Portrait of a lady: Hans Holbein's Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling

Hans Holbein’s mesmerising, waxen realism preserves this woman’s features forever. Suddenly we are in the modern world. Where medieval tomb effigies pictured people as ideal types, this is a meticulous visual record of an individual – a true portrait. The German painter Hans Holbein the Younger brought the new artistic skills of the Renaissance with him when he visited London in the 1520s. Imagine seeing portraits of this quality for the first time. Holbein revolutionised art in Britain. He is one of British art’s true geniuses. Illustration: The National Gallery