![Lais of Corinth, by Hans Holbein the Younger](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Lais_of_Corinth%2C_by_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger.jpg)
''Lais of Corinth'' by
Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; german: Hans Holbein der Jüngere; – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered o ...
portrays the famous
Lais of Corinth, 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
Apelles of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἀπελλῆς; fl. 4th century BC) was a renowned painter of ancient Greece. Pliny the Elder, to whom much of modern scholars' knowledge of this artist is owed (''Naturalis Historia'' 35.36.79–97 and ''passim'' ...
, 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 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.
See also
*
List of paintings by Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger (''c''. 1497–1543) was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century.Zwingenberger, 9. He also made a significan ...
References
Further reading
*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