Taking a Critical Look at Blackwork Embroidery in Holbein's Paintings

This is a class that I had signed up to teach at RUM (Royal University of the Midrealm) and this video is to help me prep for teaching this class. So, in case you missed my class in person, here it is!
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Hans Holbein the Younger was a European painter, just like his older brother Ambrosius and his father, Hans the Elder. If you hear the term 'Holbein stitch', it is in reference to Hans the Younger. From his friendship with Erasmus, he had a letter of introduction and found himself in England to eventually become a court painter in the court of King Henry VIII of England. Compared to other artists at the time, Holbein painted numerous portraits with blackwork embroidery in them.
For a copy of the class handout, please visit:
drive.google.c...
For anyone curious about what exactly the 'SCA' is -- The Society for Creative Anachronism is an international, non-profit educational organization that studies and recreates the medieval and Renaissance years of 600-1600AD.
For more information and to locate your local branch, please check out www.sca.org
Works Cited
“Hans Holbein, the Elder.” Britannica.
“Hans Holbein the Younger.” Britannica.
“Hans Holbein the Younger.” Uffizi Gallery.
“Hans Holbein the Younger and Blackwork.” Textile Research Centre.
Holbein, Hans. “Mrs Jane Small, formerly Mrs Pemberton.” V&A Museum.
Holbein, Hans. “Self-Portrait.” Uffizi Gallery.
Holbein d. J., Hans. “A Court Servant of King Henry VIII.” Kunst Historisches Museum Wien.
Holbein d. J., Hans. “Jane Seymour.” Kunst Historisches Museum Wien.
Holbein d. J., Hans. “Portrait of Anna Meyer.” KunstMuseum Basel.
Holbein d. J., Hans. “Portrait of a Noble Boy with a Marmoset.” KunstMuseum Basel.
Holbein d. J., Hans. “Portrait of a Young Merchant.” Kunst Historisches Museum Wien.
Holbein le Jeune, Hans. “Portrait of Nicolas Kratzer.” Musée du Louvre.
Holbein, Hans the Younger. “Double Portrait of Sir Thomas Godsalve and His Son John.” Web Gallery of Art.
Holbein, Hans the Younger. “Portrait of Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey.” Web Gallery of Art.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Derich Born.” Royal Collection Trust.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Darmstadt Madonna.”
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Elizabeth, Lady Audley.” Royal Collection Trust.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk.” Royal Collection Trust.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Lady Margaret (Bacon) Butts.” Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Margaret Roper (Margaret More).” The Met Museum.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Portrait of a Lady, Perhaps Katherine Howard.” Royal Collection Trust.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Portrait of a Man in Royal Livery.” The Met Museum.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Simon George of Cornwall.” Städel Museum.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Anne Cresacre.” Royal Collection Trust.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Portrait of a Lady.” Toledo Museum of Art.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Portrait of Henry VIII of England.” Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Portrait of Robert Cheseman.” Mauritshuis.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Thomas, 2nd Baron Vaux.” Royal Collection Trust.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Thomas Howard, Third Duke of Norfolk.” Royal Collection Trust.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Unknown Woman.” National Portrait Gallery.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “An Unidentified Woman.” Royal Collection Trust.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “An Unidentified Woman 2.” Royal Collection Trust.
D’Angelo, Isabella. “Blackwork.”
Cariad. “Darmstadt Madonna.”
Workshop of Hans Holbein the Younger. “Portrait of a Young Woman.” The Met Museum.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Edward Fiennes de Clinton.” Royal Collection Trust.
Holbein d. J., Hans. “The Family of Thomas More.” KunstMuseum Basel.
Holbein the Younger, Hans. “Queen Anne Boleyn.” Royal Collection Trust.
Hamlyn, Paul. The Drawings of Holbein. Drury House: London. 1962.
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Music credit:
Adson, John (-1640) English -Courtly Masquing Ayres -Medieval Music by Nesrality. pixabay.com/mu...
#blackwork #holbein #embroidery

[@LynneFairchild]

What questions do you have about blackwork embroidery in Holbein's portraits?

[@Kasamira]

I really enjoyed this video and would love to see something a bit more general about Holbein’s portraits! Great video!

[@LynneFairchild]

Thank you! What general information would you like to see about Holbein's portraits? If you're interested in simply seeing some of his other works of art, check out this video (119 paintings in 10 minutes): kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGLQeaNtrJKeqsk

[@Kasamira]

@@LynneFairchild maybe an introduction sort of video that goes into what was standard for portraiture of the time when Holbein was coming up and how he/his father influenced the northern Renaissance style? I loved how this video went into the Blackwork embroidery (because it’s very hard to find such specific videos) but it would be cool to see how Holbein’s style evolved over his lifetime/the things which influenced him more generally

[@joanngreen7059]

I enjoyed seeing all the beautiful black work and how you adapted it in your work❤❤❤

[@LynneFairchild]

Thanks!

[@suepotts698]

So interesting I read somewhere that Anne Boleyn brought blackwork over to England and it was known as Spanish work

[@LynneFairchild]

Different accounts suggest different ways that blackwork was brought to England. Some attribute it to Katherine of Aragon (Henry VIII's first wife). However, then there's the description of the miller's wife in the Canterbury Tales (written a century prior to Henry VIII): "Of white, too, was the dainty smock she wore, Embroidered at the collar all about With coal-black silk, alike within and out." That sounds quite alot like blackwork embroidery to me. After Henry VIII divorced Katherine of Aragon in 1533, anything Spanish related was now out of fashion (since Katherine was Spanish). So, 'Spanysshe work' embroidery was renamed 'blackwork'. Over the centuries, this same double-running stitch embroidery has had a variety of names, including Holbein Stitch.

[@katherinebarich3192]

I enjoyed looking at the collection of Holbein portraits. Well done! The questions I had were around Holbein's paintings of the German merchants in the Steelyard (Derek Born for example). Do you see differences in types of embroidery there, like pattern darning instead of the double running stitch? Were any of these designs found in the early pattern books?

[@LynneFairchild]

Thanks! Many of the merchant portraits that I looked at didn't have embroidery in the portrait (so I didn't include those paintings in this class). Based on what embroidery I did find, I found that Holbein seems to not have spent as much time on the intricate details as he did some of his other portraits. For example, he seems to have spent lots of time working on the finer details on the portraits of Jane Seymour (pictured in the class) and the Ambassadors (not pictured in the class), as well as Christina of Denmark (also not pictured in the class). In Derich Born's portrait, you can tell that there is embroidery there, but the intricate details are not as fine as some of the other portraits. Many of the designs that I have found in the Holbein portraits are not found in Zoppino's, Hofer's, or Bassee's pattern books (maybe pieces of a design, like a cross - but not the design as a whole). When looking at 16th century pattern books, I've found the authors to be either German or Italian, who seem to have plagiarized off of each other. Since Holbein was painting in England from the mid-1530's to his death in 1543, these pattern books may have had an influence on English blackwork embroidery, but also the English had their own style of embroidery (as evident by the circumlinear, swirly floral blackwork embroidery iconic of the later half of the 16th century).