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diff --git a/29150.txt b/29150.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec2a510 --- /dev/null +++ b/29150.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5307 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Holbein, by Beatrice Fortescue + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Holbein + +Author: Beatrice Fortescue + +Release Date: June 17, 2009 [EBook #29150] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOLBEIN *** + + + + +Produced by Delphine Lettau, Janine Lettau, Paul Dring, +Clive Pickton, Joseph E. Loewenstein M.D. and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Illustration: _Hans Holbein the Younger_ + _Coloured Chalks. Basel Museum_ + + + + +LITTLE BOOKS ON ART +GENERAL EDITOR: CYRIL DAVENPORT + + + + +HOLBEIN + +BY +BEATRICE FORTESCUE + +WITH FORTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS + + +METHUEN & CO. +36 ESSEX STREET W.C. +LONDON + + +_First published in 1904_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + +CHAPTER I + +HOLBEIN'S PERIOD, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY WORK + + Historical epoch and antecedents--Special conditions and character + of early Christian art--Ideals and influence of the monk--Holbein's + relation to mediaeval schools--His father, uncle, and Augsburg + home--Probable dates for his birth and his father's death--Troubles + and dispersion of the Augsburg household--From Augsburg to Basel--His + brother Ambrose--Erasmus and the _Praise of Folly_; some erroneous + impressions of both--Erasmus and Holbein no Protestants at + heart--Holbein and the Bible--Illustrated Vernacular Bibles in + circulation before Luther and Holbein were born--Holbein's earliest + Basel oil-paintings--Direct and indirect education--Historical, + geographical, and scientific revolutions of his day--Beginning of + his connection with the Burgomaster of Basel--Jacob Meyer zum + Hasen--Holbein's woodcuts--His studies from nature--Sudden visit + to Lucerne--Italian influence on his art--Work for the Burgomaster + of Lucerne 1 + + +CHAPTER II + +HOLBEIN BASILIENSIS (1519-1526) + + _Holbein Basiliensis_--Enters the Painters' Guild--Bonifacius + Amerbach and his portrait--The Last Supper and its Judas--The so-called + "Fountain of Life" at Lisbon--Genius for design and symbolism in + architecture--Versatility, humour, fighting scenes--Holbein becomes a + citizen and marries--Basel in 1519--Froben's circle--Tremendous events + and issues of the time--Holbein's religious works--The Nativity and + Adoration at Freiburg--Hans Oberriedt--The Basel Passion in eight + panels--Passion Drawings--Christ in the tomb--Christ and Mary Magdalen + at the door of the sepulchre--Rathaus wall-paintings--Birth of + Holbein's eldest child--The Solothurn Madonna: its discovery and + rescue--Holbein's wife and her portraits--Suggested solutions of + some biographical enigmas--Title pages--Portraits of Erasmus--Journey + to France, probably to Lyons and Avignon--Publishers and pictures of + the so-called "Dance of Death"--Dorothea Offenburg as Venus and Lais + Corinthiaca--Triumph of the Protestant party--Holbein decides to + leave Basel for a time--The Meyer-Madonna of Darmstadt and Dresden, + and its portraits 45 + + +CHAPTER III + +CHANCES AND CHANGES (1526-1530) + + First visit to England--Sir Thomas More: his home and portraits--The + Windsor drawings--Bishop Fisher--Archbishop Warham--Bishop + Stokesley--Sir Henry Guildford and his portrait--Nicholas Kratzer--Sir + Bryan Tuke--Holbein's return to Basel--Portrait-group of his wife and + two eldest children; two versions--Holbein's children, and families + claiming descent from him--Iconoclastic fury--Ruined arts--Death of + Meyer zum Hasen--Another Meyer commissions the last paintings for + Basel--Return to England--Description of the Steelyard--Portraits of + its members--George Gysze--Basel Council summons Holbein home--"The + Ambassadors" at the National Gallery; accepted identification--Coronation + of Queen Anne Boleyn--Lost paintings for the Guildhall of the Steelyard; + the Triumphs of Riches and Poverty--The great Morett portrait; + identifications--Holbein's industry and fertility--Designs for + metal-work and other drawings--Solomon and the Queen of Sheba 114 + + +CHAPTER IV + +PAINTER ROYAL (1536-1543) + + Queen Jane Seymour--Death of Erasmus, and title-page portrait--The + Whitehall painting of Henry VIII.--Munich drawing of Henry VIII.--Birth + of an heir and the "Jane Seymour Cup"--Death of the Queen--Christina, + Duchess of Milan--Secret service for the King--Flying visit to Basel and + arrangements for a permanent return--Apprentices his son Philip at + Paris--Portrait of the Prince of Wales and the King's return gift--Anne + of Cleves--Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk--Catherine Howard--Lapse + of Holbein's Basel citizenship--Irregularities--Provision for wife + and children--Residence in London--Execution of Queen Catherine + Howard--Marriage of Catherine Parr--Dr. Chamber--Unfinished work + for the Barber-Surgeons' Hall--Death of Holbein--His will--Place of + burial--Holbein's genius: its true character and greatness 156 + +CATALOGUE OF PRINCIPAL EXISTING WORKS 188 + +REFERENCES 189 + +INDEX 199 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + 1. HOLBEIN _Frontispiece_ + Self Portrait. From a photograph in the Rischgitz Collection. + + 2. "PROSY" AND "HANS" HOLBEIN 16 + Drawn by their father, Hans Holbein the elder. Silver-point. + (Berlin Cabinet.) + + 3. SCHOOLMASTER'S SIGNBOARD 26 + Oils. (Basel Museum.) + + 4. JACOB MEYER (ZUM HASEN) 31 + Oils. (Basel Museum.) From a photograph in the Rischgitz Collection. + + 5. DOROTHEA MEYER (nee KANNEGIESSER) 31 + Oils. (Basel Museum.) From a photograph in the Rischgitz Collection. + + 6. BONIFACIUS AMERBACH 46 + Oils. (Basel Museum.) + + 7. FIGHT OF LANDSKNECHTE 58 + Washed drawing. (Basel Museum.) From a Photograph in the + Rischgitz Collection. + + 8. THE NATIVITY 72 + Oils. (University Chapel, Freiburg Cathedral.) + From a photograph by G. Roebke, Freiburg. + + 9. THE PASSION 74 + I. GETHSEMANE. II. THE KISS OF JUDAS. + III. BEFORE PONTIUS PILATE. IV. THE SCOURGING. + V. THE MOCKING. VI. THE WAY TO CALVARY. + VII. "IT IS FINISHED." VIII. THE ENTOMBMENT. + Eight-panelled Altar-piece. (Basel Museum.) + +10. CHRIST IN THE GRAVE 78 + Oils. (Basel Museum.) + +11. THE RISEN CHRIST 82 + Oils. (Hampton Court Gallery.) + +12. THE SOLOTHURN, OR ZETTER'SCHE, MADONNA 86 + Oils. (Solothurn Museum.) From a photograph by + Braun, Clement, and Cie., Paris. + +13. UNNAMED PORTRAIT-STUDY; NOT CATALOGUED AS HOLBEIN'S 94 + Silver-point and Indian ink. (Louvre Collection. Believed + by the writer to be Holbein's drawing of his wife before + her first marriage, and the model for the Solothurn Madonna.) + From a photograph by Braun, Clement, and Cie., Paris. + +14. ERASMUS 98 + Oils. (The Louvre.) From a photograph by A. Giraudon, Paris. + +15. THE PLOUGHMAN; THE PRIEST 102 + "Images of Death." Woodcut series. + +16. DOROTHEA OFFENBURG AS THE GODDESS OF LOVE 104 + Oils. (Basel Museum.) From a photograph in the Rischgitz Collection. + +17. DOROTHEA OFFENBURG AS LAIS CORINTHIACA 106 + Oils. (Basel Museum.) From a photograph in the Rischgitz Collection. + +18. THE MEYER-MADONNA 109 + Oils. (Grand Ducal Collection, Darmstadt.) + From a photograph by F. Hanfstaengl. + +19. THE MEYER-MADONNA 109 + (Later Version. Held by many to be a copy.) Oils. + (Dresden Gallery.) From a photograph by F. Hanfstaengl. + +20. SIR THOMAS MORE 116 + Chalks. (Windsor Castle.) From a photograph by F. Hanfstaengl. + +21. JOHN FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER 118 + Chalks. (Windsor Castle.) From a photograph by F. Hanfstaengl. + +22. SIR HENRY GUILDFORD 120 + Oils. (Windsor Castle.) From a photograph by F. Hanfstaengl. + +23. NICHOLAS KRATZER 122 + Oils. (The Louvre.) + +24. SIR BRYAN TUKE 124 + Oils. (Munich Gallery.) From a photograph by F. Hanfstaengl. + +25. ELSBETH, HOLBEIN'S WIFE, WITH THEIR TWO ELDEST CHILDREN 126 + Oils. (Basel Museum.) From a photograph in the Rischgitz Collection. + +26. "BEHOLD TO OBEY IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE." SAMUEL DENOUNCING SAUL 134 + Washed drawing. (Basel Museum.) + From a photograph in the Rischgitz Collection. + +27. JOeRG (OR GEORGE) GYZE 142 + Oils. (Berlin Museum.) From a photograph by F. Hanfstaengl. + +28. "THE AMBASSADORS" 146 + Oils. (National Gallery.) From a photograph by F. Hanfstaengl. + +29. THE MORETT PORTRAIT 152 + Oils. (Dresden Gallery.) From a photograph by F. Hanfstaengl. + +30. QUEEN JANE SEYMOUR 158 + Oils. (Vienna Gallery.) From a photograph by F. Hanfstaengl. + +31. KING HENRY VIII. AND HIS FATHER 160 + Fragment of cartoon used for the Whitehall wall-painting. + (Duke of Devonshire's Collection.) + +32. KING HENRY VIII. 162 + (Life Study; probably for the Whitehall Painting.) + Chalks. (Munich Collection.) From a photograph by F. Hanfstaengl. + +33. DESIGN FOR THE "JANE SEYMOUR CUP" 164 + (Bodleian Library.) + +34. CHRISTINA OF DENMARK, DUCHESS OF MILAN 166 + Oils. (National Gallery.) Lent by the Duke of Norfolk. + +35. ANNE OF CLEVES 172 + Oils. (The Louvre.) From a photograph by A. Giraudon, Paris. + +36. THOMAS HOWARD, THIRD DUKE OF NORFOLK 174 + Oils. (Windsor Castle.) From a photograph by F. Hanfstaengl. + +37. CATHERINE HOWARD 176 + Chalk drawing. (Windsor Castle.) + +38. DR. CHAMBER 180 + Oils. (Vienna Gallery.) From a photograph by F. Hanfstaengl. + + + + +HOLBEIN[1] + + + + +CHAPTER I + +HOLBEIN'S PERIOD, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY WORK + + Historical epoch and antecedents--Special conditions and character + of early Christian art--Ideals and influence of the monk--Holbein's + relation to mediaeval schools--His father, uncle, and Augsburg + home--Probable dates for his birth and his father's death--Troubles + and dispersion of the Augsburg household--From Augsburg to Basel--His + brother Ambrose--Erasmus and the _Praise of Folly_; some erroneous + impressions of both--Erasmus and Holbein no Protestants at + heart--Holbein and the Bible--Illustrated vernacular Bibles in + circulation before Luther and Holbein were born--Holbein's earliest + Basel oil paintings--Direct and indirect education--Historical, + geographical, and scientific revolutions of his day--Beginning of + his connection with the Burgomaster of Basel--Jacob Meyer zum + Hasen--Holbein's woodcuts--His studies from nature--Sudden visit to + Lucerne--Italian influence on his art--Work for the Burgomaster + of Lucerne. + + +The eighty-three years stretching from 1461 to 1543--between the +probable year of the elder Hans Holbein's birth and that in which the +younger, the great Holbein, died--constitute one of those periods which +rightly deserve the much-abused name of an Epoch. The Christian era of +itself had known many: the Yellow-Danger of the fifth century making one +hideous smear across Europe; the _Hic Jacet_ with which this same +century entombed an Empire three continents could not content; the new +impulse which Charlemagne and Alfred had given to Progress in the ninth +century; the triumphant establishment of Papal Supremacy, that Napoleonic +idea of Gregory VII.--_Sanctus Satanas_, of the eleventh, and grand +architect in a vaster Roman Empire which still "humanly contends for +glory"; and lastly, at the very threshold of the Holbeins, the invention +of movable printing types about 1440, and the fall of Constantinople in +1453, which combined to drive the prodigies and potencies of Greek +genius through the world. + +Each of these had done its own special work for the advancement +of man--as for that matter all things must, whether by help or +helplessness. Not less than Elijah did the wretched priests of Baal +serve those slow, sure, eternal Purposes, which include an Ahab and all +the futile fury of his little life as the sun includes its "spots." + +But although the stream of History is one, and its every succeeding +curve only an expansion of the first, there has probably been no century +of our era when this stream has been so suddenly enlarged, or bent so +sharply toward fresh constellations as in that of the Holbeins,--when +Religion and Art, as well as Science, saw a New World upon its astonished +horizon. So that we properly call it a transition period, and its +representative men "transitional." + +Yet we shall never get near to these real men, to their real world, unless +we can forget all about the pose of this or the other Zeitgeist--that tale + + _Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, + Signifying nothing._ + +For we must keep constantly in mind that what we call the Middle Ages +or--worse yet--the Dark Ages, made up the Yesterday of the Holbeins and +was the flesh and blood transmitted to them as their own flesh and blood +with all its living bonds toward the Old and all its living impulses +toward the New. + +A now famous New Zealander is, we know, to sketch our own "mediaevalism" +with contemptuous pity for its darkness. But until his day comes, our +farthing-dips seem to make a gaudy illumination. And, meantime, we are +alive; we walk about; we, too, can swell the chorus which the Initiated +chant in every century with the same fond confidence: "We alone enjoy +the Holy Light." + +The New is ever becoming old; the old ever changing into New. And if we +ask why each waxes or