Abstract
Hans Holbein Jr. from his native Augsburg went to England after a stay in Basel, where he portrayed Erasmus of Rotterdam. He was awarded there by the humanist Thomas Moore and the English King Henry VIII, who appointed him his court painter.
His apparent portrait fidelity, drawing bravura and ability to penetrate the character of the models prove his reputation as one of the best portrait painters in history. He inserted symbols of the transience of life into some paintings.
The lecture is realized for the cultural public within the third role of the university in the original author's cycle Artist and Man.