Portrait of a man with a lute

Portrait of a Man with a Lute, painted around 1526, combines the musical attribute with the psychological directness of Holbein's humanist portraiture to create an image of cultivated leisure and personal charm. The lute was the instrument of choice among educated northern Europeans in the early sixteenth century — associated with courtly refinement, humanist culture, and the pleasures of civilized society. Holbein was himself said to have been a skilled musician, and his portraits of musicians and men with musical instruments are suffused with a warmth not always present in his official commissions. The specific quality of the sitter's engagement — absorbed, gentle, present — suggests a portrait made in the context of personal friendship as much as professional commission.

Oil on canvas, the portrait demonstrates Hans Holbein the Younger's command of luminous color and psychological penetration. The careful modeling of the face reveals close study of the sitter's physiognomy, while the treatment of costume and setting projects appropriate social standing.