wanes just when it does and as it does, there is, +in the last analysis, no better answer than Aurora's explanation for +chancing on the poets-- + + _Because the time was ripe._ + +And the Holbein century is one of stupendous Transitions because the +time was ripe; and not simply because printing was invented, or Greek +scholars were driven from Constantinople to scatter abroad in Europe, or +Ferdinand and Isabella wanted a direct route to Cathay, or Friar Martin +nailed ninety-five Theses to the door of Wittenberg's church, and built +himself thereby an everlasting name as Luther. + +And because the time was ripe for a new Art, even more than because this +or that great painter entrained it, it also had its transition period, +and Holbein is set down in manuals as a transitional painter. Teutonic, +too; because all Christian art is either Byzantine or Italian or +Teutonic in its type. + +When it first crept from the catacombs under the protection of the +Constantinople Court it could but be Byzantine; that strange composite +obtained by stripping the Greek "beast" of every pagan beauty and then +decking it out with crude Oriental ornament. But who that prizes the +peculiar product of that fanaticism would have had its cradle without +this sleepless terror, lest for the whole world of classic heathendom +it should lose the dear-bought soul of purely Christian ideals? Or who, +remembering that in thus relentlessly sacrificing its entire heritage of +pagan accumulation it put back the clock of Art to the Stone Age, and +had to begin all over again in the helpless bewilderment of untaught +childish effort,--could find twice ten centuries too long for the +astounding feat it achieved? Ten centuries, after all, make but a +marvellous short course betwixt the archaic compositions of the third +century and the compositions of Giotto or Wilhelm Meister. + +A great deal of nonsense is talked about the "tyrannies" which the +Monastic Age inflicted on Art. Of course, monasticism fostered fanaticism. +It does not need the luminous genius that said it, to teach us that +"whatever is necessary to what we make our sole object is sure, in some +way or in some time or other, to become our master." And with the monk, +the true monk in his day of usefulness, every knowledge and every art +was good or bad according as it served monastic ideals. But it is absurd +to say that the monk--_qua_ monk--"put the intellect in chains." The +whole body of his oppression was not so paralysing as the iron little +finger of Malherbe and his school of "classic" despots. To charge upon +the monk the limitations of his crude thought and cruder methods is +about as intelligent as it would be to fall foul of Shakespeare because +boys played his women's parts. + +The springs of Helicon were the monk's also, as witness Tuotilo and +Bernard of Clairvaux; but it was by the waters of Jordan that his +miracles were wrought. As Johnson somewhere says of Watts, "every kind +of knowledge was by the piety of his mind converted into theology." And +for the rest,--by the labour of his hands, by his fasting from the +things of the flesh, by his lofty faith--however erring or forgotten or +betrayed, in individual cases,--by every impressive lesson of a hard +life lived unto others and a hard death died unto himself, century +after century it was the monk who taught and helped the barbarian of +every land to turn the desolate freedom of the wild ass into a smiling +homestead and the savage Africa of his own heart into at least a better +place. The marvel is that he could at the same time find room or energy +to make his monastery also a laboratory, a library, and a studio. And +yet he did. + +To say that he abhorred Greek ideals is to say that the shepherd abhors +the wolf. His life was one long fight with the insidious poison of the +Greek. He did not,--at any rate in his best days--believe at all in Art +for Art's sake; and had far too intimate an acquaintance with the +"natural man" to do him even justice. What he wanted was to do away with +him. + +Yet with all its repellent features, it is to this unflinching +exclusiveness of the monkish ideal that we owe one of the most exquisite +blossoms on the stock of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,--their +innocent and appealing art; an art as original and as worthy of reverence, +within its own peculiar province, as the masterpieces of Greece or +Italy. You must turn from the beauty of Antinous to the beauty of, say, +the Saint Veronica, among the works of the Cologne school at Munich, +before you can estimate the Gulf of many things besides time which for +ever divides the world of the one from the world of the other. And +then you must essay to embody the visions of Patmos with a child's +colour-box and brushes, before you can compare the achievements--the +amazing achievements--of the monkish ideal with the achievements of +classic paganism. + +With the school of Wilhelm Meister this tremendous revolution had +accomplished itself; and solely through the indomitable will of the +monk. The ideal of Greece had been to show how gods walk the earth. This +Christian ideal was to show how devout men and women walk with God. +Their ineffable heavenly faces look out from their golden world-- + + _Inviolate, unwearied, + Divinest, sweetest, best,_ + +upon this far-off, far other world, where nothing is inviolate, and +divinest things must come at last to tears and ashes. + +But the monk had had his day as well as his way. The so-called Gothic +architecture had expressed its uttermost of aspiration and tenuity; and +painting had fulfilled its utmost accommodation to the ever more slender +wall-spaces and forms which this architecture necessitated. And once +again, in the fifteenth century, the time was ripe for a new transition. +Art was now to reveal the realities of this world, and to concern itself +with Man among them. And just as the law of reaction flung the mind +into religious revolt from the outworn dogmas and overgrown pretensions +of the monkish ideal, so did it drive the healthy reaction of art into +its own extravagances of protest. And we shall see how even a genius +like Holbein's was unable to entirely free itself from this reactionary +defect. For with all his astonishing powers, imaginative and technical, +he never wholly overcame that defect of making his figures too short and +too thick-set for grace, which amounted to a deformity in the full-length +figures of his early work, and was due to his fierce revolt from the +unnaturally elongated forms of an earlier period. + +Yet we should make a grave mistake if we were to regard Holbein as cut +off by this reaction from all affinities with the monkish