Hans Holbein the Younger (c.1497-1543) is renowned for his incisive portraits of Northern Europe's courtiers, thinkers and statesmen, but his output was fat more various, and included book illustration, large religious paintings and designs for jewellery and court fashions. This fine record of his career examines these varied aspects of his genius and beautifully illustrates the ways in which his miraculous technical accomplishment and attention to surface detail were married to acute observation of and empathy with his human subjects.
Dr Helen Langdon lectures at the National Gallery, London. For this new edition of her introduction to Holbein, art historian James Malpas bas selected additional illustrations and written detailed commentaries on each colour plate.