Printer's Device of Johannes Froben

Johann (Latin Johannes) Froben (c. 1460–1527) was a noted printer in Basel, for whom Holbein worked and whose portrait he painted. Holbein probably painted the device to hang in Froben's printing shop; and it has survived because Froben's grandson gave it to the Holbein collector Basilius Amerbach in 1583. According to art historian John Rowlands: "The advice of St Matthew, 10:16, is symbolized by the pagan image of Mercury's staff, the symbol of concord, on which a dove is perched between two serpents: "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves".^[1]Mercury is traditionally regarded as the god of commerce and trade. Holbein did not invent the device, which Froben had used in his publications from 1517.

References

1. ↑ John Rowlands, Holbein: The Paintings of Hans Holbein the Younger, Boston: David R. Godine, 1985, ISBN 0879235780, p. 128.