Derich Born

In 1533 Holbein painted the young Cologne merchant Derich Born on an oak panel about 60 centimetres tall, a portrait now in the British Royal Collection with a Latin boast lettered along its parapet. This is a second Derich Born, painted on a disc of red beech only about 13 centimetres across and shown here in a display case. In those same years Holbein made several small round portraits like it. A pair in Vienna, dated 1534, shows a court official of Henry the Eighth and his wife, each barely 12 centimetres wide. A likeness this size fits in the palm of a hand and could travel with its owner. The museum dates the roundel to about 1533, the year in which the larger picture gives Born's age as 23.