Jakob Meyer zum Hasen

Hans Holbein the Younger, Jakob Meyer zum Hasen (1516), left panel of a double portrait with Dorothea Kannengiesser, Meyer's second wife. Oil on wood, each panel 38.5 × 31 cm, Kunstmuseum Basel, Inv. Nr. 312

Jakob Meyer zum Hasen (1482, Basel - 1531, Basel) was the bürgermeister of the city of Basel from 1516 to 1521. A money changer by profession, he was the first bürgermeister of Basel to be a tradesman, belonging to a guild rather than the aristocracy or a wealthy family. Relatively little is known about his life, "not even a modest biography". Today he is best known as a patron of the painter Hans Holbein the Younger, having commissioned the Darmstadt Madonna from him.

References

All of the following sources are in German.

• Martin Alioth, Ulrich Barth, Dorothee Huber: Basler Stadtgeschichte. Vol. 2, Basel 1981.
• Bodo Brinkmann: Der Bürgermeister, sein Maler und seine Familie: Hans Holbeins Madonna im Städel. Imhof, Petersberg 2004, ISBN 3-937251-24-3.
• Rudolf Wackernagel: Geschichte der Stadt Basel. Vol. 3, Basel, 1924, Reprint 1968.
• Hans Holbein der Jüngere. Die Jahre in Basel. 1515–1532. Exhibition catalog, Kunstmuseum Basel. Prestel, Munich 2006.
• August Bernoulli  (1885), "Meyer zum Hasen, Jakob", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) (in German) 21, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 581–582 

External links

• Biography of Meyer on www.altbasel.ch