Portrait of Erasmus (1467-1536) writing

Portrait of Erasmus Writing, painted in 1528 and one of several Holbein likenesses of the great humanist scholar, shows the philosopher of Rotterdam engaged in his defining activity — scholarly writing. Erasmus had been Holbein's most important intellectual mentor and the source of his English introductions, and Holbein's many portraits of him are among the supreme achievements of Northern Renaissance portraiture. The scholar absorbed in composition, his face concentrated in thought, his hands positioned over manuscript, is an image type Holbein repeated and refined because it captured the essence of a man whose identity was inseparable from his intellectual labor. The Basel version of this portrait type established the authoritative likeness of Erasmus that circulated across Europe.

Erasmus is shown absorbed in writing, his profile concentration captured with remarkable psychological acuity. The scholar's hands and the written text are rendered with Holbein's characteristic meticulous observation.