Henry VIII and Barber Surgeons (c1540). Oil on panel. 108 x 312. By Holbein and other hands. The Barber-Surgeons is a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger, created around 1543. It is a group portrait of the Company of Barber-Surgeons, a guild in London that combined the professions of barbering and surgery. The painting depicts four men, believed to be members of the guild, standing in a row. Each man is dressed in the clothing of the time and holds an object related to their profession. The objects include surgical instruments, a basin, and a lancet case, which are all depicted with great detail and realism. The painting is notable for its realistic and unidealized depiction of the men, which is typical of Holbein's style. It provides a fascinating glimpse into the profession of barber-surgery during the Renaissance period, highlighting the tools and techniques used by these practitioners. The painting also reflects the growing importance of science and medicine during this time, as well as the changing nature of professions and guilds in Renaissance society. Overall, The Barber-Surgeons is a valuable historical document and a testament to Holbein's skill as a painter. The painting was commissioned to commemorate the grant of a royal charter to the Company of Barbers and the Guild of Surgeons on their merger in 1540. Presumably at the request of his clients, Holbein based the design on that of the miniatures painted on Tudor charters of privileges. Henry did not sit for this last of Holbein's portraits of him. Working from an existing sketch, Holbein painted him not so much as a living person but as an icon. The members of the company, however, were painted as individuals. On the King's right side are his two physicians, Dr. John Chambers and Sir William Butts and his apothecary Thomas Alsop. The figures of Sir William Butts and the doctor John Chambers are closely related to portraits of them by Holbein. On the King's left side are his Serjeant-Surgeon, Thomas Vicary, his surgeons, Sir John Ayliffe, James Monforde and Richard Ferris and his barbers, Nicholas Simpson, Edmund Harman, and John Penn. Others portrayed and named are Nicholas Alcock, Christopher Salmon and William Tilley. According to the diarist Samuel Pepys, the painting was badly damaged in the Great Fire of London of 1666. It is not clear how much of the original panel was completed by Holbein himself, who died in the year the painting was begun, and how much by others; neither is it known whether those who first added to the work did so under Holbein's supervision. Scholars such as Roy Strong and John Rowlands suspect that the main additions were made after Holbein's death, since they are not improvements. Holbein's cartoon for the composition, later much painted over by other hands, reveals his original conception, but the actual painting departs markedly from it in places, for example in the second row of figures on the right and in the background. The inscription is not Holbein's, though it can be dated to before Henry's death in 1547. The men standing in the second row on the right were added in the mid-16th century by an anonymous painter. The painter and restorer Richard Greenbury reworked the painting in the 17th century, so heavily that he entirely covered the original layers of varnish with impasto. In the view of Holbein's biographer Derek Wilson, the result is a disaster: A lifeless, oversized king dangles the charter from a limp hand while a row of comparatively diminutive recipients kneel in relevant homage.