Editing Hans Holbein the Younger (section)

=== Religious works ===
[[File:The Abbot, from The Dance of Death, by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg|thumb|upright|''The [[Abbot]]'', woodcut from the ''[[Dance of Death]]'' series, 1523–26, {{nowrap|6.5 x 4.8&nbsp;cm}} inside frame]]

Holbein followed in the footsteps of Augsburg artists like his father and [[Hans Burgkmair]], who largely made their living from religious commissions. Despite calls for reform, the church in the late 15th century was [[medieval]] in tradition. It maintained an allegiance to Rome and a faith in pieties such as pilgrimages, veneration of relics, and prayer for dead souls. Holbein's early work reflects this culture. The growing reform movement, led by humanists such as Erasmus and Thomas More, began, however, to change religious attitudes. Basel, where [[Martin Luther]]'s major works were first published, became the main centre for the transmission of Reformation ideas.<ref>Bätschmann & Griener, 95.</ref>

The gradual shift from traditional to reformed religion can be charted in Holbein's work. His [[The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb|''Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb'']] of 1522 expresses a [[humanist]] view of Christ in tune with the reformist climate in Basel at the time.<ref>Buck, 32–33; Wilson, 88, 111; Ganz, 8; Bätschmann & Griener, 88–90. Holbein knew Grünewald's ''[[Isenheim Altarpiece|Lamentation and Burial of Christ]]'' at [[Issenheim]], not far from Basel, where his father had worked in 1509 and between 1516 and 1517.</ref> The ''Dance of Death'' (1523–26) refashions the late-medieval [[allegory]] of the ''[[Danse Macabre]]'' as a reformist satire.<ref>Wilson, 96–103. The prints were not published until 1538, perhaps because they were thought too subversive at a time of peasants' revolts. The series was left incomplete by the death of the block cutter [[Hans Lützelburger]] in 1526, and was eventually published with 41 woodcuts by his heirs without mention of Holbein. The ten further designs were added in later editions.</ref> Holbein's series of [[woodcut]]s shows the figure of "Death" in many disguises, confronting individuals from all walks of life. None escape Death's skeleton clutches, even the pious.<ref>Bätschmann & Griener, 56–58, and Landau & Parshall, 216.</ref>

In addition to the ''Dance of Death'' Holbein completed ''Icones'' or ''Series of the Old Gospel'' (It contains two works: ''The images of the stories of the Old Gospel'' and ''Portraits or printing boards of the story of the Old Gospel''). These works were arranged by Holbein with Melchior & Gaspar Trechsel in about 1526, later printed and edited in Latin by Jean & Francois Frellon with 92 woodcuts. These two works also share the first four figures with the ''Dance of Death''.

It appears that the Trechsel brothers initially intended to hire Holbein for illustrating Bibles.<ref>9 September, Francisco González Echeverría VI International Meeting for the History of Medicine, (S-11: Biographies in History of Medicine (I)), Barcelona. New Discoveries on the biography of Michael de Villeneuve (Michael Servetus) & New discoveries on the work of Michael De Villeneuve (Michael Servetus) {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110809093438/http://ishmbarcelona2011.org/ VI Meeting of the International Society for the History of Medicine]}}</ref> In fact, some of Holbein's ''Icones'' woodcuts appear in the recently discovered ''Biblia cum Glossis''<ref>2011 "The love for truth. Life and work of Michael Servetus", (El amor a la verdad. Vida y obra de Miguel Servet.), printed by Navarro y Navarro, Zaragoza, collaboration with the Government of Navarre, Department of Institutional Relations and Education of the Government of Navarre, 607pp, 64 of them illustrations, p 215-228 & 62nd illustration (XLVII)</ref> by Michel De Villeneuve ([[Michael Servetus]]). Holbein woodcuts appear in several other works by Servetus: his Spanish translation of ''The images of the stories of the Old Gospel'',<ref>2000 "Find of new editions of Bibles and of two 'lost' grammatical works of Michael Servetus" and "The doctor Michael Servetus was descendant of jews", González Echeverría, Francisco Javier. Abstracts, 37th International Congress on the History of Medicine, 10–15 September 2000, Galveston, Texas, U.S., pp. 22–23.</ref> printed by Juan Stelsio in Antwerp in 1540 (92 woodcuts), and also of his Spanish versification of the associated work ''Portraits or printing boards of the story of the Old Gospel'', printed by Francois and Jean Frellon in 1542 (same 92 woodcuts plus 2 more), as it was demonstrated in the [[International Society for the History of Medicine]], by the expert researcher in Servetus, González Echeverría, who also proved the existence of the other work of Holbein & [[Michael Servetus|De Villeneuve]], ''Biblia cum Glossis'' or " Lost Bible".<ref>2001 "Portraits or graphical boards of the stories of the Old Gospel. Spanish Summary", González Echeverría, Francisco Javier. Government of Navarra, Pamplona 2001. Double edition: facsimile (1543) and critical edition. Prologue by Julio Segura Moneo.</ref><ref>[http://www.michaelservetusresearch.com/ENGLISH/works.html Michael Servetus Research] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170221134108/http://www.michaelservetusresearch.com/ENGLISH/works.html |date=21 February 2017 }} Website with a study on the three works by Servetus with woodcuts by Hans Holbein</ref>

