Hans Leu le Jeune

Born in Zurich around 1490, Hans Leu the Younger is distinguished, according to the sources, by an art rooted in the medieval sacred tradition and by a representation of nature imbued with pantheism. His career brings together a family legacy, stays in Germany, and a forced adaptation to religious events—documented elements that partly explain the dispersal and destruction of a great number of his works.

Born in Zurich around 1490 and the son of the painter Hans Leu the Elder, he first appears in the sources as a member of a family workshop. He probably trained in his father’s workshop, where he is mentioned as an assistant from 1504 onwards. He subsequently spent time in Nuremberg, where he encountered the works of Albrecht Dürer and Albrecht Altdorfer.

A stay with Hans Baldung in Freiburg im Breisgau is also reported before his return to Zurich. He returned to Zurich in 1514. The scarcity of commissions led him to enlist and fight at the Battle of Marignano in 1515.

In 1523, he witnessed episodes of iconoclasm that led to the destruction of most of his sacred works and almost all those of his father. In the face of these events, he initially opposed the new Protestant faith and settled in Lucerne. In 1526, he adapted to the new circumstances and joined the Protestant Reformation in Zurich.

Among the works cited in the sources, the known corpus includes a Crucifixion du Christ dated after 1515, a Portrait d'un inconnu dated around 1516, and the composition Orphée et les Animaux dated 1519; certain attributed works bear the carnation mark, an association noted in connection with the “Masters of the Carnation”, while the general style is described as combining sacred tradition with a vision of nature marked by a pantheistic sensibility.

In private life, the sources indicate that he married twice, first Verena Ott (daughter of Hermann, a Zurich city councillor), then Margreth Haldenstein.