s looks comes to us directly via Holbein’s images: from middle-aged ruler to autocratic Tudor icon.

Although Holbein was working for the king from 1532 onwards, documents survive only from 1538. Holbein had many functions as court artist; he painted individual portraits and miniatures (most all are based on sketches done from life); and designed jewelry, elaborate dagger handles, book covers and page decorations.

King Henry VIII provided Holbein with a studio at Whitehall Palace. He was in constant demand and painted the king’s portrait numerous times, as well as several of his wives (Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour). Many of the English aristocracy came to Holbein’s studio to be painted, and he was also in demand by the growing numbers of wealthy burghers and members of the Hanseatic League.

Each portrait Holbein painted is a brilliant exercise in plumbing the person behind the exterior features. During one or two sittings, within a few hours, he was able to sketch with pen and ink, or colored chalks, the sitter’s initial features. He then completed the portrait in oil. The artist’s variety of royal Tudor portraits, or of noble ladies and gentleman, or the sensitively done one of Erasmus, all show the high level of his artistic gifts. He captured their personalities in a way that had never been seen before. His sitters were in awe of his genius.

There had been early portrait painters at the Tudor court before him, namely the Hornebolt family (Gerard and his son and daughter: Lucas and Suzanne). Lucas was the “king’s pictor maker.” Many of Lucas’s surviving works are court miniatures. It was Lucas who taught Holbein the art of painting miniature portraits.

Prior to Holbein’s presence in England, portraiture was still linked more to the late Middle Ages. The Renaissance had been flourishing in Italy for more than 150 years, but it was hardly awake in England. There was little resemblance to the reality of the person being painted and a poor understanding of perspective. The new realism was linked to the Italian Renaissance, but only awakened in northern Europe with Albrecht Dürer and then Holbein. Both artists traveled to Italy to be steeped in the “Rinasciemento” – the rebirth of the arts.

Walking from one gallery to another in the Tate takes us back in time to see a veritable “Who’s Who” of the Tudor court. Holbein’s commissions included numerous portraits of King Henry VIII, several of his wives, and the nobility attending on the king. Gallery 5 unites portraits of Henry with his third wife, Jane Seymour, and their son, Prince Edward – the king’s only son, who, upon his father’s death, became Edward VI.

This portrait of Edward, Prince of Wales, as the king’s only heir, was presented by Holbein to Henry VIII in 1539 as a New Year’s present. The child is portrayed as a miniature version of Henry with a Latin text below begging the boy to emulate his royal father. Holbein’s dazzling portrayal can also be seen in both the initial sketch of Queen Jane Seymour and the completed oil painting.

Portraits (both life size and miniatures) became an important way of having a likeness of kin; but also they were exchanged as diplomatic gifts from one court to another. When Henry was in search of his fourth wife, Holbein was sent to Cleves to paint the king’s prospective Lutheran bride, Anne. He was the king’s artistic diplomatic courier who sketched and then painted this young woman, and brought the painting back to the king. Based on the portrait, Henry entered into negotiations to marry Anne. However, when she arrived in England, Henry was dismayed at what she looked like in person (calling her “the Flanders’ mare”). The wedding went ahead, but the marriage was dissolved before a year was out. The portrait of Anne of Cleves (1539) is in the Louvre, Paris.

Holbein remained in London until his untimely death from the plague in 1543.

The Ambassadors

One particular work Holbein signed and painted is the fabulous, life-sized double portrait of French Ambassador Jean de Dinteville and his friend Georges de Selve (Bishop of Lavour). The work is known as The Ambassadors and is one of my all-time favorites. Over decades, I have come back to look at this extraordinary work again and again. Each time I find something new.

In 1533 when de Selve visited the ambassador in London, Holbein immortalized these two friends in oil paint, and showed them with all the vanitas trappings of their work as well as their desire to be identified as Renaissance humanists.

The exact date of this painting, April 11, 1533, can be deduced from the various Renaissance astronomical and geometric instruments on the table. The backdrop is an elegant (probably) velvet drape that offsets all the accoutrements on the well-organized, carpeted table. The gorgeous lute, on the lower shelf, shows the love of music; the latest terrestial globe demonstrates their interest in exploration and also points to France, from where both men hailed. The two open books still have legible pages; one is an arithmetic book, the other a hymnal. The men are posed on either side of a table covered with a carpet. During the sixteenth century, carpets were either hung on walls (to keep the heat in from damp stone walls) or used as table coverings. They were far too expensive to be used on the floor. The geometric stone floor is a copy of the one in Westminster Abbey, originally made in 1268.

This “key monument” in art is too fragile to travel, so it remains at the National Gallery, just a few minutes from the Tate. It is definitely worth a side trip, most especially as it is difficult to see the stunning anamorphic skull, unless you are looking at the real painting. In the center of this painting, there is what appears to be a grayish, foreshortened diagonal slash. This shape remains static, unless you are looking at the real painting. As you slowly walk from the left to the right of the painting, a human skull begins to take shape. It is a marvel of sleight-of-hand and the artist’s skill. It is the mysterious, but ever-present reminder: memento mori – life is brief. Remember, death is ever present, and all these fabulous trappings of wealth and status are nothing. They are our possessions. They may take hold of us, fascinate us, but ultimately we are dust… even as these inanimate objects survive. It’s a piece of medieval symbolism remaining with Renaissance realism.

This exhibition is a tremendous gift to all of us. It gives us a broad sense of this exceptional artist who lived 464 years ago. Art grips us, holds its deep fascination for us as a way to link us to the past; and it strengthens the bond of creativity from one era to another. Tate Britain is to be applauded; and many thanks are due to all the kind lenders (public and private) for sharing these masterpieces with us.

At the present time, a trip to London, where you can see Holbein’s many masterpieces at the Tate Britain and the National Gallery, At Home in Renaissance Italy, at the V&A, and a third exhibition treat, Leonardo da Vinci: Experience, Experiment and Design (also at the V&A) all in one grand fell swoop, is worth the security hassles at the airport.

All three exhibits close on January 7. Truly these exhibits are a feast for one’s eyes, and a joy to walk from gallery to gallery and museum to museum.

If art and antiques are the very best that is left to us from previous civilizations, then here is a triumvirate of exhibitions to celebrate, in glorious profusion, the marvels of the Renaissance.

Dr. I.S. Perlingieri is the author of the critically acclaimed, Sofonisba Anguissola: The First Great Woman Artist of the Renaissance (1992, and in French translation). Dr. Perlingieri wrote NEAJ’s March 2006 cover story on William Morris.