John Colet (1467–1519), Dean of St Paul's (1504/1505–1519), Founder of St Paul's School

John Colet, Dean of St Paul's and founder of St Paul's School, this attribution to Holbein's tradition places him within the humanist circle that was Holbein's intellectual world in England. Colet was the greatest English humanist of the generation before Erasmus's arrival in England — his Oxford lectures on Paul's epistles had initiated the reform of English biblical scholarship, and his school at St Paul's institutionalized humanist education. The connection between Colet, More, and Erasmus was the intellectual triangle that defined Tudor humanist culture, and Holbein's visual engagement with this circle placed him at the center of the most significant intellectual movement in early sixteenth-century England.

Hans Holbein the Younger employs precise draftsmanship and luminous color to convey the spiritual gravity of the subject. The treatment of the figures shows careful study of earlier masters, while the palette and lighting create the devotional atmosphere the subject demands.