Benedikt von Hertenstein (born about 1495, died 1522)

In 1517 the young Hans Holbein was in Lucerne, painting decorations across the grand house of a Swiss magistrate named Jakob von Hertenstein. While he was at it he made this portrait of the magistrate's eldest son, Benedikt, then 22. Along the top runs a line written as if in the sitter's own voice: when I looked like this, I was 22 years old. Holbein began the work on paper, as a drawing, then built it up in oil and even gold before laying the paper down onto a wooden panel, which is how it has lasted. Benedikt looks steadily out, well dressed and sure of himself. Five years later he was dead, killed in 1522 while fighting as a Swiss mercenary in the wars in northern Italy.