The ''Darmstadt Madonna'' (also known as the ''Madonna of Jakob Meyer zum Hasen'') is an oil painting 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 ...

. Completed in 1526 in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

, the work shows the Bürgermeister of Basel Jakob Meyer zum Hasen, his first wife (who had died earlier), his current wife, and his daughter grouped around the Madonna and infant Jesus. The meaning of the two other male figures on the left side (the Madonna's right) is, like the overall iconography of the image, not entirely clear.

Franny Moyle Franny Moyle (born 1964) is a British television producer and author. Her first book ''Desperate Romantics: The Private Lives of the Pre-Raphaelites'' (2009) was adapted into the BBC drama serial ''Desperate Romantics'' by screenwriter Peter Bowk ...

writes that the man on the Madonna's right is Meyer, and " e boy and baby may be a presentation of Meyer's two deceased sons...." The image testified to the resolutely Catholic faith of the Bürgermeister, who actively opposed the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

. Holbein's Darmstadt Madonna was influenced by Italian Renaissance religious painting; Franny Moyle writes that it was influenced by

Andrea Mantegna Andrea Mantegna (, , ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in order ...

's 1496

Madonna della Vittoria The ''Madonna della Vittoria'' is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna; the painting was executed in 1496. History On 6 July 1495 the French army of Charles VIII of France, retreating from Italy after the French Invasio ...

, and that the two paintings' "perspectival approach ... is almost identical." The Darmstadt Madonna may also contain elements of Netherlandish portrait painting. Earlier located in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

, hence its title, the work was on loan to the Städelschen Kunstinstitut in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

from 2004 to 2011. In 2012, the painting was put on display in the Johanniterkirche in

Schwäbisch Hall Schwäbisch Hall (; "Swabian Hall"; from 1802 until 1934 and colloquially: ''Hall'' ) is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg located in the valley of the Kocher river, the longest tributary (together with its headwater Lein) of the ...

as part of the permanent exhibition of the

Old Master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

s in the Würth Collection.

See also

References

Further reading