Portrait of a Member of the Wedigh Family, Probably Hermann Wedigh (died 1560) | Hans Holbein the Younger | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

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portrait of a member of the wedigh family probably|hans holbein the younger|1532|50.135.4

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Artist Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497/98–1543)
TitlePortrait of a Member of the Wedigh Family, Probably Hermann Wedigh (died 1560)
Date1532
MediumOil on wood
Dimensions16 5/8 x 12 3/4 in. (42.2 x 32.4 cm), with added strip of 1/2 in. (1.3 cm) at bottom
Credit LineBequest of Edward S. Harkness, 1940
Accession Number50.135.4

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings
Gallery Label
Notes
Provenance
Exhibition History
References

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Signed, dated, and inscribed: (across center) ANNO.1532. ÆTATIS.SVÆ.29.; (on cover of book) ·H·H·; (on edge of book) HER[W within a shield]WID.; (on sheet of paper in book) Veritas odiu[m] parit:~ (Truth breeds hatred [Terence, Andria, l. 69].)

NotesThe sitter here and in Holbein's portrait of an undocumented brother or cousin (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, 39 x 30 cm, dated 1533, "Aetatis Suae 39") have identical signet rings displaying the coat of arms of the Wedigh family of Cologne. The Wedighs were active as merchants in the London Steelyard as early as 1480; the Berlin sitter has been tentatively identified as Hermann Hillebrandt Wedigh. These portraits were together in the Schönborn collection from at least 1746, and were considered pendants by some early authorities, in spite of their difference in size and composition. Frimmel (Ref. 1887) first identified the arms as those of the Wedigh family, and Merlo (1887) suggested our sitter's first name was Hermann, a name that appears in all generations of this family. Geelen (1917) identifies him as Hermann Wedigh III "zu den Kannegiessern*," the son of Hermann Wedigh II and Barbara von der Linden. His involvement with London's Stahlhof is recorded on several occassions, but we have no record of his physical presence in the city as is the case with Derick Berck (see MMA 49.7.29). He is recorded as a judge in Niederich in 1557 and also as a city councilor in Cologne. He married Sophia Hörners by 1539, the year their first child was born, and the couple are depicted later in life surrounded by a large family in a drawing taken from the now missing inside wings of the Wedigh Altarpiece (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille; see Ref. Martens 2005).

Petter (2002) suggests that our portrait was painted by Holbein in Cologne, where the artist might have stopped on his way from Basel to London in 1532. She notes that while the W on a medallion between "HER" and "WID," inscribed on the side of the book, refers to the Cologne merchants' guild, the Windeck, no visual reference is made to the London Stahlhof.

*According to Helmut Nickel, 1977, the old meaning of Kannegiesser was "pewterer." "Zu den kannegiessern" would therefore mean "at the place of the pewterer, or at the pewterer's guildhall." He concludes that either Wedigh was a pewterer, or his guild met at their guildhall or in a building that was at one time a pewterer's guildhall.

References

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