Holbein the Younger to Hold Court at Tate Britain
Thursday May 11, 2006
Ambassadors Too Fragile to Travel Two Miles for Engagement
by Stan Parchin
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Holbein in England, an international loan exhibition of 40 portrait and subject paintings, accompanied by some 120 drawings, prints and decorative designs by Northern Renaissance master Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98-1543), will grace Tate Britain from September 28, 2006 through January 7, 2007. The show will illustrate Holbein's remarkable artistic skills. It will also examine Tudor culture as portrayed by Holbein in his works from the often tumultuous reign of England's King Henry VIII (1491-1547).
Arranged chronologically, the works of art on display will explore themes such as: Holbein's resolution of real and ideal representation in painting; his portraiture technique; the artist and his patrons; the royal family and court; Northern Renaissance Humanism, religious upheaval and the English Reformation; and Holbein's assimilation of concepts from the Renaissance classical revival as seen in his preparatory designs for goldsmiths and large-scale paintings.
Born in Augsburg, Bavaria (part of the Holy Roman Empire), Holbein learned how to paint from his talented father, Hans Holbein the Elder (ca. 1460-1524). While in Basel, Switzerland, the younger Holbein met Desiderius Erasmus (1466?-1536), the Dutch humanist, scholar and writer who sought to reform the abuses of the Renaissance Church. As the Protestant Reformation gained fiery religious momentum in sixteenth-century Europe, Holbein's career floundered. Armed with letters of introduction from Erasmus to some of his friends, Holbein traveled to England in 1526. While there, the artist met Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), the distinguished statesman, intellectual and member of Henry VIII's court. More commissioned Holbein to paint his portrait and those of his family members. The exhibition will concentrate on works produced during the artist's early career in England (1526-1528) as well as those that date from his return and final residence there (1532-1543).
Among the extraordinary masterpieces on display in Holbein in England will be Henry VIII (ca. 1534-1536) from Madrid's renowned Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection and Edward VI as a Child (ca. 1538) from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Selected treasures by the master's hand from Windsor Castle, the Royal Collection and major European and American collections round out the exhibition's display.
A significant and most regrettable omission in the exhibition will be Holbein's The Ambassadors (1533). As reported in the May 6, 2006 edition of The Guardian, the National Gallery is a mere two miles from Tate Britain. Yet Holbein's oversized painting, restored a decade ago, is presently immobile. The 10 panels that comprise the master's monumental composition are extremely thin. In it, Holbein depicted sixteenth-century musical and scientific instruments (a lute, sundial, globe and quandrant) between a cultured French ambassador and a bishop. The lute's single broken string may symbolically represent discord in the Church. The diagonal, disc-shaped anamorphic image in the picture's foreground is a skull when visually unraveled, a clever memento mori or reminder of one's own mortality designed by Holbein.
For further reading:
Sander, Jochen and Stephanie Buck. Hans Holbein the Younger: Painter at the Court of Henry VIII (exh. cat.).
London: Thames & Hudson, 2004.
Starkey, David (ed.). Henry VIII: A European Court in England (exh. cat.).
London: Collins & Brown, 1991.
by Stan Parchin
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Holbein in England, an international loan exhibition of 40 portrait and subject paintings, accompanied by some 120 drawings, prints and decorative designs by Northern Renaissance master Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98-1543), will grace Tate Britain from September 28, 2006 through January 7, 2007. The show will illustrate Holbein's remarkable artistic skills. It will also examine Tudor culture as portrayed by Holbein in his works from the often tumultuous reign of England's King Henry VIII (1491-1547).
Arranged chronologically, the works of art on display will explore themes such as: Holbein's resolution of real and ideal representation in painting; his portraiture technique; the artist and his patrons; the royal family and court; Northern Renaissance Humanism, religious upheaval and the English Reformation; and Holbein's assimilation of concepts from the Renaissance classical revival as seen in his preparatory designs for goldsmiths and large-scale paintings.
Born in Augsburg, Bavaria (part of the Holy Roman Empire), Holbein learned how to paint from his talented father, Hans Holbein the Elder (ca. 1460-1524). While in Basel, Switzerland, the younger Holbein met Desiderius Erasmus (1466?-1536), the Dutch humanist, scholar and writer who sought to reform the abuses of the Renaissance Church. As the Protestant Reformation gained fiery religious momentum in sixteenth-century Europe, Holbein's career floundered. Armed with letters of introduction from Erasmus to some of his friends, Holbein traveled to England in 1526. While there, the artist met Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), the distinguished statesman, intellectual and member of Henry VIII's court. More commissioned Holbein to paint his portrait and those of his family members. The exhibition will concentrate on works produced during the artist's early career in England (1526-1528) as well as those that date from his return and final residence there (1532-1543).
Among the extraordinary masterpieces on display in Holbein in England will be Henry VIII (ca. 1534-1536) from Madrid's renowned Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection and Edward VI as a Child (ca. 1538) from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Selected treasures by the master's hand from Windsor Castle, the Royal Collection and major European and American collections round out the exhibition's display.
A significant and most regrettable omission in the exhibition will be Holbein's The Ambassadors (1533). As reported in the May 6, 2006 edition of The Guardian, the National Gallery is a mere two miles from Tate Britain. Yet Holbein's oversized painting, restored a decade ago, is presently immobile. The 10 panels that comprise the master's monumental composition are extremely thin. In it, Holbein depicted sixteenth-century musical and scientific instruments (a lute, sundial, globe and quandrant) between a cultured French ambassador and a bishop. The lute's single broken string may symbolically represent discord in the Church. The diagonal, disc-shaped anamorphic image in the picture's foreground is a skull when visually unraveled, a clever memento mori or reminder of one's own mortality designed by Holbein.
For further reading:
Sander, Jochen and Stephanie Buck. Hans Holbein the Younger: Painter at the Court of Henry VIII (exh. cat.).
London: Thames & Hudson, 2004.
Starkey, David (ed.). Henry VIII: A European Court in England (exh. cat.).
London: Collins & Brown, 1991.
Comments
Dear Mr. Parchin,
Thank you for informing my tour group about the show. We appreciate it.
Miss H.
significant blog!