1 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Portraits of men engaged in their profession were a relatively new thing. forcing Holbein to quit the court and look to the rising middle class for new clients. 2 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They show us... 3 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:04,170 Art... 4 00:00:04,180 --> 00:00:05,530 ArtSleuth 5 00:00:08,020 --> 00:00:10,940 A superb Turkish carpet 6 00:00:11,780 --> 00:00:13,780 Money 7 00:00:13,820 --> 00:00:16,660 Finely worked gold 8 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,440 A picture by Hans Holbein 9 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:23,860 A young man of the Renaissance? 10 00:00:23,960 --> 00:00:25,640 Indeed! 11 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:29,680 - and he seems to be putting his cards on the table. 12 00:00:29,860 --> 00:00:31,420 Even his name, Georg Gisze, 13 00:00:31,420 --> 00:00:33,820 appears several times in the picture 14 00:00:33,820 --> 00:00:36,800 Below his personal motto: 15 00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:39,580 “No joy without sorrow” 16 00:00:39,580 --> 00:00:43,940 on this piece of paper stuck to the wall 17 00:00:43,940 --> 00:00:48,780 and again on this letter 18 00:00:50,500 --> 00:00:54,020 And yet, what a contrast between this show of wealth 19 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:57,380 and his disconcerted or appraising look, 20 00:00:57,420 --> 00:01:02,060 which almost suggests we are invading his privacy. 21 00:01:02,180 --> 00:01:08,120 And what a contrast between these precious, richly worked objects 22 00:01:08,140 --> 00:01:10,880 and the rough wall of the cramped wooden box 23 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:14,080 in which he seems confined! 24 00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:17,500 What is Holbein telling us about him 25 00:01:17,540 --> 00:01:20,960 with all these knick-knacks ... 26 00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:24,000 … and what is he hiding from us? 27 00:01:24,050 --> 00:01:26,800 Episode 9 : Holbein - *Le Marchand Georg Gisze* *Le Monde mis en boîte* 28 00:01:28,300 --> 00:01:30,530 Part 1. New Era, new Merchants 29 00:01:31,860 --> 00:01:36,480 The thing that strikes us at once is the emphasis on correspondence: 30 00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:38,180 Not only is Gisze shown 31 00:01:38,180 --> 00:01:40,560 …in the act of opening a letter… 32 00:01:40,620 --> 00:01:43,600 … but most of the objects have the same connotations: 33 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:46,260 The letters pinned on the wall, 34 00:01:46,260 --> 00:01:52,200 The dispenser with string to fasten them securely 35 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:56,860 or the strips of parchment with their ready-for-use seals. 36 00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:59,660 Holbein wants us to notice them, 37 00:01:59,660 --> 00:02:02,660 and even distorts Gisze’s arm 38 00:02:02,660 --> 00:02:05,300 to let us see them clearly. 39 00:02:06,080 --> 00:02:09,820 Moreover, these letters are perfectly legible. 40 00:02:10,380 --> 00:02:16,080 ...that Gisze is a London-based merchant, 41 00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:19,000 in constant touch with his family 42 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:23,460 and other merchants in northern Europe. 43 00:02:24,100 --> 00:02:26,780 But although the picture identifies him as a merchant, 44 00:02:26,780 --> 00:02:29,120 we have no way of knowing what he deals in! 45 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:32,220 Indeed, these massive keys are the only sign that he has - somewhere - … 46 00:02:32,220 --> 00:02:36,080 …goods locked away in a warehouse. 47 00:02:36,380 --> 00:02:42,420 The one thing Gisze really lets us see is his collection of official seals 48 00:02:42,420 --> 00:02:44,420 the motif is reversed, 49 00:02:44,420 --> 00:02:48,680 and will only show correctly when impressed on wax 50 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:54,420 and another, larger one is attached to a precious ball of amber. 51 00:02:55,520 --> 00:02:58,760 The letters from other merchants 52 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:01,860 are signed with strange pictograms, 53 00:03:01,940 --> 00:03:05,360 … and the seals themselves are everywhere. 54 00:03:06,380 --> 00:03:09,320 So why this obsession with signatures? 55 00:03:09,340 --> 00:03:12,080 The fact is, Gisze is one of a new breed of merchants. 56 00:03:13,260 --> 00:03:15,840 Instead of hauling his wares from one European fair to the next, 57 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:19,780 He has an office in London, 58 00:03:19,780 --> 00:03:22,360 at the Steelyard, where the German merchants congregate, 59 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:25,000 and where he represents his family, 60 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:29,820 one of the most powerful in Danzig… 61 00:03:29,820 --> 00:03:32,660 a town belonging to the Hanseatic League, an association of merchant cities, 62 00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:37,080 which dominates European trade. 63 00:03:37,100 --> 00:03:39,380 Success for these great international merchants is a matter of being in the right place 64 00:03:39,380 --> 00:03:44,620 to know, for example: 65 00:03:44,620 --> 00:03:47,220 that the Baltic towns have a surplus of cheap fish ... 