Hans Holbein the Younger

Hilliard wrote, but never published, a book on his practice, The Arte of Limninge, in 1593. In this, he says he based his style on that of Hans Holbein the Younger, but he also probably learned from contemporary French artists (he visited France in the 1570s); he seems not, on the other hand, to have imitated Levina Teelinc. After 1600 he was gradually superseded by his pupil Isaac Oliver.

Hans Holbein the Elder was a German painter. Painting mainly religious works, he belonged to the school of Rogier van der Weyden and Hans Memling in his early paintings but showed Italiante influence in such a work as the Basilica of St Paul ( 1502, Staatsgalerie, Augsburg). His principal work is the altarpiece St Sebastian ( 1515-17, Alte Pinakothek, Munich ). He was the father of Hans Holbein the Younger.

Hans Holbein the Younger is a German painter and woodcut artist who spent much of his career as a portrait artist at the court of Henry VIII of England . One of the finest graphic artists of his age, he executed a woodcut series Dance of Death about 1525, and designed title pages for Luther's New Testament and Thomas More Utopia. Hans Holbein the Younger was born in Augsburg . In 1515 Hans Holbein the Younger went to Basel , where he became friendly with the scholar and humanist Erasmus and illustrated his Praise of Folly. He painted three portraits of Erasmus in 1523.

Hans Holbein the Younger was trained by his father, Hans Holbein the Elder, and by Hans Burgkmair, and worked in the family studio as a boy, together with his brother Ambrosius. In 1515 he went to Basel with Ambrosius and for some years found constant employment in the prosperous Swiss city, where Hans Holbein the Younger became a naturalized Swiss citizen in 1520. Working for the printer-publishers Amerbach and Froben, he showed himself a remarkable designer for books. His illustrations for Erasmus Praise of Folly were as popular as the book itself.

Later he designed a title page for More Utopia as well as for Luther's German translation of the New Testament, and the Dance of Death series, in the woodcuts made from his designs by Hans Lutzelberger, ranks with Albrecht Durer Apocalypse as one of the masterpieces of European graphic art. Hans Holbein the Younger made numerous designs for goldsmiths' work and stained glass, was much occupied with mural decoration and also executed some religious works - Dead Christ (1521, Basel) and Madonna (1522, Solothurn) - though his mastery of portraiture was already most in evidence. It appears in his portraits of Burgomaster Meyer and his wife in 1516 and Bonifazius Amerbach in 1519 ( Basel ), and the Madonna of the Burgomaster Meyer ( Darmstadt ) is in effect a magnificent portrait group.