Erasmus of Rotterdam

Hans Holbein the Younger painted Erasmus of Rotterdam on several occasions and appears to have enjoyed a close relationship with the great Humanist writer. When Holbein traveled to England in 1526, it was Erasmus’s letters of introduction that provided him access to key patrons within Henry VIII’s court, including Sir Thomas More. The present portrait derives from the autograph likeness that Erasmus is believed to have sent to William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1524, which today is in the collection of the Earl of Radnor, Longford Castle, Wiltshire (London, National Gallery, on loan). It is closest to the version in the Galleria Nazionale, Parma, in which Erasmus is similarly depicted resting his hands on an open book of his writings, inscribed 1530.