Georg Giese

Portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1532

Georg Gisze (Gisze according to the title of the Holbein painting) – born 2 April 1497 in Danzig (Gdańsk, Poland), died on 3 February 1562 in Danzig) – was a Hanse merchant.

As a member of the Hanseatic League Gisze also worked in London where he was portrayed by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1532. After returning to his home city in 1535 he married Christine Krüger, daughter of a prestigious citizen.

His patrician family, which included Albrecht Gisze, bishop Tiedemann Gisze etc., had come originally from Cologne.

Portrait

When Georg was stationed in the 1530s at the London branch of the Hanse, the Steelyard, the members of the Steelyard sat for a famous series of portraits by Hans Holbein the Younger.

The Holbein portrait commissioned by Giese identifies him by his clothing and instruments as a merchant. The painting also depicts him with carnations, at that time symbolizing his engagement. Also, a plaque depicted over his head identifies him, and states that it shows him in his 34th year, in 1532. He is holding a letter he received from his brother, written in Middle Saxon (“Middle Low German”): “Dem Erszamen/Jorgen gisze to lunden/in engelant mynem/broder to handen” (“To be handed to my brother, the honourable Jorgen gisze at London in England”).

External media
Audio
The Merchant Georg Gisze 1532, Google Art Project
Video
Holbein's The Merchant Georg Gisze, Smarthistory
HOLBEIN: The Merchant Georg Gisze, Canaleducatif

A misaligned set of scales and the placing of a vase of flowers too close to the edge of the table are suggestive of the instability of the world and our place within it.

Georg Giese's portrait is depicted on the 100,000 mark banknote of 1923.

Bibliography

• T. Andratschke: Deme Ersamen syriacuß Kallen te Lunde up Staelueff sy desse breff, in: Praxis Geschichte 1/2001
• Hermann Freytag: Das Bildnis eines Danzigers, von Hans Holbein gemalt, in: Zeitschrift des Westpreussischen Geschichtsvereins 40/1899, Seite 107-115
• Gemäldegalerie Berlin / Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz: 200 Meisterwerke. Berlin 1998, S. 108-111.
• Kurt Löcher: Der Londoner Stahlhof und Hans Holbein, in: Cord Meckseper (Hg.), Stadt im Wandel. Kunst und Kultur des Bürgertums in Norddeutschland 1150-1650, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1985, Band 3, Seite 667f.

External links

• „Werke der Sammlung SMPK“: Hans Holbein d. J. (1497-1543) Der Kaufmann Georg Gisze, 1532
• Die Renaissance als Kunstepoche - Meisterwerke der Malerei