Study for Portrait of the Family of St. Thomas More Drawing by Hans Holbein the younger
Sigh! What a lovely drawing. St. Thomas More, the erstwhile best friend of Henry the 8th before Henry had him beheaded, believed in education for women, a rarity at the time, and the study shows More sitting placidly among an active gathering of his family of women and men....his wife reading a quote from a book, the five daughters engaged in the discourse or thoughts of their own...and the painter Hans Holbein the Younger did this all without the benefit of camera. What an eye.
Hans Holbein the Younger, Self Portrait: lived 1497 to 1543. Died of plague
History has always fascinated me, and I’m a sucker for well researched historical fiction. My Dad liked it too, and when my mother deemed the novels suitable for my tender years (i.e., not too much S.E.X. ) I would read what we termed Dad’s Hysterical Novels from cover to cover. Consequently I minored in history and English in college and the connections of art and history snag me every time.
Francis 1st , 1494 – 1547,by Joos Van Cleve Henry the 8th, 1491-1547 by Hans Holbein the Younger
Both kings died of complications from an abcess, and reportedly, in fear and regret.
In lesson 6, I brought up Leonardo Da Vinci’s drawing of the double spiral staircase for Franciis 1 for his chateau at Chambord in the Loire valley? Well, when I was looking at the beautiful portraits by Holbein...mostly of Henry the 8th and his Tudor court, I realized that Francis 1st and Henry 8th were about the same age, and Holbein was caught up in the beginnings of the Reformation...around the time Luther tacked his famous posting against the abuses of the Church up on the door of All Saint's in 1517, whereas the death of Leonardo in 1519 signaled the endings of the Rennaisance.
A painter such as Holbein, (born in Augsburg in 1497) still survived by commissions, but the Catholic Church’s power was waning whereas the power of the aristocracy and the rulers of Europe were in ascendancy. Consequently, the artist turned more and more to the aristocrats as patrons, and this remained mostly the case until the 1800’s when Romanticsm (shipwrecks at sea, exotic locales, etc) was the rage, and then Impressionism came along in the mid 1800's and celebrated the lives of the French bourgeosie. The romantic ideal of the independent ( and often improverished) artist evolved with both of these movements, and this notion has survived up to this very day.
This drawing of Ann Boleyn has been attributed to Holbein, and he also did the painting of St. Thomas More (on right) Both were executed by Henry 8th. Thomas More because he would not recognize Ann as the new queen and because he refused to secede from the Catholic Church. Ann was executed a year later in 1534 because she did not deliver a male heir for Henry, and because Henry was tired of her. (She was reported to be uppity) Also, she was convicted of witchcraft. It was rumored that she had a 6th finger on one hand, which cinched the verdict.
“Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror, or the painter?” Pablo Picasso
Lesson 71. Look at drawings.....discuss chapter 9....
Drawing is always the same task...1. edges 2. spaces 3. relationships 4. lights and shadows, = gestalt. (
and expressiveness, of course) Try the index cards and man size perception.165. in your book
Mirror experiment. On a mirror, mark spots of top of head r and chin.... have “partner” measure with ruler your actual length from top of head to chin and compare with length in mirror. What is your discovery.?
Remember, these are generalizations....as John Singer Sargent said, A portrait is a painting with something a little wrong with the mouth."2. Discuss measurements of frontal views of face...chin to eye, eye to chin (one half) Show portraits where the early artist didn’t quite get the measurement right. Compare with correct proportions on drawings. Check on Holbein and DaVinci drawings. Hand out diagram of frontal view...discuss central axis. and cross divisions...(if crooked, the face looks “wrong”
Take a look at the painting by Flemish medieval artist Roger Van Der Weyden on the left, and a journeyman British painter of the 18th century on the right....the eyes are placed too high or else both subjects had serious lantern jaw problems.
3. Partner up...Draw each other from the side..a “tilted egg” for profile...circle and chin. Go thru pg. 173- 176 with each other.
Draw eye level line first.(half) Check it on each other. Then measure length to ear (same as eye to chin measurement from outer end of eye to back of ear). Mark. “eye to chin, end of eye to back of ear”. Isosceles triangle. End of nose (about 1/2 of eye to chin). Mouth.= about 1/2 of nose to chin. Back of head where joins neck..1 and 1/2 from upper lip along bottom of ear (mark) to back of neck.
NEED TO DO YOUR DRAWING WITH AN ASSURED BUT VERY LIGHT HAND.
Also, I noticed that most of you still do not draw in the correct format before you start..it makes a difference!
Practice Portrait. Medieval princess...She is a little short in the brain department! Use your whole paper but Draw in the right Format at the very beginning first in your sketchbook....LIGHTLY divide into quarters.. Take one moment to squint and “ghostwrite” the negative spaces above your paper. Lightly draw in your “egg” and mark the eye level. Then the nose (a little higher than half) and then the mouth..(again, a little high) Mark the end of eye to the end of ear (same as inner eye to chin measurement) Correct as you go along.
Open your book to page 180 and answer and correct for each checkpoint in the list.
Assignment: Draw Mme. Pierre Gautreau..by Sargent, pg. 179 and follow checkpoints, pg. 180 ...don’t use the viewfinder this time...just mark LIGHTLY on your paper format. Reread pg 181-191
And, bear with me. One more connection. Sir Thomas Wyatt, a member of Henry the 8th's court, had his portrait drawn by Holbein. He was a fine poet and said to have brought the sonnet form England. All I can say is that he must have been a very skilled diplomat as well, since he was imprisoned twice in the Tower of London, and once for being accused of being Ann Boleyn's lover. However, he survived both adventures and went home to be reconciled with his estranged wife and died of illness at the age of 39.
This poem is said to be about Ann Boleyn.
They Flee From Me
They flee from me that sometime did me seek
With naked foot, stalking in my chamber.
I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
That now are wild and do not remember
That sometime they put themself in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range,
Busily seeking with a continual change.
Thanked be fortune it hath been otherwise
Twenty times better; but once in special,
In thin array after a pleasant guise,
When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall,
And she me caught in her arms long and small;
Therewithall sweetly did me kiss
And softly said, ‘dear heart, how like you this?’
It was no dream: I lay broad waking.
But all is turned thorough my gentleness
Into a strange fashion of forsaking;
And I have leave to go of her goodness,
And she also, to use newfangleness.
But since that I so kindly am served
I would fain know what she hath deserve.
Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)
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