ideals of +the Cologne school. On the contrary. We shall see, especially in his +religious pictures, how many of those ideals had fed the very springs of +his imagination and sunk deep into his art; only expressing themselves +in his own symbolism and in forms unlike theirs. + + * * * * * + +In the Augsburg Gallery there is a painting by Holbein's father, the +"Basilica of St. Paul," in which there is a group introduced after the +fashion of the period, which has a special biographical interest. This +group, in the Baptism of St. Paul, is believed by many authorities to be +a portrait-group of the painter himself,--Hans Holbein the Elder, and +his two young sons, Ambrose (or Amprosy, as it was often written) and +Johannes, or "Hanns." The portrait of the father is certainly like +Holbein's own drawing of him in the Duke d'Aumale's Collection, which +Sandrart engraved in his account of the younger Holbein; while the heads +of the two boys are very like those which we shall find later in a +drawing in the Berlin Gallery. From the pronounced way in which his +father's hand rests on little Hans' head, while the left points him +out,--and even his elder brother "Prosy" shows by his attitude the +special notice to be taken of Hans,--it is clear that if this is a +portrait-group either it was painted when the boys were actually older, +or the younger had already given some astonishing proof of that precocity +which his early works display; for in this group the younger boy cannot +be more than eight or nine years old. + +Hans Holbein the Elder, who stands here with his long brown hair and +beard falling over his fur gown, was a citizen of Augsburg, living for +a while in the same street with the honoured Augsburg painter, Hans +Burgkmair, and occasionally working with him on large commissions. That +he was a native of Augsburg, and the son--as is generally believed--of +"Michel Holbain" (Augsburg commonly spelt _Holbein_ with an _a_), +leather-dresser--I myself cannot feel so sure as others do. There is no +documentary evidence to prove that the Michael Holbein of Augsburg ever +had a son, and there is both documentary and circumstantial evidence to +prove that the descendants of Hans Holbein the Elder claimed a different +origin. That a man was a "citizen," or burgher, of any town, of course +proves nothing. It was a period when painters especially learned their +trades and practised it in many centres. And this, when guilds were +all-powerful and no one could either join one without taking citizenship +with it, or pursue its calling in any given place without association +with the guild of that place, often involved a series of citizenships. +The elder Holbein was himself a burgher of Ulm at one time, if not of +other cities in which he worked. + +But that Augsburg was his fixed home for the greater part of his life is +certain; and the rate-books show that after the leather-dresser had +disappeared from their register of residents in the retail business +quarter of the city, in the neighbourhood of the Lech canals, Hans +Holbein the Elder was, in 1494, a householder in this very place. For +some years the name of "Sigmund, his brother," is bracketed with his; +but about 1517 Sigmund Holbein established himself in Berne, where he +accumulated a very respectable competence, which, at his death in 1540, +he bequeathed to his "dear nephew, Hans Holbein, the painter," at that +time a citizen of Basel. Sigmund also was a painter, but no unquestioned +work of his is known. + +There is nothing to show who was the wife of Sigmund Holbein's elder +brother, Hans. But by 1499 this elder Hans had either a child or +children mentioned with him (_sein kind_, applying equally to one or +more). In all probability this is the earliest discoverable record +of Hans Holbein the Younger, and his elder brother Ambrose. In all +probability, too, Hans was then about two years old, and "Prosy" a year +or two older. At one time it was vaguely thought that the elder Hans had +three sons; and Prosy, or "Brosie," as it was sometimes written, got +converted into a "Bruno" Holbein. But no vestige of an actual Bruno is +to be found. And as Ambrose Holbein's trail, whether in rate-books or +art-records, utterly vanishes after 1519, it will be seen that for the +most part of the younger Holbein's life he had no brother. Hence it is +easy to understand how his uncle Sigmund's Will speaks only of "my dear +nephew." + +Hans the elder lived far on in his younger son's life. His works attest +that he had talents and ideals of no mean order. But I do not propose +to enter here upon the vexed question as to how far the "Renaissance" +characteristics of the later works attributed to his hand are his own or +his son's. Learned and exhaustive arguments have by turns consigned the +best of these works to the father, to the son, and back again to the +father. In at least one instance of high authority the same writer has, +at different periods, held a brief for both sides and for opposite +opinions! In this connection, as on the battlefield of some of the +son's greatest paintings, the single-minded student of Holbein may not +unprofitably draw three conclusions from the copious literature on the +subject:--First, that a working hypothesis is not of necessity the right +one; secondly, that in the matter of his pronouncements the critical +expert also may occasionally be regarded as + + _Un animal qui s'habille, deshabille et babille toujours;_ + +and thirdly, that in default of incontestable documentary proofs the +modest "so far as I have been able to discover" of Holbein's first +biographer, Van Mander, is a capital anchor to windward, and is at +any rate preferable to driving forth upon the howling waters of +Classification, like Constance upon the Sea of Greece, "Alle sterelesse, +God wot." + +But my chief reason for not pursuing the Protean phantom of Holbein's +Augsburg period is that,--apart from my own disagreement with many +accepted views about the works it includes, and the utter lack of +data or determining any position irrefutably,--it is comparatively +unimportant to the purpose of this little book. For wherever the younger +painter was born,--whether at Augsburg or Ulm or elsewhere,--and +whatever I believe to be his rightful claim to such paintings as the St. +Elizabeth and St. Barbara of the St. Sebastian altar-piece at Munich, +Fame, like Van Mander, has rightly written him down Holbein +_Basiliensis_. + +It is true that his father's brushes were his alphabet. It may be true, +though I doubt it, that his father's teaching was his only technical +school. But if he was, as to the last he gloried in being, the child of +the Old Period, he was much more truly the