Allegorie des Alten und Neuen Testaments

Holbein painted this small panel around 1530, as the Reformation was tearing across northern Europe and turning pictures into arguments. It is built to be read like a diagram of the new Protestant theology. A naked man sits at the center under a tree that is bare on one side and leafy on the other. To his left is the Law: Moses receiving the commandments, sin, and a skeleton for death. To his right is Grace: John the Baptist pointing him toward the crucified and risen Christ. Latin words are lettered right into the scene so no one mistakes the lesson. Holbein took the idea from Lucas Cranach, who had worked it out a year earlier alongside Martin Luther himself. Within a few years Holbein would settle in England as court painter to Henry VIII, whose own break with Rome was just beginning.