Holbein, Hans, the Elder (c. 1464–1524)

German painter. Painting mainly religious works, he belonged to the school of Rogier van der Weyden and Hans Memling in his early paintings but showed Italianate influence in such a work as the Basilica of St Paul (1502; Staatsgalerie, Augsburg). His principal work is the altarpiece St Sebastian (1515–17; Alte Pinakothek, Munich). He was the father of Hans Holbein the Younger.

Financial failure ended his career as artist at Augsburg and ill success then seems to have pursued him at Isenheim and elsewhere. He had a strong sense of character in portrait drawings (as in the sketchbooks preserved in Berlin), which reappears in the works of his son.