Alexander Marr publishes study of Holbein’s visual wit
‘Holbein’s Wit’, published by Brepols in 2026, examines jokes, paradoxes and ambiguity in Hans Holbein the Younger’s art.
Professor Alexander Marr has published ‘Holbein’s Wit: Pictorial Ingenuity in Renaissance Art’, a study of Hans Holbein the Younger that examines the artist’s use of visual wit, according to the University of Cambridge’s Department of History of Art.
Published by Brepols in 2026, the book follows Holbein’s career in Basel and London. It brings together portraits, devotional paintings, prints and designs for the decorative arts, which are often considered separately.
Marr’s framework is Renaissance ingenium, described in the announcement as ‘wit’: a term encompassing talent, intelligence, creative capacity and individual character. Cambridge says the book considers visual jokes, puns, paradoxes and ambiguities as part of Holbein’s pictorial thinking, rather than as marginal embellishments to an artist often defined by his illusionistic skill.
The study also considers Holbein’s relationships with Desiderius Erasmus and Thomas More. Cambridge says Marr examines the artist’s visual language in relation to the literary culture shared with these leading humanists, arguing that Holbein’s pictures exceed naturalistic imitation by foregrounding the intelligence and ingenuity involved in their making.
Cambridge’s announcement does not identify individual works or include an independent assessment of the book’s argument. An earlier Cambridge notice for Marr’s 2024 Pharos lectures addressed related questions of Renaissance wit and Holbein, but does not establish which lecture material, if any, appears in the new publication.