immediate pupil of the Van +Eycks than of his father's irresolute ideals; while Basel was his +university. And whatever may have been his debt to those childish years +when the little Iulus followed his father with trembling steps, his +debt to Basel was immensely greater. The door-sill of Johann Froben's +printing-house was the threshold of his earthly immortality. + +When he turned his back on the low-vaulted years of Augsburg, it was +because for him also the time was ripe. The Old Period had cast his +genius; the New was to expand it to new powers and purposes. + + _Still, as the spiral grew, + He left the past year's dwelling for the new; + Stole with soft step its shining archway through, + Built up its idle door, + Stretch'd in his last-found home and knew the old no more._ + + * * * * * + +It may easily have been the elder Hans' continuous troubles, whether due +to his fault or his misfortune it is idle now to inquire, which made his +sons leave Augsburg. Certain it is that he but escaped from the clutches +of one suit for debt after another in order to tumble into some fresh +disaster of the sort, until his own brother Sigmund appears among his +exasperated creditors. After 1524 Hans Holbein the Elder vanishes from +the records. Probably, therefore, it was at about this date that he +paid,--Heaven and himself only knowing how willingly,--the one debt +which every man pays at the last. + +At all events his sons did leave Augsburg about 1514; or, at any rate, +Hans did, since there is a naive little Virgin and Child in the Basel +Museum, dated 1514, which must have been painted in the neighbourhood of +Constance in this year,--probably for the village church where it was +discovered. As everything points to the conclusion that Holbein was born +in 1497, he would have been some seventeen years old at this time, and +"Prosy" eighteen or nineteen. Substantially, therefore, they must have +looked pretty much as in the drawing which their father had made of them +three years before; that precious drawing in silver-point which is now +in the Berlin Collection (Plate 2). Over the elder, still with the curly +locks of the group in the "St. Paul Basilica," is written _Prosy_; over +the younger, _Hanns_. The age of the latter, fourteen, may still be +deciphered above his portrait, but that of Ambrose has quite vanished. +Between the two is the family name, written in Augsburg fashion, +Holbain. At the top of the sheet stands the year of the drawing, almost +illegible, but believed to be 1511. + + Illustration: PLATE 2 + + "PROSY" AND "HANNS" _HOLBAIN_ + [_Drawn by their father, Hans Holbein the elder_] + _Silver-point. Berlin Cabinet_ + +Of the elder brother all that is certainly known may be said here once +for all. In 1517 he entered the Painters' Guild at Basel, where he is +called "Ambrosius Holbein, citizen of Augsburg." He made a number of +designs for wood-engraving, title-pages, and ornaments, for the printers +of Basel--all of fair merit. He may also have worked in the studio of +Hans Herbster, a Basel painter of considerable note. Herbster's portrait +in oils, long held to be a fine work of the younger brother,--now that +it has passed from the Earl of Northbrook's collection to that of the +Basel Museum, is attributed to Ambrose Holbein. But little else is known +of him; and after 1519, as has been said, the absence of any record of +him among the living suggests that he died in that year. + +In the late summer of 1515 came that momentous trifle which has for ever +linked the name of young Hans Holbein with that of Erasmus. Whether, as +some say, the scholar gave him the order, or, as seems more likely, some +friend of both had the copy, now in the Basel Museum, on the margins of +which the lad drew his spirited pen-and-ink sketches,--it is on record +that they were made before the end of December, and that Erasmus himself +was delighted with their wit and vigour. And, in truth, they are +exceedingly clever, both in the art with which a few strokes suggest a +picture, and in that by which the picture emphasises every telling point +in the satire. But a great deal too much has been built upon both the +satire and the sketches; a great deal, also, falsely built upon them. + +They have been made to do duty, in default of all genuine proofs, as +supports to the theory by which Protestant writers have claimed both +Erasmus and Holbein as followers of Luther in their hearts, without +sufficient courage or zeal to declare themselves such. I confess that, +though myself no less ardent as a Protestant than as an admirer of +Holbein, I cannot, for the life of me, see any justification for either +the claim or its implied charge of timorousness. + +Erasmus's _Praise of Folly_--like so many a paradox started as a +joke,--had no notion of being serious at all until it was seriously +attacked. Some four years before its illustrations riveted the name of a +stripling artist to that of the world-renowned scholar, Erasmus had +fallen ill while a guest in the sunny Bucklersbury home where three tiny +daughters and a baby son were the darlings of Sir Thomas More and his +wife. To beguile the tedium of convalescence the invalid had scribbled +off a jeu d'esprit, with its punning play on More's name, _Encomium +Moriae_, in which every theme for laughter, in a far from squeamish day, +was collected under that title. Read aloud to More and his friends, it +was declared much too good to be limited to private circulation; and +accordingly, with some revision and expansion, it was printed. That it +scourged with its mockery those things in both Church and State which +Erasmus and More and many another fervent Churchman hated,--such as the +crying evils which called aloud for reformation in the highest places, +and above all, that it lashed the detested friars whom the best churchmen +most loathed,--these things were foregone conclusions in such a +composition. But a laugh, even a satirical laugh, at the expense of +excrescences or follies in one's camp, is a very far cry from going over +to its foes. As a huge joke Erasmus wrote the _Praise of Folly_; as such +More and all his circle lauded it; as such Froben reprinted it; and as +such young Holbein pointed all its laughing gibes. + +And it was part and parcel of the joke that he launched his own sly +arrow at the author himself. Erasmus could but laugh at the adroitness +with which the young man from Augsburg had drawn a reverend scholar +writing away at his desk, among the votaries of Folly, and written +_Erasmus_ over his head. But it was hardly to be expected that he should +altogether relish the witty implication, or the presumption of the +unknown painter who had ventured to make it. Nor did