An Exercise of Style and Power
Hans Holbein the Younger and the Painted Facade of the Hertenstein House in Lucerne (1517)
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.
Keywords: Lucerne • Rhetoric • Power • Painted facade • Holbein