Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam

Holbein's portraits played an important part in spreading the painter's reputation across Europe, as they and their copies were widely distributed.

Such was the fame of Erasmus, who corresponded with scholars throughout Europe, that he needed many portraits of himself to send abroad to his protectors; although not an admirer of painting, he understood the power of image.

[1] Quentin Matsys painted a noticeably younger Erasmus, writing, in 1517,[2] and used another profile portrait for a medal in 1519.

The French jurist and professor at the University of Bourges François Douaren received a copy of the roundel by Bonifacius Amerbach.

There is also a small emblematic depiction of an idealized Erasmus as the Roman god Terminus (his personal emblem), of 1532, now in the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The version also known as Portrait of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam with Renaissance Pilaster is a 1523 painting in oil and tempera on panel, in the National Gallery, London (on long-term loan from the Earl of Radnor).

[6] According to art historian Stephanie Buck, this portrait is "an idealized picture of a sensitive, highly cultivated scholar, and this was precisely how Erasmus wanted to be remembered by future generations".