he. Turning over a +page he also contrived to turn the laugh yet once again, this time +against the too-presuming artist. Finding, perhaps, the coarsest of the +sketches, one in keeping with the "fat and splendid pig from the drove +of Epicurus," he in his turn wrote the name of _Holbein_ above the +wanton boor at his carousals. It was a reprisal not more delicate than +the spirit with which subjects too sacred to have been named in the same +breath with Folly,--the very words of our Lord Himself,--had been +dragged into such company. But though it, too, was a joke, this little +slap of wounded amour propre has found writers to draw from it an entire +theory that Holbein led a life of debauchery! + +Yet even this feat of deduction is surpassed by that which argues that +because Erasmus and Holbein lashed bad prelates and vicious monks with +satire, therefore they detested the whole hierarchy of Rome and loathed +all monks, good or bad. "Erasmus laid the egg which Luther hatched" is +the oft-repeated cry; forgetting or ignoring the plain fact that Erasmus +eyed the Lutheran egg with no little mistrust in its shell and with +unequivocal disgust in its full-feathered development. "What connection +have I with Luther," he writes some three years after Holbein illustrated +Stultitia's worshippers, "or what recompense have I to expect from him +that I should join with him to oppose the Church of Rome, which I take +to be the true part of the Church Catholic, or to oppose the Roman +Pontiff who is the head of the Catholic Church? I am not so impious as +to dissent from the Church nor so ungrateful as to dissent from Leo, +from whom I have received uncommon favour and indulgence." + +As to Holbein's "Protestant sympathies"--using the name for the whole +Lutheran movement in which Protestantism had its rise,--the assertions +are even less grounded in fact, if that be possible. If he had it not +already in his heart, through Erasmus and Amerbach and Froben and More +and every other great influence to which he yielded himself at all, he +early acquired a deep and devout sense of the need of reform _within_ +the Church. Like all these lifelong friends, he wanted to see the Church +of Rome return to her purer days and cast off the corruptions of a +profligate idleness. Like them he couched his lance against the unworthy +priest, the gluttonous or licentious monk, the wolves in sheep's clothing +that were destroying the fold from within. Like them, as they re-echoed +Colet--the saintly Dean of St. Paul's,--he passionately favoured the +translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular and placing them in +the hands, or at any rate bringing them to the familiar knowledge, of +peasant as well as prelate. But surely one must know very little of the +teachings of the stoutest Churchmen of Holbein's day and acquaintance +not to know also that they encouraged if they did not plant these +opinions in his mind. + +"Duerer's woodcuts and engravings, especially his various scenes from the +Passion," writes even Woltmann, the biographer to whom every student of +Holbein owes so grateful a debt, "had prepared the soil among the people +for Luther's translation of the Bible. Holbein's pictures from the Old +Testament followed in their wake, and helped forward the work." Yet it +seems difficult to suppose that Woltmann could have been ignorant of +the facts of the case. So far were Holbein's, or any other artist's, +Bible illustrations or Bible pictures from arguing a "Lutheran" monopoly +in the vernacular Bible, that in Germany alone there were fifteen +translated and illustrated editions of the Bible before Luther's +appeared; and of these fifteen some half-dozen were published before +Luther was born. Quentell, at Cologne, for instance, published a famous +translation with exceedingly good woodcuts in 1480,--three years before +Luther's birth. While some nine years before Quentell's German +translation, the Abbot Niccolo Malermi published his _Biblia Vulgare_ in +the Italian vernacular, which went through twenty editions in less than +a century: one of which,--brought out at Venice in 1490 by the Giunta +Brothers,--was illustrated by woodcuts of the greatest beauty. So +widespread was the demand for this "Malermi Bible" that another edition, +with new illustrations of almost equal merit, was produced at Venice in +1493, by the printer known as _Anima Mia_. All of these were vernacular +Bibles; all illustrated; all widely known throughout Italy and Germany +before Holbein was born or Luther was in his tenth year. And certainly +it has not yet been suggested by the most rabid Protestantism that +either these or any of the many other illustrated vernacular Bibles +printed long before Luther's great translation,--a translation with a +special claim to immortality because it may be said to have set the +standard for modern German,--were anything but Roman Catholic Bibles. +They were translated and illustrated in behalf of no doctrine which +Protestantism does not hold in common with the Church of Rome. + +To lose hold of these things, to lose sight of the true attitude of +Holbein in his Bible woodcuts and his "Images of Death," or of either +Erasmus or Holbein in their satires on the flagrant abuses within their +Church, and their unwavering devotion to that Church,--is to deliberately +throw away the clue to the most vital qualities in the work of either, +and to the whole course and character of Holbein himself, no less than +to that of his lifelong friend and benefactor. + + * * * * * + +In 1515 the young painter who had come to Basel to better his fortunes +painted a table for Hans Baer's wedding. The bridegroom marched away, +carrying the Basel colours, to the bloody field of Marignano (or +Melegnano) in this same year, and never came back to sit with his +smiling bride around Holbein's most amusing conceits--where "Saint +Nobody" was depicted among all the catastrophes of which he is the +scapegoat, and a few ordinary trifles--a letter, a pair of spectacles, +etc.