Erasmus

In 1523 Erasmus was living in Basel, and both camps in the church quarrel set off by Luther were pressing him to take a side. That year Holbein painted him at a ledge, his hands resting on a red book. Along its edge runs an inscription, partly in Greek, the Herculean Labours of Erasmus of Rotterdam, a title from his own writings for the grind of scholarship. Up on the shelf behind him, beside a glass carafe, another book carries the date 1523 and a Latin couplet in Holbein's name, a pun saying it will be easier to find fault with him than to imitate him. In 1524 the scholar sent the portrait to England as a gift for William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had supported him during his years there. It still belongs to the Longford Castle collection, which lends it to the National Gallery.