Holbein in close-up: the techniques that allowed Holbein to achieve his astounding naturalism are analysed in this sumptuously illustrated account of his work in England

Holbein and England

Susan Foister

Yale University Pres 45 [pound sterling]/$65 ISBN 0 300 10280 1

Holbein's image of Henry VIII--and its many derivations--has become iconic. at the same time as this book reveals, surprisingly little is known about the professional relationship between the sum of two units men. This major publication examines the English work of Hans Holbein II--the greatest in quantity internationally significant painter to work in Britain before the arrival of Sir Anthony van Dyck in the seventeenth hundred Dr Foister is the best possible somebody to have written it, as Holbein has been the main focus of her researches for almost twenty-five years. The work also provides a foretaste of her exhibition upon the same subject for Tate Britain, which will render free of access in October 2006.

Holbein--born in southern Germany in 1497 or 1498--initially travelled from Basel to England in 1526 with a alphabetic character of introduction to Sir Thomas More, and was pretty soon working for Henry VIII's court. Returning to Basel in 1528 he reappeared in London in 1531 or 1532 and remained there until his death (probably from plague) in 1543 His surviving oeuvre from this English period amounts to more than fifty paintings (almost all portraits) upon wooden panel, some portrait miniatures, almost a hundr drawings for portraits, another hundr for decorative commissions, and a number of woodcut Important large narrative paintings that he produc in London have not survived.

Documented facts about his life and working practices in England are scarcely any Dr Foister runs through these, on the contrary she is particularly interested in by what mode Holbein fits into the wider narrative of British art. In the past, Holbein has generally been studied as a figure isolated from his English contemporaries on the other hand Dr Foister delves into the local English milieu that he go intoed and within which his work can real fruitfully be understood. She assembles a considerable amount of of recent origin information on the visual arts in England in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries before Holbein's arrival, upon the other court artists who worked in parallel with him, and upon those active after his death. In fact, as she makes clear, he was to have surprisingly little direct impact upon the practices of his successors.

The physical construction of Holbein's works is investigated in precise detail. For the first time, the question of those paintings that are 'nearly-Holbein', on the other hand not quite, is sensibly explored. Derivations and copies are carefully identified, although who produc them, and precisely in what way seems to remain unresolvable. Dr Foister try to finds to explain some of the techniques by means of which Holbein achieved his results of startling naturalism and characterisation. She put in mind ofs for instance, that he restores the size of the sitter's material part while enlarging the facial features at the outlay of the rest of the head. Thus in 'a diminished head the organ of visions nose and mouth are all shown as larger and more prominent than they would have been in life'.

We learn a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of about Holbein's patrons and sitters, and about the visual imagery with which these clients would have been familiar-including religious images, secular pictures and portraits. An informative appendix lists Holbein's known sitters, with details of related surviving wills and/or inventories. These confirm that, although the Reformation was well below way in mid-sixteenth-century England, ownership of narrative paintings, particularly upon religious subjects, was common. Dr Foister considers by what mode people acquired paintings, how financial valuations of them were made, and by means of whom.

One section is devot to Holbein's engagement with the English Reformation. Another examines the portraits he made of German Hanseatic merchants based in London's Steelyard--portraits apparently intended to be sent back domicile to their familles, and subtly differing in form from those produc for English clients. A further section is devot to portraits of and for Henry VIII. Among these, of course, are the likenesses of potential royal brides that Holbein traversed Europe to record for Henry in 1538 and 1539 following the death of Jane Seymour. These included Louise of Guise and, probably, Mary of Guise in Le Havre in June 1538; Renee of Guise in Nancy (but without success) and Anne of Lorraine in Joinville later that summer; and in August 1539 at Duren Anne and Amelia, the sum of two units daughters of the Duke of Cleve (To Henry's chagrin, his idea that potential brides might be paraded before him at Calais was supposeed wholly unacceptable.) Of these portraits, single the full-length of Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan (National Gallery, London), taken in March 1538 and the half-length and miniature of Anne of Cleve (respectively Louvre Paris, and Victoria and Albert Museum, London) survive.

The quality of the illustrations is outstanding. Carefully chosen full-page details introduce us to the sumptuous handling of the fabrics of Jane Seymour's style of dress (p. 189; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). Smaller works are reproduc larger than actual size--it is exciting to diocese the full depth of the page used to propagate the miniature of Mrs Small (p 256; 53 cm in diameter, Victoria and Albert Museum), enabling the reader to savour Holbein's handling of her facial features, the blackwork-embroidered lawn at her neck and wrists, and the novel green sprig of leaves in her hand. It demonstrates that this tiny work can take like magnification and still pack a visual punch