--were marvellously represented, as if dropped by chance above the +painted decorations, so that people were always attempting to pick them +up. But Hans Baer's sister had been the first wife of a certain brave +comrade--Meyer "of the Hare," who did come back and played an important +part in young Holbein's career. Long lost among forgotten rubbish, Hans +Baer's table has been unearthed, and is now preserved in the town library +at Zurich. + +But although Holbein had got his foot on the ladder of fame in this +year's beginning of his connection with Froben, he was as yet very +thankful to accept any commission, however humble. And as a human +document there is a touch of peculiar, almost pathetic interest about +the Schoolmaster's Signboard preserved by Bonifacius Amerbach, and now +with his collection in the Basel Museum (Plate 3). It is a simple thing, +with no pretension to a place among "works of art"--this bit of flotsam +from 1516, when it was painted. Originally the two views, the Infant +Class and the Adult Class, were on opposite sides of the sign; but they +have been carefully split apart so as to be seen side by side. In the +one is the quaint but usual Dame's School of the period; in the other +the public is informed how the adults of Basel may retrieve the lack of +such early opportunities. The inscription above each sets forth how +whosoever wishes to do so can be taught to read and write correctly, and +be furnished with all the essentials of a decent education at a very +moderate cost; "children on the usual terms." And there is a delightful +clause to say that "if anyone is too dull-witted to learn at all, no +payment will be accepted, be it Burger or Apprentice, Wife or Maid." + +Somehow, looking at the young fellow at the right of the table, in the +Adult Class, sitting facing the anxious schoolmaster, with his own brow +all furrowed by the effort to follow him and his mouth doggedly set to +succeed,--while the late, low sun of a summer afternoon streams in +through the leaded window,--one muses on the chance that so may the young +painter from Augsburg, now but nineteen, himself have sat upon this very +bench and leaned across this very table, in a like determination to +widen out his small store of book-learning. He could have had little +opportunity to do so in the ever-shifting, bailiff-haunted home of his +boyhood. And somewhere he certainly learned to write quite as well as +even the average gentleman of his day; witness the notes on his +drawings. + + Illustration: PLATE 3 + SCHOOLMASTER'S SIGNBOARD + _Oils. Basel Museum_ + +Somewhere, too, and no later than these first Basel years, he acquired +the power to read and appreciate even the niceties of Latin, though +he probably could not have done more than make these out to his own +satisfaction. All his work of illustration is too original, too +spontaneous, too full of flashes of subtle personal sympathy with the +text, to have emanated from an interpreter, or been dictated by another +mind than his own. And this very Signboard may have paid for lessons +which he could not otherwise afford. For if there is any force in +circumstantial evidence it is certain that Holbein not only wrote, +but read and pondered and thought for himself in these years when +he doubtless had many more hours of leisure than he desired, from a +financial standpoint. + +And the greatest pages of his autobiography, written with his brush, +will be only so many childish rebuses if we forget what astounding pages +of History and Argument were turned before him. In Augsburg he had seen +the Emperor Maximilian riding in state more than once, and heard much +talk about that Emperor's interests and schemes and fears; and of +thrones and battlefields engaged with or against these. Augsburg was in +closest ties of commerce with Venice; and the tides of many a tremendous +issue of civilisation rolled to and fro through the gates of the Free +Swabian City. + +Child and lad, his was a precocious intelligence; and it had been fed +upon meat for strong men. He had heard of Alexander VI.'s colossal +infamies, and those of Caesar Borgia as well; and of the kingdoms ranging +to this or that standard after the death of Pope and Prince. He was nine +years old then. Old enough, too, to drink in the wonderful hero-tales +of one Christopher Columbus of Genoa, whose fame was running through +the Whispering Gallery of Europe, while he himself lay dying at +Valladolid--ill, heartbroken, poor, disgraced,--yet proudly confident +that he had demonstrated, past all denial, the truth of his own +conviction, and touched the shores of Cathay, sailing westward from +Spain. Da Gama, Vespucci, Balboa, Magellan,--theirs were indeed names +and deeds to set the heart of youth leaping, between its cradle and its +twenty-fifth year. + +Holbein was twelve when Augsburg heard that England had a young king, +whom it crowned as Henry VIII. He was setting out from his home, such as +it was, to fight his own boyish battle of Life, when the news spread of +Flodden's Field. None of these things would let such an one as he was +rest content to apprehend them as a yokel. From either the honest dominie +of the Signboard or some other, we may be sure he sought the means to +read and digest them for himself. And if he learnt some smattering of +the geography of the earth and the heavens after the crude notions of +an older day, he could have done no other, at that time, in the most +enlightened Universities. Ptolemy's _Geographia_ was still the text-book, +and the so-called "Ptolemaic Theory" still the astronomical creed of +scholars. Copernicus was, indeed, a man of forty when Holbein was +painting this Signboard in 1516. But Copernicus was still interluding +the active duties of Frauenburg's highly successful governor, +tax-collector, judge, and vicar-general,--to say nothing of his +brilliant essays on finance,--with those studies in his watch-tower +which were to revolutionise the astronomical conceptions of twenty +centuries and wheel the Earth around the Sun instead of the Sun around +the Earth. But his system was not actually published until its author +was on his death-bed, in the year of Holbein's own death. So that these +stupendous new ideas were only the unpublished rumours and discussions +of circles like that of Froben and Erasmus, when Holbein first entered +it. + +But it is no insignificant sidelight on the history of this circle and +this period to recall that the subversive theories of Copernicus,--far +as even he was from anticipating how a Kepler and a Newton should one +day shatter the "Crystalline Spheres," and relegate to the dustheap of +antiquity the "Epicycles," to which he still clung,--had their only +generous hearing from influential churchmen of Rome. Luther recoiled +from them as the blasphemies of "an arrogant fool"; and even Melanchthon +urged that they should be "suppressed by the secular arm." Nor let it be +forgotten that these matters were never a far cry from those Basel +printing-presses where the greatest master-printers were themselves +thorough and eager scholars; "Men of Letters," in the noblest sense of +the word. And the discussion of all these high concerns of history and +letters was as much a part of the daily life surging around their +printing-presses as the roar of the Rhine was in the air of Basel. + + Illustration: PLATE 4 + JACOB MEYER (ZUM