Editing Hans Holbein the Younger (section)

=== England, 1532–1540 ===

[[File:Hans Holbein the Younger - The Ambassadors - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|250px|''[[The Ambassadors (Holbein)|Double Portrait of Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve ("The Ambassadors")]]'', 1533; oil and tempera on oak, [[National Gallery, London]]]]

Holbein returned to England, where the political and religious environment was changing radically.<ref>Rowlands, 81. Holbein was in England by September 1532, the date of a letter from the Basel authorities asking him to return.</ref> In 1532, Henry VIII was preparing to repudiate [[Catherine of Aragon]] and marry [[Anne Boleyn]], in defiance of the pope.<ref>North, 26.</ref> Among those who opposed Henry's actions was Holbein's former host and patron Sir Thomas More, who resigned as [[Lord Chancellor]] in May 1532. Around this time, Holbein is supposed to have decorated the [[mortuary roll]] of [[John Islip]], [[abbot of Westminster]], one of the last mortuary rolls created.<ref>Block Friedman & Mossler Figg, 417.</ref> Holbein seems to have distanced himself from More's humanist milieu on this visit, and "he deceived those to whom he was recommended", according to Erasmus.<ref>Letter to Boniface Amerbach, quoted by Wilson, 178–79; Strong, 4.</ref> The artist found favour instead within the radical new power circles of the Boleyn family and [[Thomas Cromwell]]. Cromwell became the king's secretary in 1534, controlling all aspects of government, including artistic propaganda.<ref>Wilson, 213.</ref> More was executed in 1535 along with [[John Fisher]], whose portrait Holbein had also drawn.<ref>Wilson, 224–25; Foister, 120.</ref>

Holbein's commissions in the early stages of his second English period included portraits of Lutheran merchants of the [[Hanseatic League]]. The merchants lived and plied their trade at the [[Steelyard]], a complex of warehouses, offices, and dwellings on the north bank of the Thames. Holbein rented a house in Maiden Lane nearby, and he portrayed his clients in a range of styles. His portrait of [[Georg Giese]] of [[Gdańsk]] shows the merchant surrounded by exquisitely painted symbols of his trade. His portrait of Derich Berck of Cologne, on the other hand, is classically simple and possibly influenced by [[Titian]].<ref>Wilson, 184.</ref> For the guildhall of the Steelyard, Holbein painted the monumental allegories ''The Triumph of Wealth'' and ''The Triumph of Poverty'', both now lost. The merchants also commissioned a street tableau of [[Mount Parnassus]] for Anne Boleyn's coronation eve procession of 31 May 1533.<ref>Wilson, 183–86; Starkey, 496. According to historian David Starkey: "If the pageant as executed followed Holbein's surviving preparatory drawing at all faithfully, it was the most sophisticated piece of Renaissance theatrical design that London would see till the spectacular masque settings of Inigo Jones almost a century later".</ref>

[[File:Henry VIII of England, by Hans Holbein.jpg|thumb|upright|left|''[[Portrait of Henry VIII]]'', {{Circa|1536}}. Oil and tempera on oak, [[Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum]], Madrid.]]
Holbein also portrayed various courtiers, landowners, and visitors during this time, and his most famous painting of the period was ''[[The Ambassadors (Holbein)|The Ambassadors]]''. This life-sized panel portrays [[Jean de Dinteville]], an ambassador of [[Francis I of France]] in 1533, and [[Georges de Selve]], Bishop of [[Lavaur, Tarn|Lavaur]] who visited London the same year.<ref>Buck, 98; North, 7. North suggests that the identification of the figure on the right as Dinteville's brother, the Bishop of Auxerre, was a mistake in an inventory of 1589; the bulk of scholarship follows M. F. S. Hervey (1900), who first identified the bishop as de Selve. See also Foister ''et al.'', 21–29.</ref> The work incorporates symbols and paradoxes, including an anamorphic (distorted) skull. According to scholars, these are enigmatic references to learning, religion, mortality, and illusion in the tradition of the [[Northern Renaissance]].<ref>Buck, 103–104; Wilson, 193–97; Roskill, "Introduction", Roskill & Hand, 11–12. For a detailed online analysis of the painting's symbolism and iconography, see Mark Calderwood, [https://web.archive.org/web/20060423155438/http://www.newcastle.edu.au/school/fine-art/arttheoryessaywritingguide/analysisofhansholbeinstheambassadors.html "The Holbein Codes"]. Retrieved 29 November 2008.</ref> Art historians Oskar Bätschmann and Pascal Griener suggest that in ''The Ambassadors'', "Sciences and arts, objects of luxury and glory, are measured against the grandeur of Death".<ref>Bätschmann & Griener, 184.</ref>

