# Portrait of a Man in a Red Cap [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Oil and gold on parchment attached to wood, diameter 10 cm ## Commentary Starting in the 1530s and continuing into the early 1540s, Holbein made a number of small, round bust-length portraits of various sitters, including potential wives for Henry VIII, members of the royal household, and servants to the king. Some were painted in oil on wood, others in bodycolour on vellum as miniatures. The sitter of the present portrait, showing a young, clean-shaven man against a monochrome blue background, is not identified, but he was certainly an official at the court of Henry VIII. It is possible that the portrait had a protective lid of painted wood, since such intimate portrait capsules were easily portable as well as more affordable than larger-scale likenesses. ## 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]()