Quaderni di Venezia Arti

An Exercise of Style and Power

Hans Holbein the Younger and the Painted Facade of the Hertenstein House in Lucerne (1517)

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Abstract

The exercise of power through art will be presented with the case of the Hertenstein house in Lucerne (Switzerland), whose decoration was destroyed in 1825. Owner and patron Jakob von Hertenstein (1460-1527) asserted his authority in the city with signs of prestige. The facade’s exterior embellishment, done by Hans Holbein the Younger, is based on a complex set of visual means underpinned by political rhetoric (exempla, Gesta romanorum, heraldry). Faux architecture builds rapport and expresses the owner’s ethics. Hertenstein linked himself to Caesar’s grandeur with a variation on Mantegna’s Triumphs of Caesar, painted for the Marquis of Mantua.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Sept. 17, 2023 | Accepted: Oct. 30, 2023 | Published Dec. 22, 2023 | Language: en

Keywords Rhetoric • Painted facade • Holbein • Power • Lucerne

Copyright © 2023 Sandes Dindar. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-771-5/009


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