Part of a painter's training in the Late Middle Ages was a period of apprenticeship. Hans Holbein completed his in Basle, when, towards the end of 1515, he and his brother Ambrosius probably entered the workshop of Hans Herbst. As his work is largely unknown, we have no idea how far Master Herbst influenced Holbein. However, the importance of being in the university city of Basle should not be underestimated: a large number of humanistically educated people lived there, chief of whom was Erasmus of Rotterdam, who had moved there in 1514.
Holbein's first works to come down to us intact are drawings, dating from December 1515, on the margin of Erasmus's Latin text Encomium moriae (The Praise of Folly). An important step towards his gaining general recognition as a painter must have been the double portrait of Jakob Meyer zum Hasen (1482-1531) and his second wife Dorothea Kannengiesser.
Holbein's name is first mentioned in Lucerne on September 24, 1517. The visit to Lucerne lasted about two years, and was connected with an important commission from the powerful mayor Jakob von Hertenstein (c. 1460-1527) to decorate his newly erected house.
Summary of paintings by Hans Holbein the Younger |
1515-19 | 1519-25 | altarpieces | 1526-28 | 1529-31 |
1532-35 | Ambassadors | Henry VIII and his family | 1536-43 |
drawings and woodcuts | miniatures | Miscellaneous works |