''Lais of Corinth'' by Hans Holbein the Younger portrays the famous

Lais of Corinth Lais of Corinth ( grc, Λαΐς and Λαΐδα) (fl. 425 BC) was a famous hetaira or courtesan of ancient Greece, who was probably born in Corinth. She shared a name with the younger hetaira Lais of Hyccara; as ancient authors (in their usually ...

, a courtesan of ancient Greece who charged a high price for her favours. It has been suggested that Holbein is also referring to the Lais who was the lover of Apelles, the great painter of antiquity (Holbein was called "Apelles" in humanist circles). The model, the same used for the ''Venus and Amor'', has been identified as either Magdalena Offenburg or her daughter Dorothea, as it was noted by

Basilius Amerbach Basilius Amerbach (1 December 1533 – 25 April 1591) was a lawyer, professor and collector from Basel. He was the only son of Bonifacius Amerbach. He began to study law in 1552 at the University of Tübingen. In 1553 he studied at the Univers ...

in the archives from the Amerbach-Cabinet, that the woman depicted was someone of the Offenburg family. Dorothea would have been eighteen years of age in 1526. It was assumed that either of the two may have been Holbein's mistress. Both paintings, the Venus as the Lais, came into the possession of the Amerbach Cabinet in the late 1500s.

References

*Buck, Stephanie, ''Hans Holbein: 1497/98-1543''. Cologne: Könemann, 1999, . *Derek Wilson, ''Hans Holbein: Portrait of an Unknown Man''. London: Pimlico, 2006, , pp. 112–113. * Moyle, Franny, ''The King's Painter: The Life and Times of Hans Holbein''. New York: Abrams Press, 2021, , pp. 106–109. *Toman, Rolf, ed. ''Renaissance: Art and Architecture in Europe during the 15th and 16th Centuries''. Bath: Parragon, 2009. {{DISPLAYTITLE:''Lais of Corinth'' (Holbein) 1520s paintings Paintings by Hans Holbein the Younger Portraits of women

See also

References

Further reading