The Catholic Paintings of Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger is best known today as the man who painted Henry VIII of England and his court. But before he ever set foot in London he was a deeply Catholic religious painter, raised in the artistic capital of Augsburg and trained in the Reformation-shaken city of Basel. The Hans Holbein the Younger paintings from his early Catholic years are some of the most quietly intelligent devotional images of the entire Northern Renaissance. They have nothing of the sweetness of Memling or the visionary intensity of Grünewald, but they have a calm psychological clarity that no other German painter of the early sixteenth century quite matched.
This article gathers nine of his finest religious works, the panels and devotional portraits that show the sacred painter behind the famous English court portraitist.
From Augsburg to Basel to London
Hans Holbein the Younger was born in 1497 or early 1498 in Augsburg, the great free city of the Holy Roman Empire, the second son of the painter Hans Holbein the Elder. By the autumn of 1515 he had moved with his elder brother Ambrosius to Basel, where the great printer Johannes Froben and the humanist scholar Erasmus had created one of the leading intellectual centres of Northern Europe. There he completed his religious training and produced almost all of his Catholic devotional painting.
In 1526 the Basel Reformation began to make commissions of religious altarpieces increasingly difficult, and Holbein, with a letter of recommendation from Erasmus to Thomas More, moved to England. He served two periods at the court of Henry VIII, becoming his official court painter from 1535 onward and producing the long series of portraits that have shaped our visual idea of the Tudor age. He died in London during the plague of October 1543.
The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb
This is one of the strangest and most theologically charged religious paintings of the entire sixteenth century. Painted in 1521 to 1522, the panel shows the body of Christ alone in his tomb, life-size, lying in a narrow horizontal coffin that fills the whole picture from one edge to the other. There are no angels, no Virgin, no soldiers, no light from heaven. Only the cold body, the open eyes, and the marks of the Crucifixion.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky famously stood before this painting in Basel in 1867 and was so disturbed by it that he wrote in The Idiot that such a painting could destroy a man’s faith. The picture remains at the Kunstmuseum Basel, one of the most famous holdings of the German Renaissance.
The Darmstadt Madonna
Also called the Madonna of Jakob Meyer, this great devotional portrait of 1526 to 1528 was commissioned by Jakob Meyer zum Hasen, the recently deposed Catholic mayor of Basel, as a votive offering to the Virgin. The Virgin Mary stands in the centre, crowned and enthroned, holding the Christ child, while the Meyer family kneels at her feet. The picture is one of the very last great Catholic Madonnas painted in Reformed Basel.
The painting is preserved at the Würth Collection in the Johanniterkirche in Schwäbisch Hall, and is widely considered one of the most important Marian images of the sixteenth century.
Noli Me Tangere
Painted around 1526 to 1528, this small panel shows the meeting of Mary Magdalene with the risen Christ in the garden on Easter morning. Christ steps gently back, his right hand raised in the gesture of noli me tangere, while the Magdalene kneels in awe with her ointment jar beside her. The composition has the calm classical balance of Holbein’s most refined Basel years.
The painting is now at Windsor Castle, part of the Royal Collection. For a wider survey of the subject, see our article on famous Noli Me Tangere paintings.
The Pensive Christ and the Grieving Virgin
A pair of small devotional panels showing Christ and the Virgin in three-quarter view, each lost in private grief, designed to be hung together as a meditative diptych. Christ holds his head in his hand, the Virgin presses her veil against her cheek. Holbein paints both figures with the sober psychological observation that made his later court portraits so powerful.
The pair is at the Kunstmuseum Basel.
Head of a Female Saint
This small panel of around 1519, sometimes identified as a Saint Mary Magdalene or Saint Barbara, is a study in psychological introspection. The saint looks downward, her face partly hidden by her hair, her hands folded in her lap. The picture is one of Holbein’s earliest devotional figures and already shows the steady inward gaze that would define his court portraiture.
The painting is at the Kunstmuseum Basel.
Head of a Male Saint
Its companion panel shows the head of an elderly male saint in three-quarter view, with white beard and grave eyes. The figure has sometimes been identified as Saint Paul or as one of the four Latin Fathers. The composition is built on the same psychological precision as the female saint, and the two panels were probably designed as wings of a small devotional altarpiece.
The painting is also at the Kunstmuseum Basel.
Madonna Enthroned with Child and Two Figures
Painted around 1522, this small altarpiece, called the Solothurn Madonna, was commissioned by the Catholic burgomaster Johannes Gerster for the family chapel. The Virgin sits in the centre on a marble throne, holding the Christ child, flanked by Saint Martin in episcopal robes on the left and Saint Ursus, the patron of Solothurn, on the right. The composition has the calm Italianate balance of Holbein’s early masterpieces.
The painting is at the Kunstmuseum Solothurn, in the city of the Catholic Confederation that commissioned it.
Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan
Although not a religious painting strictly speaking, this great court portrait of 1538 is included here because of its place in Holbein’s English Catholic period. The young Christina of Denmark, the widowed Duchess of Milan, was being considered as a possible bride for Henry VIII after the death of Jane Seymour. Holbein paints her in mourning black with extraordinary psychological intimacy, the hands folded in a gesture as devotional as it is formal.
The portrait is at the National Gallery in London.
Mary, Lady Guildford
Holbein painted Mary Wotton, Lady Guildford, in 1527 during his first stay in England. Lady Guildford was a devout Catholic and a member of the household of Catherine of Aragon, and Holbein’s portrait has all the intimate piety of his late Basel work. She is shown turned slightly to one side, her hands folded over a small prayer book, with the strong sober gaze that gave Holbein’s portraiture its lasting fame.
