Young Christian of Denmark

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543)

Hans Holbein the Younger was a German painter of religious subjects and portraits. This oil painting is a working sketch which he used to compose a larger portrait.

One could consider him above all a High Renaissance artist prominent in late Gothic style and mannerism. The basis of all his work was the art of drawing, which for him meant precision and expressiveness of outline, simplicity of composition and realism. All his portraits have a static quality, only once in an otherwise calm figure is movement implied. In this portrait, Holbein for once anticipated the dynamism of the baroque.