Holbein the Younger, Henry VIII - History Video Lecture - Art

(piano music)
- [Voiceover] We're in Rome
at the Piazza Barberini,
and we're looking at
one of the most famous
portraits of Henry the
VIII by Hans Holbein.
- [Voiceover] King Henry
the VIII, king of England,
on the occasion of his
marriage to Anne of Cleaves.
- [Voiceover] A marriage
that was purely political,
and was his fourth.
- [Voiceover] In a long series.
- [Voiceover] (laughs) Yes,
the portrait is a perfect
expression of power.
- [Voiceover] Of authority.
- [Voiceover] Absolutely.
It's a rectangular
painting, slightly vertical,
but it's almost square.
- [Voiceover] He himself is almost square.
-[Voiceover] His body is almost
a perfect square, it's true.
- [Voiceover] And he fills out the frame,
- [Voiceover] Frame, yeah, yeah.
the entire shape of the panel.
- [Voiceover] Look at that horizontality
of those shoulders, it's almost absurd.
Of course part of it is his costume,
but nevertheless, there's a sense
of his absolute presence.
- [Voiceover] His face
is completely frontal,
but his shoulders are slightly tilted back
so he's a little bit off center and almost
seems to be slightly
moving forward toward us.
- [Voiceover] So there's
a little animation
in the body, but the face
is absolutely static,
and he looks directly at us.
- [Voiceover] He rules us.
- [Voiceover] The date is
written in gold letters,
horizontally again, above the shoulders
really emphasizing...
- [Voiceover] His eyes.
- [Voiceover] Yes, emphasizing his eyes,
because as we read across those letters,
we read directly into
his eyes, so a really
interesting way of focusing our attention.
- [Voiceover] His
clothing, beautiful details
of the gold stitching, and embroidery,
and the jewels, fur, but I almost read
that circular necklace around his chest,
and then the circular form completed
above his head, almost like a halo.
- [Voiceover] Oh interesting,
two arcs that really
do frame his face.
- [Voiceover] You know, he has this almost
sense of being divine in a way,
- [Voiceover] It's interesting.
or drawing on that tradition I think.
- [Voiceover] The white of the feathers,
of the hat, and then
the gold, and the white
of the pearls certainly support that.
- [Voiceover] And the
way this white fabric,
this white cotton fabric, kind of puffs,
or silk, it's just fabulous.
- [Voiceover] It is.
- [Voiceover] The surface is so animated.
- [Voiceover] Just since we're talking
about the geometry of
the painting, and you
had pointed out the
arc of the hat, and the
arc of the necklace, that arc is continued
again by his arm and his belt.
- [Voiceover] Right.
- [Voiceover] So this is
real riven in the sense
it's set up across the
surface of the painting
just in a purely formal way.
- [Voiceover] And a
kind of balance between
circular forms and the rectangular forms.
- [Voiceover] Even his beard and his chin
actually continue that
as well, and to some
extent his eyes, but I think you pointed
to something else which
is really interesting.
The background is this simple deep aqua,
against which the tones of the flesh are
beautifully contrast, but the face itself
is a broad plane just like the background,
and it's so beautifully offset against the
almost absurd complexity of his wealth,
of his taste, and his authority
represented in his garment.
- [Voiceover] The man who tames
his clothing in a way.
He's in control of his kingship,
clothing represents that authority.
- [Voiceover] He's clutching
with his right hand
his gloves, but he's got his thumb hooked
around the belt that
actually holds his scabbard,
and you can see the handle of his sword
and its sheath just at the bottom right
of the canvas, and so there's that threat
that is never too far away.
- [Voiceover] Yeah, you
said canvas, but this
would be on a panel, right?
- [Voiceover] Oh it's panel, yes.
- [Voiceover] So it
would be oil and panel.
- [Voiceover] Yeah, and
actually you can tell
it's a panel, because there's a kind
of rigidity to the surface.
- [Voiceover] And we know
we're in the north here,
we know we're coming from
that northern tradition,
because of just the way that he's painted
all of those tiny details.
- [Voiceover] Well, that fascination with
the nearly microscopic,
and you can see that
in the brocade, absolutely,
you can see that
in those large jewels, in the silk
that is pulled through, absolutely.
- [Voiceover] What fun.
(piano music)