The painting is at the Saint Louis Art Museum.
For more context on Holbein’s German Renaissance world, see our articles on his close peer Albrecht Dürer, on his fellow Dürer pupil Hans Baldung, and on the Saxon master Lucas Cranach the Elder, who painted the official portraits of the Reformation.
Summary Table of Hans Holbein the Younger’s Religious Paintings
| Name | Artist | Date | Medium | Museum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb | Hans Holbein the Younger | 1521 to 1522 | Tempera on lime wood | Kunstmuseum Basel |
| The Darmstadt Madonna | Hans Holbein the Younger | 1526 to 1528 | Oil on panel | Würth Collection, Schwäbisch Hall |
| Noli Me Tangere | Hans Holbein the Younger | c. 1526 to 1528 | Oil on panel | Windsor Castle, Royal Collection |
| The Pensive Christ and the Grieving Virgin | Hans Holbein the Younger | c. 1519 | Oil on panel | Kunstmuseum Basel |
| Head of a Female Saint | Hans Holbein the Younger | c. 1519 | Oil on panel | Kunstmuseum Basel |
| Head of a Male Saint | Hans Holbein the Younger | c. 1519 | Oil on panel | Kunstmuseum Basel |
| Madonna Enthroned with Child and Two Figures (Solothurn Madonna) | Hans Holbein the Younger | 1522 | Oil on panel | Kunstmuseum Solothurn |
| Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan | Hans Holbein the Younger | 1538 | Oil on panel | National Gallery, London |
| Mary, Lady Guildford | Hans Holbein the Younger | 1527 | Oil on panel | Saint Louis Art Museum |
Conclusion
The dead Christ of Basel and the Darmstadt Madonna are two of the most concentrated images of Catholic devotion produced anywhere in the sixteenth century. They stand at the end of an era. Within a few years of finishing them Holbein had moved permanently to England, the chapels of his native Basel had been emptied of their altarpieces, and the great German devotional tradition that had nourished his early years had been almost extinguished. What remains of his religious work is, like the dead Christ in its narrow coffin, a final luminous record of a faith that the Reformation was already changing forever.
Important Facts About Hans Holbein the Younger
- Hans Holbein the Younger was born in 1497 or early 1498 in the imperial free city of Augsburg, the second son of the painter Hans Holbein the Elder and his wife, in a family of painters and craftsmen of the Swabian school.
- He trained in his father’s Augsburg workshop and moved with his elder brother Ambrosius in 1515 to Basel, where he completed his formation in the orbit of Erasmus, the printer Johannes Froben, and the leading humanist scholars of the upper Rhine.
- Holbein is one of the central figures of the German Renaissance and is celebrated for the sober psychological clarity of his religious panels and the silvery realism of his court portraits, which together shaped the Northern image of the early sixteenth century.
- His most famous religious work is The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb, painted in 1521 to 1522 and now at the Kunstmuseum Basel, a panel famously discussed by Dostoyevsky in his novel The Idiot.
- He died of the plague in October 1543 in London, serving as principal painter to King Henry VIII, and his English court portraits shaped the Tudor visual imagination of an entire generation while his religious works continued to influence Catholic and Reformed devotional painting alike.
Questions and Answers About Hans Holbein the Younger Paintings
What is Hans Holbein the Younger’s most famous painting?
The most famous secular painting is The Ambassadors of 1533 at the National Gallery in London. Among his religious works, the Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb at the Kunstmuseum Basel is the most studied and the most often discussed, partly because of Dostoyevsky’s reaction to it. The Darmstadt Madonna is the most ambitious of his Marian panels.
Where can I see Hans Holbein the Younger paintings today?
The Kunstmuseum Basel holds the richest collection of his religious panels, including the Dead Christ and the small devotional figures. The Darmstadt Madonna is at the Würth Collection in Schwäbisch Hall. The Royal Collection at Windsor and the National Gallery in London hold his most important English portraits. The Saint Louis Art Museum has Mary, Lady Guildford.
What style is Hans Holbein the Younger associated with?
Holbein is one of the central figures of the German Renaissance and a master of the Northern Catholic devotional tradition before his English court period. His mature style combines the linear precision of his Augsburg training with the calm Italianate balance he absorbed in Basel, and a psychological sobriety that distinguishes him from every other German painter of his generation.
Was Holbein Catholic or Protestant?
Holbein was born and trained a Catholic, and almost all of his Basel altarpieces are unmistakably Catholic in iconography. After 1526, when the Basel Reformation began to restrict religious commissions, he moved to England in search of work and produced fewer religious paintings, but he continued to maintain Catholic patrons in his English years, including Thomas More and the Catholic ladies of Catherine of Aragon’s household.
What did Dostoyevsky say about The Dead Christ?
Fyodor Dostoyevsky stood before the painting in the Kunstmuseum Basel in August 1867 and was so disturbed by it that his wife had to lead him away. He returned to the picture in his novel The Idiot, where the character of Prince Myshkin says that such an image could make a man lose his faith. The painting has been the subject of theological debate ever since.
How did Holbein arrive in England?
By 1526 the Basel Reformation had reduced the demand for religious paintings, and Holbein left for England with a letter of recommendation from Erasmus to Thomas More, who received him in his Chelsea household. He returned briefly to Basel in 1528, but the Reformation continued to make Catholic commissions impossible, and in 1532 he settled permanently in London, becoming principal painter to Henry VIII in 1535.
Where can I buy a canvas reproduction of a Hans Holbein the Younger painting?
The shop at jesuschrist.pictures offers museum-quality canvas reproductions of the great Christian paintings, and the collection keeps growing; it is the best place to look for a canvas reproduction of a Hans Holbein the Younger painting.
