(cartoon) overpainted in oils and altered by another artist or artists unknown and at an unknown date
Title
Henry VIII and the Barber Surgeons
Holbein prepared this cartoon for a large-scale work to commemorate the grant of a royal charter to the Company of Barbers and the Guild of Surgeons on their merger in 1540. Presumably at the request of his clients, Holbein based the design on that of the miniatures painted on Tudor charters of privileges. Working from an old sketch, Holbein portrayed King Henry, who did not sit for him on this occasion, more as an icon than as a living person[1]
The members of the company, in contrast, were conceived as individuals.
Description
English:
On the King’s right side are his two physicians, Dr. John Chambers and Sir William Butts and his apothecary Thomas Alsop.
The figures of Sir William Butts and the doctor John Chambers are closely related to portraits of them by Holbein (left), though the overpainting has made this less clear (art historian John Rowlands reproduces an infra-red photograph of the underdrawing).
On the King’s left side are his Serjeant-Surgeon, Thomas Vicary (Master 1530, 1541, 1546, 1548, 1557); (in the final version:his surgeons, Sir John Ayliffe (Master 1538), James Monforde (Warden 1540, 1543) and Richard Ferris (Master 1551, 1562) and his barbers, Nicholas Simpson (Master 1537), Edmund Harman (Master 1540), and John Penn (Master 1539). Others portrayed and named are Nicholas Alcock, Christopher Salmon (Master 1552) and William Tilley (Warden 1540, 1546)).
Beneath the overpainting and additions (such as the windows) by later hands, this cartoon reveals Holbein's original conception for the final work. The painting itself, however, departs markedly from it in places, for example in the second row of figures on the right and in the background.[2] It was for a long time believed that this version was a copy, but X-rays have revealed that, under the paint, the paper is pricked all over, following the outlines of the composition. This shows that it was used to mark up the original version of the painting.[3]
Date
circa 1543
date QS:P571,+1543-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
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File history
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{{Information |Description={{en|1=''Henry VIII and the Barber Surgeons''. Oil on paper mounted on canvas, 160 × 280 cm, Royal College of Surgeons of England, London.}} |Source=Stephanie Buck, ''Hans Holbein'', Cologne: Könemann, 1999, ISBN 3829025831. |
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