Editing Ambrosius Holbein

{{Short description|Swiss painter (c.1494–c.1519)}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Ambrosius Holbein
| image         = Holbein portrait.png 
| image_size    = 300px
| caption       = Hans Holbein the Elder, Portrait of his sons Ambrosius and Hans (1511)
| birth_name    = Ambrosius Holbein
| birth_date    = c. 1494 
| birth_place   = [[Augsburg|Free Imperial City of Augsburg]]
| death_date    = c. {{Death year and age|1519|1494}}
| death_place   = [[Basel]], [[Old Swiss Confederacy|Switzerland]]
| nationality   = [[German people|German]]
| field         = [[Painting]]
| training      = [[Hans Holbein the Elder]]
| movement      = [[Northern Renaissance]]
| works         = 
| relatives     = [[Hans Holbein the Younger]] (brother)
| father        =  [[Hans Holbein the Elder]]
}}
[[Image:Ambrosius Holbein 002.jpg|right|thumb|240px|''Portrait of a Young Man'', 1518, oil on wood, 43 x 32 cm, Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.]]
'''Ambrosius Holbein''' (c. 1494 – c. 1519) was a German and later a [[Switzerland|Swiss]] artist in painting, [[drawing]], and [[printmaking]]. He was the elder brother, by about three years, of [[Hans Holbein the Younger]], but he appears to have died in his mid-twenties, leaving behind only a small body of work.

==Biography==
Like his younger brother, he was born in [[Augsburg]] (which today is in [[London|Bavaria]], but then was a [[free imperial city]]), a center of art, culture, and trade at that time. His father [[Hans Holbein the Elder]] was a pioneer and leader in the transformation of German art from the [[Gothic art|Gothic]] to the [[Renaissance]] style. In his studio, both his sons, Ambrosius and Hans, received their first painting lessons as well as an introduction to the crafts of the [[goldsmith]], jeweller, and printmaker.

The young Holbein, alongside his brother and his father, is pictured in the left-hand panel of Holbein the Elder's 1504 altarpiece [[triptych]] the ''Basilica of St. Paul'', which is displayed at the Staatsgalerie in Augsberg.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02h9c5v/p02h9bfz|title=Paintings featured in Holbein: Eye of the Tudors|website=bbc.co.uk|access-date=22 June 2020}}</ref>

In 1515, Ambrosius is assumed to have lived in the Swiss town of [[Stein am Rhein]], where he helped a painter from [[Schaffhausen]] named Thomas Schmid with the murals in the main hall of the St. George monastery.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Müller|first=Christian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vU5tQgAACAAJ|title=Hans Holbein the Younger: The Basel Years, 1515-1532|date=2006|publisher=[[Prestel]]|isbn=978-3-7913-3580-3|pages=10–11|language=en}}</ref> The next year saw Ambrosius, as well as his brother Hans, in [[Basel]], where he initially worked as a [[journeyman]] in Hans Herbster's studio. In 1517 he registered as a member of the Basel [[painters' guild]], and on 6 June 1518 he was naturalized as a citizen of Basel. The goldsmith Jörg Schweiger,<ref name=":1" /> whom Holbein had portrayed before, was his guarantor.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Stein|first=Wilhelm|title=Holbein der Jüngere|publisher=Julius Bard Verlag|year=1920|location=Berlin|pages=28}}</ref> However, he disappears from records soon after and is assumed to have died around 1519.<ref>Wilson, Derek. ''Hans Holbein: Portrait of an Unknown Man''. London: Pimlico, Revised Edition, 200, pp. 69–70. Wilson cautions against too readily accepting that Ambrosius died, since other explanations for his disappearance from the record are possible. However, only Hans Holbein claimed their father's estate when he died in 1524.</ref> [[Franny Moyle]] writes, "There is no record of Ambrosius's death, but the abrupt cessation of his work in a year [1519] where so many were falling prey to sickness suggests that he either caught the disease that began with a headache, or the plague that came in its wake, and died. Another alternative is that his financial worries had pressed him into mercenary service ... though with the Italian Wars in momentary pause, this seems unlikely."<ref>Moyle, Franny, ''The King's Painter: The Life and Times of Hans Holbein'', New York: Abrams Press, 2021, p. 86.</ref>

The ''Portrait of a Boy with Blond Hair'' and its companion, the ''Portrait of a Boy with Brown Hair'', are among Ambrosius’ best works of this period. Both are now in the [[Basel Kunstmuseum]].

Ambrosius Holbein ranks among the most important of Basel's illustrators and prominent "small format" artists.

==Works==
[[Image:Ambrosius Holbein 004.jpg|thumb|''Portrait of a Boy with Blond Hair'', 1516, Basel]]
* ''Virgin and Child'' (1514; Kunstmuseum, Basel)
* ''Portrait of a Boy with Blond Hair'' (1516; Kunstmuseum, Basel)
* ''Portrait of a Boy with Brown Hair'' (1517; Basel, Kunstmuseum, Basel)
* ''Portrait of Jörg Schweiger'' (1518; Kunstmuseum, Basel)
* ''Portrait of a Young Man'' (1515; Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt)
* ''Nativity'' (1514; Fürstlich Fürstenbergische Gemäldegalerie, Donaueschingen)
* ''Nativity'' (Klerikalseminar Georgianum, Munich)
* ''Repose of Mary'' (Klerikalseminar Georgianum, Munich)
* Frontispiece to the third edition of Thomas More's ''[[Utopia (More book)|Utopia]],'' 1518
* ''Portrait of Johannes Xylotectus (Zimmermann)'' (1520; Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg)
* ''Portrait of a Young Man'' (1518; Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg)
* ''Portrait of a Young Man'' (often attributed to [[Hans Holbein the Younger]]) (1518; National Gallery of Art, Washington)
* ''Repose of Mary'' (Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna)
Also, [[Krannert Art Museum]] in Illinois has a painting labelled "Portrait of girl" by Ambrosius Holbein. The painting used to be a part of Austrian Imperial connection,{{vague|date=September 2023}} and given the outfit of the young woman is an example of very early [[16th century]] [[Spain|Spanish]] [[fashion]], closely resembling tomb of Queen [[Juana I]] of [[Castile (historical region)|Castille]], it might be an unidentified portrait of her.{{fact|date=September 2023}}

==See also==
* [[Hans Holbein the Elder]]
* [[Hans Holbein the Younger]]
*[[Early Renaissance painting]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links|d=y|c=Category: Ambrosius Holbein|q=no|b=no|wikt=no|s=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|species=no|n=no}}<!--LEAVE THIS HERE TO AVOID BLANK LINES-->
* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/holbein_ambrosius.html Ambrosius Holbein] at [[Artcyclopedia]]
* [http://www.abcgallery.com/H/holbein/aholbeinbio.html Ambrosius Holbein] at ABC Gallery
* [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG31808 Ambrosius Holbein] at the [[British Museum]]

{{Hans Holbein the Younger|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holbein, Ambrosius}}
[[Category:1490s births]]
[[Category:1519 deaths]]
[[Category:Artists from Augsburg]]
[[Category:16th-century German painters]]
[[Category:German male painters]]
[[Category:German Renaissance painters]]
[[Category:16th-century Swiss painters]]
[[Category:Swiss male painters]]
[[Category:Artists from Basel-Stadt]]
[[Category:Hans Holbein the Younger]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]