<i>Luther as Hercules Germanicus</i>. Woodcut, Zentralbibliothek, Zürich.<br><br>Basel, where Hans Holbein worked and had his studio, was a leading centre for disseminating Reformation ideas, owing to the excellence and freedom of its presses. Most of the reformer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther" class="extiw" title="w:Martin Luther">Martin Luther's</a> books were published there. At the time Holbein designed this print, he was working for both traditional patrons and for reformers. Comparing Luther to Hercules, the slayer of the many-headed hydra, he shows him slaying churchmen.
<bdi><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Hans_Holbein_the_Younger" class="extiw" title="w:en:Hans Holbein the Younger"><span title="German artist and printmaker (1497-1543)">Hans Holbein the Younger</span></a>
</bdi>
Christian Müller; Stephan Kemperdick; Maryan Ainsworth; <i>et al</i>, <i>Hans Holbein the Younger: The Basel Years, 1515–1532,</i> Munich: Prestel, 2006, <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9783791335803" title="Special:BookSources/9783791335803">ISBN 9783791335803</a>, p. 126.