HOLBEIN, Hans the Elder
(b. 1460/65, Augsburg, d. 1524, Isenheim)

St Barbara

1516
Wood, 150 x 47 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

St Barbara is characterized by her attributes of the chalice and the large tower on the right of the landscape, and additionally by the inscription on the frieze carried on columns over her head. The arch-like architecture framing the fashionably dressed figure is made up of classicising set pieces, but it is not an architecture that recognizes the laws of construction, as the individual building elements are put together without any structural logic.