According to the New Testament, Mary Magdalen mistook the resurrected Christ for a gardener. Holbein departs from tradition to express the moment of her confusion in complex motion. On the right angels brilliantly illuminate the empty tomb. In contrast on the left Holbein beautifully depicts the natural light of dawn gradually brightening the deep blue night sky.

The painting’s style, and the fact that it is painted on oak, suggest that it might have been made for an English patron between 1526–8, or even a little later.

St Andrew is shown with his saltire cross, St Thomas with his attributes of the carpenter’s set square and axe.

These two drawings are part of a series of the twelve apostles, of which eight are known; five are dated 1527. Holbein used a similar technique with white heightening on primed paper early in his career.

The function of these drawings is not known but their technique and dating suggests they are more likely to have been produced as finished studies.

These three Old Testament stories are all symbolic prefigurations of the triumph of Christ (the story of Lot prefiguring Christ’s descent to limbo, that of Noah, Christ’s sacrifice in the crucifixion).

The decorative framing of the drawing resembles the lid of Holbein’s portrait of Philip Melanchthon and the titlepage of the Loci Communes, both shown opposite. The drawing was perhaps intended for the lid or side of an object such as a small box.

Mary Brandon (about 1510–before 1544) was the first wife of Thomas Stanley 2nd Lord Monteagle. Her French hood indicates that this drawing probably dates from the late 1530s.

She wears red damask, a textile reserved for the rich. Around her neck she wears an elaborate jewelled M, while on her breast is a large medallion on which is sketched in chalk an image which appears to show the Virgin and child.

Sir Brian Tuke (died 1545) was Henry VIII’s Treasurer of the Chamber from 1528. He holds a folded paper with a quotation from the biblical book of Job (10:20) referring to the brevity of human life (‘Are not my days few’), and implying a contrast with the longevity of his image as painted by Holbein. He wears prominently a gold cross with the popular image of the five wounds of Christ, hands and feet with the marks of nails and in the centre the crown of thorns.

The blue pigment used to paint the background has discoloured.

Sir Henry Wyatt (about 146/70–1537) was Henry VIII’s Treasurer of the Chamber from 1524–8. He was the father of the poet, Sir Thomas Wyatt (Room 2).

Weary, and evidently lacking teeth, Wyatt is shown clasping a large cross, the sign of salvation, inscribed with the traditional initials INRI (Latin initials for ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’).

In his will, with its conventional Catholic preamble addressed to the Virgin, Wyatt asked that the chantry he founded at Milton, Kent, in 1524 should be maintained so that masses could be sung for his soul.

The decorative cross with an arabesque design and pearls attached to the inner corners of the arms was intended to be suspended from the ring shown at the top. Its clear outlines and absence of alternation or hesitation suggests it may have provided a pattern for a jeweller to use.

Crosses of different design are worn by Sir Brian Tuke and Sir Henry Wyatt, shown nearby. The drawing for the pendant IH (lower right) must be connected with Jane Seymour’s reign as Queen.

The Annunciation with marigolds (shown lower left) may have formed the reverse of the medallion of the Trinity (shown lower right). The roses around the image of the Trinity suggest a connection with the Tudors. The marigold presumably borders the Annunciation because of its association with Mary. Henry VIII’s daughter Princess Mary owned a similar jewel.

The drawing of the Annunciation was presumably defaced by an iconoclast during the reign of Edward VI, or later in the mid-seventeenth century, when such imagery was shunned.

In the centre of the painting is ‘miserable’ man, the sinner who turns from the Old Law on the left, represented by the prophet Isaiah and Old Testament scenes, towards the New Law on the right. John the Baptist directs his gaze towards Christ, shown on the cross saving mankind and again with his disciples. Many versions of a similar composition were produced in Protestant Germany.

The fact that the painting is on oak suggests Holbein’s composition was made in England for a patron sympathetic to the Reformation.

The figures of Saints Peter and Paul indicate that the design was intended for the title page of a small New Testament. The royal coat of arms, resembling those included on the title pages of the Coverdale Bible and the Loci Communes, both shown in the case nearby, suggest that this book too was to have been dedicated to Henry VIII. All three books might have been part of a joint project designed to persuade him of the virtues of Lutheranism.

This small portrait of the influential German Lutheran Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560) is evidently based on pre-existing images, probably by Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) and Lucas Cranach (1472–1553), since Melanchthon did not visit England.

The inscription on the beautifully painted lid is a variant of a poem by the English humanist John Leland who wrote in praise of Holbein, and he is presumably therefore the author.

The decorative motifs of the lid – fauns playing pipes and curving Renaissance foliage motifs – closely resemble Holbein’s titlepage for Melanchthon’s Loci Communes displayed nearby, and the portrait may be connected with that project, perhaps even a gift for the King.

In two of these woodcuts of scenes from the New Testament, The Pharisee and the Publican and Christ Casting out the Devil, monks are cast in the role of the Pharisees, who were critical of Christ. Attacks on monks and the monasteries were made in English propaganda writings as a prelude to the Dissolution, but the more extreme attacks were found in the work of unofficial writers, some under the protection of Thomas Cromwell.

Holbein’s characterising of the monks has many similarities with the work of the fervent Protestant cleric and playwright John Bale (1495–1563).