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Terminus, the Device of Erasmus
About the Artwork
In the spirit of the Italian Renaissance, Erasmus of Rotterdam (c. 1466–1536), the celebrated Dutch humanist and scholar, embraced ancient Greek and Roman literature and incorporated much of its moral and ethical messages into his own work. Holbein here conflates Erasmus’s features with Terminus, the Roman god of boundaries, who defied Jupiter by maintaining his position atop Capitoline Hill. Erasmus adopted Terminus, along with the motto concedo nulli (I concede to no one), as a personal symbol for devotion and steadfastness.
Inscriptions
Inscribed in the middle: "CONCEDO NVLLI. [lower right: TERMI / NVS"
Provenance
Charlotte Frank (London, England) -1971: Dr. and Mrs. Sherman Lee, by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1971. 1971-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1971. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1971-February 6, 1972). Portraiture: The Image of the Individual. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 1983-January 22, 1984). Erasmus in Spain: Humanism in Spanish early Renaissance. Universidad de Salamanca, Escuelas Menores, Salamanca, Spain (September 25, 2002-January 6, 2003). Holbein: Capturing Character in the Renaissance. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (organizer) (October 18, 2021-January 9, 2022) https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/holbein/index.html; The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (February 11-May 15, 2022) https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/holbein.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Hans Holbein the Younger (German, active England and Switzerland, 1497/98–1543)
- Date
- c. 1532
- Medium
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- Framed: 32.4 x 32.4 x 4.5 cm (12 3/4 x 12 3/4 x 1 3/4 in.); Unframed: 21.6 x 21.6 cm (8 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Sherman E. Lee in memory of Milton S. Fox
- Accession no.
- 1971.166
More by Hans Holbein the Younger in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009161
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