Ruth Leon recommends…Holbein: Capturing Character – Morgan Library
Ruth Leon recommendsHolbein: Capturing Character – Morgan Library
When I arrive in New York, I head straight for my favourite places. One, as regular readers know, is the Frick Museum to see the Vermeers. The other is the Morgan Library to see the Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and whatever exhibition they have on there.
The current one is about Hans Holbein the Younger. He was among the most skilled, versatile, and inventive artists of the early 1500s. He created captivating portraits of courtiers, merchants, scholars, and statesmen in Basel, Switzerland, and later in England, and served as a court painter to Henry VIII. Enriched by inscriptions, insignia, and evocative attributes, his portraits comprise eloquent visual statements of personal identity and illuminate the Renaissance culture of erudition, self-fashioning, luxury, and wit.
Holbein:Capturing Character is the first major exhibition dedicated to the artist in the United States. Spanning Holbein’s entire career, it starts with his early years in Basel, where Holbein was active in the book trade and created iconic portraits of the great humanist scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam. Holbein stayed in England in 1526–1528 and moved here permanently in 1532, quickly becoming the most sought-after artist among the nobles, courtiers, and foreign merchants of the Hanseatic League. In addition to showcasing Holbein’s renowned drawn and painted likenesses of these sitters, the exhibition highlights the artist’s activities as a designer of prints, printed books, personal devices (emblems accompanied by mottos), and jewels.
Fortunately, for those of us unable to get to this exhibition in person, the Morgan Library has made a film about it. This varied presentation reveals the artist’s wide-ranging contributions to the practice of personal definition in the Renaissance. Works by Holbein’s contemporaries, such as Jan Gossaert and Quentin Metsys, and a display of intricate period jewellery and book bindings offer further insights into the representation of individual identity, and highlight the visual splendor of the art and culture of the time.
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speaking about medieval European painters I have found recently that one of the women’s portrait of Rogir Van Der Weyden ( about a centure earlier Hans Holbein the Younger), for instance, is quite similar to the physical appearance of the one of nowaday’s star sopranos ( and my friend 😉 ). So it was my real pleasure to watch the video .
Wonderful choice of Ms. Leon and I would love to see the pictures in such a cosy ambience
… century …. one of the portraits …
A wonderful painter, capturing the reality and liveliness of the models.
I recently saw this exhibit at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. It was worth a visit despite battling L.A. traffic.