# Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam Writing [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Paper mounted on pine, 37 x 31 cm ## Commentary Born in Rotterdam in Holland in 1469, Erasmus entered the monastery of Steyn as an 18-year-old and was ordained in 1492. Following extensive studies in Paris, he became a Doctor of Theology in 1506. In Holbein's portrait, the 54-year-old Erasmus is shown wearing not a monk's cowl but the black robes of a scholar: in 1517 Pope Leo X had granted him the special privilege of not wearing monastic garments. In the Web Gallery of Art you can view <A onclick="return OpenOther\('/cgi-bin/search.cgi?author=&title=erasmus&comment=&time=any&school=any&form=any&type=portrait&location='\)" HREF="/cgi-bin/search.cgi?author=&title=erasmus&comment=&time=any&school=any&form=any&type=portrait&location=">several portraits of Erasmus</A> by Renaissance painters, such as Hans Holbein the Younger, Albrecht Dürer and Quentin Massys. ## Related artworks - [Adam and Eve]() - [Apollo and the Muses on Parnassus]() - [Charitas]() - [Charles Brandon]() - [Christ as the True Light]() - [Christina of Denmark, Ducchess of Milan \(detail\)]() - [Christina of Denmark, Ducchess of Milan]() - [Courtier of Henry VIII and his Wife]() - [Darmstadt Madonna \(detail\)]() - [Darmstadt Madonna \(detail\)]() - [Darmstadt Madonna \(detail\)]() - [Darmstadt Madonna \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()