Hans Holbein the Elder

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Hans Holbein the Elder, self-portrait

Hans Holbein the Elder (* around 1465 in Augsburg , † around 1524 in Basel or Isenheim ) was a German Renaissance painter . He was the senior of a famous family of painters, which also included his brother Sigmund and his sons Ambrosius and Hans Holbein the Younger .

Life

Hans Holbein's date of birth is believed to be around 1460/70. He was the son of the tanner Michael Holbein, who had been proven in Augsburg since 1464, and Anna Mair. Otherwise almost nothing is known about his youth and his education. He learned the painting trade in Augsburg and on the Upper Rhine, immigrated to Cologne , possibly also to the Netherlands . Around 1493 he settled in Augsburg; there he kept his main residence until 1514/17 (documents from 1493 and 1499, however, mention him as a citizen of Ulm ). Commissions took him to Ulm, Frankfurt am Main and Alsace . In 1517 he left Augsburg because of his broken financial situation (his brother Sigmund had him seized several times) and settled in Isenheim in Alsace. He probably died there in 1524.

He is said to have received a letter of freedom from Emperor Maximilian , which could explain the fact that no tax payments have been made by him since 1514. The coat of arms with ox head of the Holbein family probably dates from this period.

plant

Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (1499)
High altar of the Kaisheim monastery (1502–1504)
Basilica of San Paolo fuori le mura, Augsburg (1504)

Hans Holbein the Elder Ä. stood at the end of the late Gothic , his work marks the transition to Renaissance painting in Germany. His education in the Upper Rhine reflects the influence of Martin Schongauer (perhaps only through his engravings), from the knowledge of the works of Rogier van der Weyden one inferred a stay in the Netherlands. It is unclear whether Holbein got to know Matthias Grünewald's art around 1500 in Frankfurt am Main (or only in Alsace ). His work includes altar and devotional pictures , portraits and glass paintings . The sketchbooks preserved show him to be an excellent draftsman.

The Weingartner Altar (1493 - now in Augsburg Cathedral ), the St. Afra Altar and the Gray Passion (1494–1500) date from his first creative period from around 1490 to 1497 . In 1493 he worked with the sculptor Michael Erhart in Ulm and thus exerted a certain influence on the Ulm School .

At the beginning of a second phase of his work (up to around 1509) stands the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (1499), the first image of the basilica cycle for the Augsburg Dominicans. This was followed by the Frankfurt Dominican altar (around 1500 - together with his brother Sigmund and Leonhard Beck ), the altar wings from the Kaisheim monastery and the basilica of San Paolo fuori le mura (1504 - Holbein's second picture for the Augsburg basilica cycle). This period is characterized by dramatic liveliness and conciseness of expression combined with clear, luminous color effects. This is particularly evident in the portrait of Ulrich Schwarz and his family (around 1503).

The altar wings from Sainte-Odile in Hohenburg in Alsace belong to the last phase of his work. They are shaped by the influence of the Italian Renaissance: Holbein worked here with Lombardy expanse, with tendrils and putti. The Sebastian altar from 1516 (important parts of which were attributed to the son Hans Holbein the Younger for a long time) and the fountain of life (1519, in Lisbon ) should also be mentioned here. This is the last known picture by Holbein and one of the most important Madonna pictures in old German painting.

Works (selection)

His work Heilige Katharina has been thought to be lost since it was stolen from the museum of Friedenstein Castle during the art theft in Gotha in 1979. On December 6, 2019, it was announced that the painting may have surfaced again and has been in the care of the Staatliche Mussen zu Berlin since September 2019 , where it will be authenticated by the Rathgen research laboratory .

Appreciation

1974 postage stamp
Bust of Holbein, Hall of Fame in Munich

Holbein drove the innovations of the Renaissance less forward than Albrecht Dürer , who was only a little younger , but rather accompanied them by observing them. During his lifetime he was widely praised, but soon was only remembered by the public in his homeland. He was of great importance for the development of his famous son Hans Holbein the Elder. J .; his early portrait of Basel mayor Meyer from 1516 is really a sequence from the Vienna male portrait of his father from 1513 (according to Wilhelm Pinder ).

In 1974 a postage stamp was issued by the Deutsche Bundespost to commemorate the 450th anniversary of his death .

Streets and squares in several cities are named after Holbein and his son, including Holbeinplatz in Basel, Holbeinstraße at Frankfurt's Städel and Holbeinsteg , a bridge over the Main . He is also the namesake of several schools, including the Holbein-Gymnasium in Augsburg.

A bust of Holbein is in the Hall of Fame in Munich.

literature

Web links

Commons : Hans Holbein the Elder  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Katharina Krause, Hans Holbein the Elder. Munich, Berlin 2002, p. 325. Online
  2. ↑ Bruno Bushart: Hans Holbein the Elder. Hofmann, Augsburg 1987², p. 15.
  3. ↑ dpa: Spectacular GDR theft: high-quality paintings may have appeared after theft. December 6, 2019, accessed December 6, 2019 .
  4. ^ Konstantin von Hammerstein: Pictures by Holbein and Brueghel the Elder: Paintings from the largest GDR art theft reappeared . In: Spiegel Online . December 6, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed December 6, 2019]).
personal data
SURNAME Holbein, Hans the Elder
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Holbein, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH around 1465
PLACE OF BIRTH Augsburg , Germany
DATE OF DEATH around 1524
Place of death uncertain: Basel , Germany