66 00:03:47,220 --> 00:03:50,800 … which England needs to feed the countless workers 67 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:54,120 ... who make the cloth 68 00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:57,940 she must sell on the continent. 69 00:03:57,940 --> 00:04:02,120 Gisze succeeds… 70 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:05,080 …because he knows about supply and demand … 71 00:04:07,140 --> 00:04:10,280 … and how to put sellers and buyers under contract. 72 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:13,100 But these seals are also based on the runic alphabet, 73 00:04:13,740 --> 00:04:17,120 and have talismanic value, 74 00:04:18,140 --> 00:04:19,560 since a vital part of coming out on top in business is coming out on top when Fortune spins her wheel: 75 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:22,140 after all, the ship he loads with goods 76 00:04:22,180 --> 00:04:24,560 may return from her voyage with huge profits … 77 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:27,500 but may also go down - and drag him with it! 78 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:30,520 This new way of doing business certainly offers him comfortable margins … 79 00:04:33,060 --> 00:04:35,220 … but he must take risks to secure them. 80 00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:38,360 Which is why he implicitly boasts on his walls 81 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:42,380 of having information which other men do not. 82 00:04:42,380 --> 00:04:46,060 Is that why he gives us that cautious look? 83 00:04:48,730 --> 00:04:51,130 Part 2. Time takes all 84 00:04:51,460 --> 00:04:54,460 But who is he really looking at? 85 00:04:54,460 --> 00:04:57,100 The picture gives us some clues: 86 00:04:57,100 --> 00:04:59,440 the clearly visible message at the top, for instance, … 87 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:03,120 is aimed at us, the viewers … 88 00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:07,100 … and tells us that this is indeed what Georg Gisze looked like, that these were his eyes and his cheeks 89 00:05:07,100 --> 00:05:09,700 at the age of 34 90 00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:13,320 -no longer so young for a bachelor, 91 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:18,380 the regulation status for members of the Steelyard. 92 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:23,100 And, as this pocket clock reminds us, time is passing: 93 00:05:25,480 --> 00:05:29,100 The flowers beside it are not simply there to pretty up the picture. 94 00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:33,200 Each has a definite meaning: 95 00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:39,420 hyssop protects against the plague, and tells us that Gisze takes care of his health, 96 00:05:39,420 --> 00:05:42,560 the carnation symbolises betrothal, 97 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:45,420 and the rosemary stands for fidelity. 98 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:49,000 So is the portrait a gift for his future wife? 99 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:53,820 Three years later, Gizse goes home and marries in Danzig: 100 00:05:53,820 --> 00:05:57,120 quite possibly, he was already engaged when the portrait was painted. 101 00:05:57,660 --> 00:06:00,120 X-ray examination has also shown 102 00:06:00,140 --> 00:06:02,140 that Holbein repainted certain parts of the picture. 103 00:06:02,500 --> 00:06:03,460 Originally: 104 00:06:03,460 --> 00:06:06,940 the wall on the right, with all its paraphernalia, was not there, 105 00:06:06,940 --> 00:06:09,400 and Gisze was looking to the right, 106 00:06:09,400 --> 00:06:12,280 the side on which - since the earliest pictures of Adam and Eve 107 00:06:12,280 --> 00:06:14,940 - wives had invariably been placed. 108 00:06:15,860 --> 00:06:20,740 And so there are many reasons to believe that his portrait was meant to be one of a pair, 109 00:06:20,740 --> 00:06:22,880 with his wife’s portrait in the traditional position on the right. 110 00:06:24,160 --> 00:06:27,160 And yet Holbein retouched the canvas 111 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:32,540 and confined Gisze within a cramped and cluttered space. 112 00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:34,700 And the fact that his eight other portraits of Steelyard merchants are rather different: 113 00:06:34,700 --> 00:06:39,920 makes this even stranger 114 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:42,520 There are far fewer objects in this portrait of Dirk Tybis, 115 00:06:42,520 --> 00:06:46,180 who seems bent on keeping himself to himself. 116 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:51,880 Wrapped in his voluminous coat, Herman Wedigh regards us calmly. 117 00:06:52,660 --> 00:06:58,860 He is obviously sure of his own worth, and needs no props to prove it. 118 00:06:58,980 --> 00:07:03,980 And Derich Born displays all the pride and arrogance of youth, 119 00:07:04,020 --> 00:07:07,280 as he looks us straight in the eye, leaning on a balustrade 120 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:09,860 in a pose worthy of an Italian prince… 121 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:15,320 No other picture in the series is as big or as crowded as the Gisze - in short, as blatantly out to impress! 