This painting by Hans Holbein immediately captivated me with its subtle balance between formal precision and quiet strangeness. In creating this copy, I wanted to immerse myself in the techniques of Northern Renaissance painters, especially in their meticulous attention to detail, texture, and the clarity of light.
This portrait offers a true technical challenge: the soft sheen of the veil, the delicacy of the fur — both the woman’s garment and the little squirrel — and the way every leaf and feather is rendered with almost scientific care. Everything is controlled, measured, with a realism that feels both exact and symbolic.
But beyond the technique, it’s the quiet narrative tension that intrigued me: the woman’s calm, distant gaze; the animals at her side — at once familiar and mysterious - and that pure blue background that isolates her from the world. There’s something timeless, even slightly uncanny in this composition, which I tried to recapture in my version.