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<p><i>Portrait of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam with Renaissance Pilaster.</i>
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderius_Erasmus" class="extiw" title="w:Desiderius Erasmus">Desiderius Erasmus</a> of Rotterdam (1466/69–1536) was a renowned humanist scholar and theologian. He moved in 1521 to Basel, the city where Hans Holbein the Younger lived and had his workshop. Such was the fame of Erasmus, who corresponded with scholars throughout Europe, that he needed many portraits of himself to send abroad. Holbein painted three much-copied portraits of Erasmus in 1523, of which this is the largest and most elaborate. It is likely the one sent to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Warham" class="extiw" title="w:William Warham">William Warham</a>, Archbishop of Canterbury, in England. Holbein later painted Warham after he travelled to England in 1526 in search of work, with a recommendation from Erasmus, who had once lived in England himself. Holbein's portrait of Erasmus includes a Latin couplet by the scholar, inscribed on the edge of the leaning book on the shelf, which states that Holbein would rather have a slanderer than an imitator. According to art historian Stephanie Buck, this portrait is "an idealized picture of a sensitive, highly cultivated scholar, and this was precisely how Erasmus wanted to be remembered by future generations" (Stephanie Buck, <i>Hans Holbein</i>, Cologne: Könemann, 1999, <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/3829025831" title="Special:BookSources/3829025831">ISBN 3829025831</a>, p. 50).</div>
<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>
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1523<div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1523-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
Transferred from <span class="plainlinks"><a class="external text" href="https://nl.wikipedia.org">nl.wikipedia</a></span> to Commons. 7 January 2006 (original upload date) The original uploader was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nl:User:Carolus" class="extiw" title="w:nl:User:Carolus">Carolus</a> at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nl:" class="extiw" title="w:nl:">Dutch Wikipedia</a>. eigen bewerking