This figure is shown in the middle of a town openly accepting payment by the well-dressed man with his large money bag, while the poor, alarmingly slim and fragile-looking man simply folds his hands to pray in the background. Once more Holbein’s point is that open corruption is the norm and no fair law exists. Death lifts the hourglass as if to ring an alarm bell and alert people to such injustice.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC/Rosenwald Collection
Hans Holbein the Younger: The Lawyer, 1523-1525
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC/Rosenwald Collection
The Rich Man, 1523-1525
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC/Rosenwald Collection
The Senator, 1523-1525
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC/Rosenwald Collection
The Judge, 1523-1525
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC/Rosenwald Collection
The Physician, 1523-1525
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC/Rosenwald Collection
The Merchant, 1523-1525
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC/Rosenwald Collection
The Knight, 1523-1525
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC/Rosenwald Collection
The Old Man, 1523-1525
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC/Rosenwald Collection
Bones of all the Men, 1523-1525