[[File:Darmstadtmadonna.jpg|thumb|''[[Darmstadt Madonna]]'', with [[donor portrait]]s, on a [[Holbein carpet]]. 1525–26 and 1528. Oil and tempera on limewood, [[Reinhold Würth|Würth]] Collection, [[Schwäbisch Hall]].]]
Holbein painted many large religious works between 1520 and 1526, including the ''Oberried Altarpiece'', the ''[[Solothurn Madonna]]'', and the ''Passion''. Only when [[Beeldenstorm|Basel's reformers turned to iconoclasm]] in the later 1520s did his freedom and income as a religious artist suffer.<ref>Bätschmann & Griener, 97.</ref>

Holbein continued to produce religious art, but on a much smaller scale. He designed satirical religious woodcuts in England. His small painting for private devotion, ''Noli Me Tangere'',<ref>Wilson, 129; Foister, 127; Strong, 60; Rowlands, 130; Claussen, 49. Scholars are unsure of the exact date of ''Noli Me Tangere'', usually given as between 1524 and 1526, or whether it was painted in England, Basel, or even France. The traditional view that Henry VIII owned the painting is discounted by Strong and Rowlands. Franny Moyle, however, writes, "The evidence that this was painted for [[Thomas More|[Thomas] More]] rests in part in the fact that by 1540 it was in Henry VIII's collection, and it is widely presumed that it was seized by the king at the point of More's attainder." ''The King's Painter'', p. 157.</ref> has been taken as an expression of his personal religion. Depicting the moment when the risen Christ tells [[Mary Magdalene]] not to touch him, Holbein adheres to the details of the bible story.<ref>Wilson, 129–30; Moyle, 158. Wilson contrasts Holbein's treatment with the earlier, freer, interpretation by [[Titian]].</ref> The 17th-century diarist [[John Evelyn]] wrote that he "never saw so much reverence and kind of heavenly astonishment expressed in a picture".<ref>Quoted by Wilson, 130.</ref>

Holbein has been described as "the supreme representative of German Reformation art".<ref name="North, 24" /> The Reformation was a varied movement, however, and his position was often ambiguous. Despite his ties with Erasmus and More, he signed up to the revolution begun by [[Martin Luther]], which called for a return to the Bible and the overthrow of the papacy. In his woodcuts ''Christ as the Light of the World'' and ''The Selling of Indulgences'', Holbein illustrated attacks by Luther against Rome.<ref>Bätschmann & Griener, 116; Wilson, 68.</ref> At the same time, he continued to work for Erasmians and known traditionalists. After his return from England to a reformed Basel in 1528, he resumed work both on Jakob Meyer's Madonna and on the murals for the Council Chamber of the Town Hall. The Madonna was an icon of traditional piety, while the [[Old Testament]] murals illustrated a reformist agenda.

Holbein returned to England in 1532 as [[Thomas Cromwell]] was about to transform religious institutions there. He was soon at work for Cromwell's propaganda machine, creating images in support of the [[Supreme Head|royal supremacy]] and (in the case of ''[[An Allegory of the Old and New Testaments]]'') [[Lutheranism]].<ref>Strong, 5; Rowlands, 91.</ref> The painting  identified the Old Testament with the "Old Religion".<ref>Rowlands, 92–93.</ref> During the period of the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]], he produced a series of small woodcuts in which biblical villains were dressed as monks.<ref>Foister, 140–41; Strong, 5.</ref> Scholars have detected subtler religious references in his portraits. In ''The Ambassadors'', for example, details such as the Lutheran [[hymn]] book and the crucifix behind the curtain allude to the context of the French mission.<ref>North, 94–95; Bätschmann & Griener, 188.</ref> Holbein painted few religious images in the later part of his career.<ref>North, 25.</ref> He focused on secular designs for decorative objects, and on portraits stripped of inessentials.