The King's Painter
The Life and Times of Hans Holbein
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The King's Painter
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Narrated by:
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Barnaby Edwards
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By:
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Franny Moyle
About this listen
A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.
Hans Holbein the Younger is chiefly celebrated for his beautiful and precisely realised portraiture, which includes representations of Henry VIII, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Anne of Cleves, Jane Seymour and an array of the Tudor lords and ladies he encountered during the course of two sojourns in England. But beyond these familiar images, which have come to define our perception of the world of the Henrician court, Holbein was a protean and multi-faceted genius: a humanist, satirist, political propagandist and contributor to the history of book design as well as a religious artist and court painter. The rich layers of symbolism and allusion that characterise his work have proved especially fascinating to scholars.
Franny Moyle traces and analyses the life and work of an extraordinary artist against the backdrop of an era of political turbulence and cultural transformation, to which his art offers a subtle and endlessly refracting mirror.
©2021 Franny Moyle (P)2022 W F HowesCritic Reviews
"A great thrusting codpiece of a book. It is big, bombastic and richly brocaded.... A jewel in its own right." (The Times)
"Evokes the painter and his world as vividly as a Holbein masterpiece. Beautifully written and illustrated, this book is a must for lovers of Tudor history." (Tracy Borman)
"Full of insight.... This is a gorgeous book, to which I am sure I shall return again and again." (Dan Jones)
What listeners say about The King's Painter
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Robyn
- 16-06-2022
Great - but not as audiobook
This is an excellent detailed biography of Holbein. Franny Moyle has done as fine a job with Holbein as she did with her biography of Turner but initially I seriously considered returning it. It's all fascinating, especially her detailed descriptions and analyses of Holbein's works but therein lies the problem for me. Every time a new work is introduced, I have to dash to my computer to get an image of it so I can follow her discussion. No point her detailing various aspects of a painting if I can't see it at the same time. I'll finish the book, it's great, but my listening is limited to times when I'm close to my large screen PC so I can follow what she's saying. This isn't a book you can take on a hike or a long car drive. Barnaby Edwards is wonderful, as always.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Edith May
- 29-10-2024
Holbein - a genius
I learned a lot from this book. It places Holbein in history in relation to the religious turmoil that began Protestantism in both Switzerland and England. It presents Ann Boleyn in an entirely different way than anything I have read to date. I only wish I could have seen the works described-though many have been lost or only known by descriptions and sketches. Well read and an engrossing story.
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