The King’s Painter: The Life and Times of Hans Holbein by Franny Moyle

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The King's Painter: The Life and Times of Hans Holbein by Franny Moyle: Episode 1

The King's Painter: The Life and Times of Hans Holbein by Franny Moyle

Episode 1

BBC Radio 4 - The King's Painter: The Life and Times of Hans Holbein by Franny Moyle, Episode 1

The extraordinary life of the outstanding artist of the 16th century.

The extraordinary life of the outstanding artist of the 16th century. Read by Sir Simon Russell Beale.

Hans Holbein the Younger became court painter to Henry VIII and was regarded as a phenomenon in his day for his ability to bring the characters he painted to life.   

His famous portrait of the Tudor King was so life like spectators fully expected arms and legs to move.  One of his paintings of the dead Christ was so alarming that, when the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky saw it in 1867, he was so troubled by it that his wife had to drag him away fearing he might have an epileptic fit.  

Holbein observed the extraordinary events of his century up close and painted the movers and shakers of the age including Desiderius Erasmus, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII, as well as the various women lined up to become the wives of the king, such as Anne of Cleves. 

He was a contributor to the history of book design as well as designing jewellery, and elaborate weaponry.  With a family in Basel and another in London, his life was as colourful as the times he lived through.

Author:	   Franny Moyle
Abridger:	   Libby Spurrier
Reader:	   Sir Simon Russell Beale
Producer:	   Celia de Wolff

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