Holbein and England (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies)
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
Holbein and England (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies) Details
Book Description One of the greatest artists of sixteenth-century Europe, Hans Holbein the younger spent much of his career in England and painted everyone of note in Henry VIII’s realm. In this generously illustrated book, Susan Foister presents an original account of how the masterful Renaissance artist held up a mirror to the cultural life of Tudor England. Read more About the Author Susan Foister is curator of Early Netherlandish, German and British painting and Director of Collections, National Gallery London. Read more
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Reviews
Susan Foister's 2004 volume examines the production of Hans Holbein the Younger during his years in England, 1526 until his death in 1543. It is a triumph, surely the most thorough and insightful available.My first criterion for judging an art book is the quality and breadth of the reproductions, and this book is exceptional. Foister has published nearly 300 figures, including color reproductions of many famous panel paintings and delicate portraits in colored chalk and pastels on prepared paper. She provides enlarged details, artist's sketches and preparatory studies, infrared reflectograms, and side-by-side comparisons of Holbein portraits with works by other artists of the same individual, for example, Bishop John Fisher, who was arrested and executed at about the time that Thomas More met the same fate. The illustrations are gorgeous, the best I've seen.A fluid prose style make the book rewarding to an amateur, and I'll assume that the publisher Yale University Press vouches for its authority as a scholarly contribution. I appreciated the attention Ms Foister took, for instance, in considering the fact that some portraits seem to have been made with different sitters, even though the title/inscription claims they're the same. She contrasts a Holbein portrait in chalk inscribed "Anna Bollein Queen" with a panel painting now hanging in the National Portrait Gallery by an unknown artist. The two women are clearly different. These careful analyses, fully illustrated, open the works to a reader with no background in art or art history and provide context well beyond the reach of the small cards commonly observed in gallery exhibitions.A word about the value of the Internet in locating rare books. This out-of-print work is a masterpiece. In the past one could have spent years scouring book stores for a remaindered copy, or paid a dear price to a specialist in rare or antiquarian books. Instead, I had only to watch patiently for about six months until a new copy surfaced through an Amazon reseller, and saved hundred of dollars compared with two new copies on offer today.