122 00:07:15,380 --> 00:07:18,420 Why is Holbein so keen to dazzle us? 123 00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:23,200 Why is Holbein so keen to dazzle us? 124 00:07:25,130 --> 00:07:25,130 Part 3. You can’t take it with you! 125 00:07:28,620 --> 00:07:32,120 Gisze’s portrait was the first in the series, and it has been suggested 126 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:35,560 that Holbein was playing the salesman 127 00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:37,620 - and putting all his wares in the window! 128 00:07:38,220 --> 00:07:39,720 But this isn’t the whole story. 129 00:07:41,060 --> 00:07:44,180 Henry VIII has turned against Sir Thomas More, his patron - 130 00:07:44,180 --> 00:07:49,080 forcing Holbein to quit the court and look to the rising middle class for new clients. 131 00:07:49,100 --> 00:07:52,380 Portraits of men engaged in their profession were a relatively new thing. 132 00:07:54,140 --> 00:07:55,540 Previously, portraits distinguishing a class were easy 133 00:07:55,540 --> 00:08:00,760 noblemen never work, and a fine pair of gloves will label them instantly, 134 00:08:00,760 --> 00:08:06,120 books for scholars, 135 00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:08,560 and instruments for scientists. 136 00:08:10,100 --> 00:08:13,940 Now these new-style merchants, with their new-made wealth, 137 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:20,040 also want the world to see the tools of their trade... 138 00:08:20,100 --> 00:08:25,000 and be left in no doubt that they’ve made it. 139 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:29,960 But this display of wealth still raises one problem, 140 00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:33,660 since some people may see Holbein’s Gisze as an example 141 00:08:33,700 --> 00:08:34,740 - best avoided! 142 00:08:35,680 --> 00:08:38,720 In fact, the Baltic merchants have a stern religious code 143 00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:41,480 - and showing off like this may offend them. 144 00:08:41,520 --> 00:08:47,400 Even religious artworks are being destroyed in some places by Protestants who think them too opulent 145 00:08:47,440 --> 00:08:49,080 - and as such blasphemous 146 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:52,620 Which is why the Steelyard merchants want Holbein 147 00:08:52,620 --> 00:08:55,260 to paint them a large fresco for their hall, whose subject, “The Triumph of Poverty” 148 00:08:55,300 --> 00:08:58,940 almost implies that they are asking God’s pardon 149 00:08:58,940 --> 00:09:01,340 … 150 00:09:01,340 --> 00:09:03,900 for having their own portraits painted. 151 00:09:04,940 --> 00:09:08,020 Both merchants and bankers also have a taste for pictures 152 00:09:08,020 --> 00:09:09,840 … 153 00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:11,600 which satirise their callings: 154 00:09:12,100 --> 00:09:14,520 Holbein insists that, love money as we may, 155 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:17,460 death will still take it in the end! 156 00:09:18,780 --> 00:09:20,960 This picture, too, uses caricature to convey the same message: 157 00:09:20,980 --> 00:09:22,700 money-grubbing avarice 158 00:09:22,740 --> 00:09:28,320 has permanently deformed the faces of these two grotesque bankers. 159 00:09:29,760 --> 00:09:31,580 And the wife in this portrait 160 00:09:31,580 --> 00:09:35,080 seems more interested in making sure that her banker husband gets his sums right 161 00:09:35,080 --> 00:09:39,300 than in reading her prayerbook, 162 00:09:40,140 --> 00:09:41,580 even though the man discreetly reflected in the mirror 163 00:09:41,580 --> 00:09:43,760 is pointing to a steeple outside the window, 164 00:09:43,760 --> 00:09:46,920 reminding her that eternal salvation is what matters 165 00:09:46,940 --> 00:09:51,260 - and not this pair of scales, which is used to weigh gold. 166 00:09:52,920 --> 00:09:55,420 A similar pair of scales turns up in Gisze’s portrait. 167 00:09:55,420 --> 00:09:58,180 Is this a reference to the scales… 168 00:09:58,180 --> 00:10:03,240 …on which souls are weighed at the last judgment? 169 00:10:04,420 --> 00:10:07,940 If it is, Gisze’s soul may already have been weighed, 170 00:10:07,940 --> 00:10:13,300 since one pan hangs far below the other! 171 00:10:13,300 --> 00:10:17,340 We can decide for ourselves what this means for him 172 00:10:17,340 --> 00:10:19,040 … 173 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:20,620 - but should always remember 174 00:10:20,620 --> 00:10:23,720 that “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle 175 00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:25,900 than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven”. 176 00:10:27,800 --> 00:10:33,070 ArtSleuth next episode : Bruegel – A Merchant looking down on peasants? 177 00:10:33,070 --> 00:10:40,370 Find more about the series on: www.artsleuth.net 178 00:10:40,370 --> 00:10:42,570 Written & directed by 179 00:10:42,570 --> 00:10:44,760 Produced by 180 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:46,930 Scientific expert 181 00:10:46,930 --> 00:10:49,130 Special thanks to 182 00:10:49,130 --> 00:10:51,300 Voice / English adaptation 183 00:10:51,300 --> 00:10:53,500 Editing & Visual effects by 184 00:10:53,500 --> 00:10:55,670 Post-production / Sound 185 00:10:55,670 --> 00:10:57,860 Music Supervisor 186 00:10:57,860 --> 00:11:00,000 Music 187 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:02,200 Special Thanks – English subtitles : Vincent Nash 188 00:11:02,200 --> 00:11:02,200 A CED Production