[[File:Remigius van Leemput - Whitehall Mural.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Copy in oils of the 1536–1537 Whitehall mural, this copy was commissioned by [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] in 1667;, Left to right Henry VIII; Henry VII; Elizabeth of York; Jane Seymour]] 
[[File:Hans Holbein the Younger - Edward VI as a Child - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''Portrait of [[Edward VI]] as a Child'', {{circa|1538}}. Oil and tempera on oak, [[National Gallery of Art]], Washington D. C.]]
No certain painted portraits survive of Anne Boleyn by Holbein, perhaps because her memory was purged following her execution for treason, incest, and adultery in 1536,<ref>Parker, 53–54; Wilson, 209–10; Ives, 43. A drawing at Windsor inscribed "Anna Bollein Queen" has been discounted as incorrectly labelled by K. T. Parker and other scholars, citing heraldic sketches on the reverse. Anne's biographer Eric Ives believes that there is "little to reinstate" that drawing or another at the British Museum inscribed "Anne Bullen Regina Angliæ … decollata fuit Londini 19 May 1536", though he speculates that a 17th-century copy by [[John Hoskins (painter)|John Hoskins]] "from an ancient original" may be based on a lost Holbein portrait of Anne. Derek Wilson, however, follows the recent scholarship of Starkey/Rowlands in arguing that the Windsor drawing ''is'' of Anne. He doubts that [[John Cheke]] was mistaken, who made the attribution in 1542 since Cheke knew many who had seen Anne.</ref> although there is a drawing, as made from life by Holbein preparatory to painting a portrait.<ref>{{cite news| last=Jones | first=Jonathan | title='Some of the most startling portraits in existence': Hans Holbein's mini masterpieces | newspaper=The Guardian | date=25 October 2023 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/oct/25/hans-holbein-drawings-tudor-court-queens-gallery-london}}</ref> It is clear, however, that Holbein worked directly for Anne and her circle.<ref>Rowlands, 88, 91.</ref> He designed a cup engraved with her device of a falcon standing on roses, as well as jewellery and books connected to her. He also sketched several women attached to her entourage, including her sister-in-law Jane Parker.<ref>Wilson, 208–209.</ref> At the same time, Holbein worked for Thomas Cromwell as he masterminded Henry VIII's reformation. Cromwell commissioned Holbein to produce reformist and royalist images, including anti-clerical woodcuts and the title page to [[Myles Coverdale]]'s English translation of the Bible. Henry VIII had embarked on a grandiose programme of artistic patronage. His efforts to glorify his new status as Supreme Head of the Church culminated in the building of [[Nonsuch Palace]], which started in 1538.<ref>Strong, 5.</ref>
By 1536, Holbein was employed as the King's Painter on an annual salary of 30 pounds—though he was never the highest-paid artist on the royal payroll.<ref>Müller, ''et al.'', 13, 52; Buck, 112. The precise date is unknown of Holbein's appointment, but he was referred to in 1536 as the "king's painter" in a letter from French poet Nicholas Bourbon whom Holbein painted in 1535.</ref> Royal "pictor maker" [[Lucas Horenbout]] earned more, and other continental artists also worked for the king.<ref>Strong, 6; Rowlands, 96; Bätschmann & Griener, 189.</ref> In 1537, Holbein painted his most famous image: Henry VIII standing in a heroic pose with his feet planted apart.<ref>Strong, 5. Strong calls it "arguably the most famous royal portrait of all time, encapsulating in this gargantuan image all the pretensions of a man who cast himself as 'the only Supreme Head in earth of the Church of England'."</ref> The left section has survived of Holbein's cartoon for a life-sized wall painting at [[Whitehall Palace]] showing the king in this pose with his father behind him. The mural also depicted [[Jane Seymour]] and [[Elizabeth of York]]. It was destroyed by fire in 1698, but is known from engravings and from a 1667 copy by [[Remigius van Leemput]].<ref>Buck, 115.</ref> An earlier half-length portrait shows Henry in a similar pose,<ref>Buck, 119; Strong, 6. This is the small portrait now in the [[Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum]], Madrid.</ref> but all the full-length portraits of him are copies based on the Whitehall pattern.<ref>Rowlands, 118, 224–26.</ref> The figure of Jane Seymour in the mural is related to Holbein's sketch and painting of her.<ref>Buck, 117.</ref>

