Hans Holbein the Elder Palette 4

Palette Analysis

Hans Holbein the Elder occupies the comfortable middle of the value scale, avoiding both extremes to hold the eye in a sustained middle grey. Blues and teal-greys govern the palette, lending it an aquatic or atmospheric quality. Chroma is kept low across all colours, producing the soft, enveloping quality that characterises tonal painting. #CAA358 functions as the palette's exclamation mark: highest chroma, lowest percentage (7.4%). A value spread of 82 units gives the palette both depth and air - shadows are genuinely dark, lights genuinely light. The mid-to-high key, cool bias, and moderate chroma point to outdoor observation - sky and diffused daylight as the dominant light source. This is palette 4 of Hans Holbein the Elder's sequence - a single chapter in a chromatic story told across many works.