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HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger: Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam

🖼 Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1523
Wood
76 × 51 cm
London, United Kingdom

Soft light models the scholar's contemplative face, rendered with meticulous detail against a subdued background. Holbein captures the Renaissance humanist at the height of his intellectual influence, establishing the portrait as a vehicle for celebrating learning and virtue.

The story of art
The story of art
E. H. Gombrich
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