''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 German-Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered one of the greatest por ...

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.

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