Cleveland Museum of Art

Terminus, the Device of Erasmus

Hans Holbein the YoungerLinkedCulture matchlcp-7fbf92db9cbe

Date

c. 1532

Medium

oil on wood

Culture

Germany

Department

European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Object ID

145960

In the spirit of the Italian Renaissance, Erasmus of Rotterdam (c. 1466–1536), the celebrated Dutch humanist and scholar, embraced ancient Greek and Roman literature and incorporated much of its moral and ethical messages into his own work. Holbein here conflates Erasmus’s features with Terminus, the Roman god of boundaries, who defied Jupiter by maintaining his position atop Capitoline Hill. Erasmus adopted Terminus, along with the motto concedo nulli (I concede to no one), as a personal symbol for devotion and steadfastness. Tree ring analysis helped determine the date of this painting.

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