Head of a Female Saint

Hans Holbein the Younger completed this small panel around 1515-1516, early in his career. The delicate face of a young woman gazes outward, her identity as a saint suggested by the work's traditional title rather than any visible attribute.

The panel measures just 23.5 x 21.5 cm and was already in its current format by the 16th century, when it entered the Amerbach collection. Art historians believe it was cut from a larger composition, along with a companion piece showing a male saint. What survives is essentially a fragment, though a beautiful one.

Holbein used a combination of oil, tempera, and wood techniques common in Northern Renaissance painting. He would later become famous for his penetrating portraits at the English court of Henry VIII, but this early work shows his skill already developing. The Kunstmuseum Basel holds several Holbein works, appropriate given that Basel was the artist's home for much of his career before moving to England.