Jane died in October 1537, shortly after bearing Henry's only legitimate son [[Edward VI]]. Holbein painted a portrait of the infant prince about two years later, clutching a sceptre-like gold rattle.<ref>Buck, 120; Bätschmann & Griener, 189.</ref> Holbein's final portrait of Henry dates from 1543 and was perhaps completed by others, depicting the king with a group of barber surgeons.<ref>Buck, 128–29; Wilson, 273–74; Rowlands, 118; Foister, 117. A preparatory drawing for this composition also survives, painted in by a later hand.</ref>

Holbein's portrait style altered after he entered Henry's service. He focused more intensely on the sitter's face and clothing, largely omitting props and three-dimensional settings.<ref>Strong, 7; Waterhouse, 19.</ref> He applied this clean, craftsman-like technique to miniature portraits such as that of [[Jane Small]], and to grand portraits such as that of [[Christina of Denmark]]. He travelled with [[Philip Hoby]] to Brussels in 1538 and sketched Christina for the king, who was appraising the young widow as a prospective bride.<ref>Wilson, 251. The likeness met with Henry's approval, but Christina declined the offer of marriage: "If I had two heads," she said, "I would happily put one at the disposal of the King of England".</ref> John Hutton, the English ambassador in Brussels, reported that another artist's drawing of Christina was "sloberid" (slobbered) compared to Holbein's.<ref>Auerbach, 49; Wilson, 250.</ref> In Wilson's view, Holbein's subsequent oil portrait is "the loveliest painting of a woman that he ever executed, which is to say that it is one of the finest female portraits ever painted".<ref>Wilson, 250.</ref> 

The same year, Holbein and Hoby went to France to paint Louise of [[House of Guise|Guise]] and [[Anna of Lorraine]] for Henry VIII. Neither portrait of these cousins has survived.<ref>Wilson, 251–52.</ref> Holbein found time to visit Basel, where he was fêted by the authorities and granted a pension.<ref>Wilson, 252–53.</ref> On the way back to England, he apprenticed his son Philipp to Basel-born goldsmith Jacob David in Paris.<ref>Müller, ''et al.'', 13; Buck, 126.</ref>

[[File:Detail from Portrait Anna von Kleve by Hans Holbein d. J. (Louvre).jpg|thumb|Holbein's portrait of Anne of Cleves (detail)]]
Holbein painted [[Anne of Cleves]] at [[Burgau Castle]], posing her square-on and in elaborate finery. This was the woman whom Henry married at [[Düren]] at the encouragement of Thomas Cromwell in the summer of 1539.<ref>Wilson, 260.</ref> English envoy [[Nicholas Wotton]] reported that "Hans Holbein hath taken the effigies of my Lady Anne and the lady Amelia [Anne's sister] and hath expressed their images very lively".<ref>Starkey, 620.</ref> Henry was disillusioned with Anne in the flesh, however, and he divorced her after a brief, unconsummated marriage. There is a tradition that Holbein's portrait flattered Anne, derived from the testimony of [[Anthony Browne (died 1548)|Sir Anthony Browne]].

Henry said that he was dismayed by her appearance at Rochester, having seen her pictures and heard advertisements of her beauty—so much that his face fell.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=eyYwAAAAYAAJ Strype, John, ''Ecclesiastical Memorials'', vol 1 part 2, Oxford (1822)], 456–457, "altered his outward countenance, to see the Lady so far unlike."</ref> No one other than Henry ever described Anne as repugnant; French Ambassador [[Charles de Marillac]] thought her quite attractive, pleasant, and dignified, though dressed in unflattering, heavy German clothing, as were her attendants.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0QnXAwAAQBAJ&q=anne%20of%20cleves%20unattractive%20Anthony%20Browne%20Marillac&pg=PP55 | title=Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII's Discarded Bride| isbn=9781445606774| last1=Norton| first1=Elizabeth| date=15 October 2009| publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited}}</ref><ref>Schofield, 236–41; Scarisbrick, 484–85.</ref> Some of the blame for the king's disillusionment fell on Thomas Cromwell, who had been instrumental in arranging the marriage and had passed on some exaggerated claims of Anne's beauty.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oku_BAAAQBAJ&q=Henry%20VIII%20%20%20cromwell%20%20anne%20of%20cleves%20unattractive&pg=PT73 | title=Henry VIII and his Court| isbn=9781849891172| last1=Muhlbach| first1=Luise| date=14 May 2010| publisher=Andrews UK Limited}}</ref> This was one of the factors that led to Cromwell's downfall.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P1PrjR79wzgC&q=cromwell%20anne%20of%20cleves%20Duchess%20of%20Milan%20%22as%20the%20golden%20sun%20did%20the%20silver&pg=PA77 | title=The Marrying of Anne of Cleves: Royal Protocol in Early Modern England| isbn=9780521770378| last1=Warnicke| first1=Retha M| date=13 April 2000| publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref>