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The identification of the 54-year-old man is not completely certain, but it is most probably Duke Antony of Lorraine (1489-1544), who was a commander in the service of the French king, Francis I. The portrait is dated to the last year of Holbein's life on stylistic grounds. As the duke was not in England at that time, the picture could be based on a study that the painter did in 1538, when he also painted a portrait of Duke Antony's daughter, Anne.
Whoever the subject may have been, Holbein's extraordinary control over the execution and painting invests the work with an authority that not even Jean Clouet at the French court could match. The linearity of the black cape is prefigured in a number of works from the 1530s, but without the soft richness shown here. The texture of the sleeve rivals Titian's achievements. There is an absence of the sheen Holbein prefers elsewhere, as on velvet or satin. Surrounding imagery is kept to a minimum and nothing detracts from the bold monumentality of the figures. The thin gold of the inscription echoes the sprigs of gold in the cap. This refinement vanished from English painting after Holbein's death and the vigour and often splendid coloration that marks native production for the rest of the century could not encompass the truth to appearances which Holbein had made his goal.
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