[5] Holbein was born in the free imperial city of Augsburg (Germany), and died in Issenheim, Alsace (now France).

His later paintings show how he pioneered and led the transformation of German art from the (Late) International Gothic to the Renaissance style.

[6] He also made a number of portrait drawings that foreshadow the work of his famous son, Hans Holbein the Younger.

Augsburg, at the time of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, cultivated art with a Flemish style, and felt the influence of the schools of Bruges and Brussels, even though it was near Italy, with close commercial connections to Venice.

[7] At Issenheim in Alsace, where Matthias Grünewald was employed at the time, Holbein found patrons and was contracted to complete an altarpiece.