Hans Holbein the Younger: Second Visit to England

"Portrait of the Merchant Georg Gisze"
by Hans Holbein the Younger

"As on his first visit to England, Hans Holbein the Younger again took several letters of recommendation from Erasmus that, according to the scholar, had been 'wrung from him.' In England he found that his earlier patron Sir Thomas More had resigned his office as Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor, and Archbishop William Warham had died.

Finding himself in this financially-strained situation, the painter had to look for a new circle of clients, and he found them in the German merchants of the Steelyard. The Steelyard was the London establishment of the Hanseatic League, a co-operative consisting primarily of German merchants and was one of the leading economic and political powerhouses in England. These German merchants were thus important and wealthy patrons and interested in portraits.

The first to knock on Holbein's door was the merchant Georg Gisze. His desire for an unusually large, richly detailed portrait must have coincided with Holbein's desire to create as ostentatious a work as possible to serve as a recommendation to further clients in the Steelyard. In line with this notion, Holbein surround Gisze with a wealth of objects that the merchant needed in his office: on the shelves are book and boxes, the left shelf having gold scales and a seal hanging from it, the right shelf a reel of string, signet rings, and a bunch of keys. A slender crystal vase made of Venetian glass is set on an Anatolian carpet. The flowers may allude to various things: carnations and rosemary, for example, traditionally symbolize love and fidelity respectively. It is likely that the portrait was commissioned on the occasion of his engagement.

Behind the bars running along the walls, letters and strips of parchments with seals are kept, while on the table are shown, among other things, a pair of scissors and pewter stand with writing equipment such as pens, sealing wax, seals, and a sanding tin, used for drying ink when writing correspondence. All the various articles are reproduced with such a high degree of materiality that they seem almost tangible. On the wall Holbein paints a piece of paper, supposedly attached with sealing wax, with a Latin couplet written on it saying: 'Couplet on the portrait of Georg Gisze. What you see here is Georg's portrait showing his features; this is how lively his eye is, this is now his cheeks are shaped. In his 34th year, anno Domini 1532.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Hans Holbein" by Stephanie Buck.)