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(2) Ambrosius Holbein
(b Augsburg, ?1494; d after 1519). Painter, draughtsman and designer of woodcuts, son of (1) Hans Holbein (i). In the drawing of Ambrosius and Hans Holbein the Younger (1511; Berlin, Kupferstichkab.) by their father, Hans’s age is given as 14, and although that of Ambrosius cannot be read clearly, he appears to have been the elder brother. In 1514 he was probably working near the Bodensee, and a Virgin and Child (Basle, Kstmus.), with the coat of arms of Johann von Botzheim, Canon of Konstanz Cathedral (c. 1480–1535), appears to be his work. In 1515 he was working as a journeyman to the painter Thomas Schmid (c. 1480–c. 1550–60) on the decoration of the abbot’s Festsaal in the Benedictine St Georgkloster at Stein-am-Rhein, which included allegorical figures of women, one of which, Death with a Female Lute-player (in situ), is signed AH. Also in 1515 he joined his brother Hans in Basle, where together they decorated with marginal drawings (1515–16) the copy of Erasmus’s Praise of Folly (Basle, Kstmus.) belonging to the schoolmaster Myconius (Oswald Geisshüsler; d 1552); the distinction between the hands of the two brothers can be made only on stylistic grounds. They also painted a school sign for Myconius, each apparently working on a different side. On 25 July 1516 Ambrosius was recorded staying in the house of the painter Hans Herbst, in whose workshop he may have been employed. On 14 February 1517 he was enrolled in the Basle painters’ guild, and on 5 June 1518 he became a citizen of the city. Numerous woodcut designs executed for Basle printers from 1517 onwards and signed with Ambrosius Holbein’s initials survive, most of which are set in architectural frameworks inspired by the Italian Renaissance, although there is no evidence that he ever visited Italy. His designs include that for the Basle edition (1518) of Thomas More’s Utopia, incorporating a landscape map of the island. References to Ambrosius cease after 1519.
Part of the Holbein family
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