HASEN) + _Oils. Basel Museum_ + + Illustration: PLATE 5 + DOROTHEA MEYER (_nee_ KANNEGIESSER) + _Oils. Basel Museum_ + +As has been said, the sister of that Hans Baer for whom Holbein painted +the "St. Nobody" table had been the first wife, Magdalena Baer--a widow +with one daughter, when she married him--of Jacob Meyer,[2] "of the +Hare" (_zum Hasen_). Magdalena died in 1511, and about 1512 Meyer zum +Hasen married Dorothea Kannegiesser. And now in 1516, a memorable year +to Holbein on account of this influential patron, the young stranger was +commissioned to paint the portraits of Meyer (Plate 4) and his second +wife, Dorothea (Plate 5). These oil paintings, and the drawings for +them, are now in the Basel Museum. And no one can examine them, +remembering that the painter was but nineteen, without echoing the +exclamation of a brilliant French writer: "Holbein ira beaucoup plus +loin dans son art, mais deja il est superbe." These warm translucent +browns are instinct with life and beauty. + +Against the rich Renaissance architecture and the blue of the sky-vista +the massive head of Meyer and the blonde one of his young wife,--the +latter so expressive of half-proud, half-shy consciousness,--stand out +in wonderful vigour. From the scarlet cap on his thickly curling +brown hair to the piece of money between his thumb and finger, the +Burgomaster's picture is a virile and masterly portrait. And just as +forcefully is the charm of his pretty wife,--with all her bravery +of scarlet frock, gold embroidery, head-dress and chains,--her own +individual charm. They are both as much themselves in this fine +architectural setting as in their own good house "of the Hare" which +adjoined the rising glories of the new Renaissance "Council Hall" +(_Rathaus_) in which Meyer was to preside so often. + +In 1516 he had just been elected Mayor for the first time; but after +this he had many consecutive re-elections in the alternate years which +permitted this. For no burgomaster could hold office for two years in +actual succession. Previous to being Mayor he had been an eminent +personage as master of the guilds. And both before and after his +mayoralty he was a distinguished soldier,--rising from ensign to captain +in the Basel contingent which served at different times among the +Auxiliaries of France and of the Pope. + +But what made this election of 1516 a civic epoch was that Meyer zum +Hasen (there were many unrelated Meyers in Basel, and two among +Holbein's patrons, who must be carefully distinguished according to the +name of the house each occupied) was the first Burgomaster ever elected +in this city from below the knightly rank. While the piece of money in his +hand, far from fulfilling the absurd purpose sometimes suggested,--that +of showing his claim to wealth!--marks another civic event of this year. +For it was on the 10th of January, 1516, that the Emperor Maximilian had +just issued the Charter which gave to Basel the right to mint her own +gold coins. In the painting the pose of Meyer's right hand has been +altered, and the position which Holbein originally gave it can still be +made out. The monogram and date are on the background. + +In accordance with his invariable rule for portraits in oils, Holbein +first made a careful drawing of each head on the same scale as the +finished picture, carrying it out with great freedom but at the same +time with astonishing care and finish. So that his studies for portraits +are themselves works of art, sometimes invested with even more spirit +than the oil painting, which was never made direct from the living +model,--at any rate, until ready for the finishing touches. Drawn with +a point which could give a line as bold or as almost impalpable as he +wished, and modelled to the very texture of the surfaces, the carnations +are so sufficiently indicated or rendered with red chalk as to serve +every purpose. Sometimes notes are also added. Thus in the upper corner +of the drawing for Meyer's head the artist has noted "eyebrows lighter +than the hair" in his microscopic yet firm writing. + +With these fine portraits, painted as if united by the same architectural +background, Holbein began a friendship of many years. After some four +centuries it is not possible to produce written records of such ties +except in occasional corroborative details. But neither is it possible +to mistake the painted records of repeated commissions. While as the +lifelong leader of the Catholic party in Basel, it was natural that +Meyer zum Hasen should have much in common with a painter who all his +life held firmly to his friendships with the most conspicuous champions +of that party. + +Johann Froben was another of these; and from 1515 until Froben's death +eleven years later Holbein had more and more to do for this printer. +Occasionally, too, he drew for other Basel printers; but not often. The +eighty-two sketches on the margins of that priceless copy of the _Praise +of Folly_, which Basel preserves in her Museum, had been suited to their +company. Admirable, though unequal, as are their merits, they _are_ +sketches, whose chief beauty is their happy spontaneity. Such things are +among the trifles of art, and are not to be put into the scales at all +with the finished perfection of his serious designs for wood engraving. +These were drawn on the block; and even these cannot properly represent +the drawing itself except when cut by some such master hand as his own. +Since in preparing the design for printing the background is cut away, +leaving the composition itself in lines of relief,--it follows that +everything, so far as the reproduction is concerned, must depend upon +the cleanness and delicacy of the actual cutting. A clouded eye, a +fumbling touch, and the most ethereal idea becomes its travesty--the +purest line debased. Hence the necessity for taking the knife into +consideration in judging such work. + +This is not the place for any fraction of that hot debate which Kugler +ironically styles "the great question of the sixteenth century"; the +debate as to whether Holbein himself did or did not cut any of his own +blocks. Assuredly he could do so. The exquisite adjustment of every +line to its final purpose, the masterly understanding of the proper +limitations and field of every effect, all prove that he had an unerring +knowledge of the craft no less than of the art of Illustration. But in +his day that craft, like every other, had its own guild; and it would +not have been likely to tolerate any intrusion on its rights. + +We know, too, that those woodcuts which most attest Holbein's genius +were engraved by that mysterious "Hans Luetzelburger, form-cutter, called +Franck" (_Hans Luetzelburger, Formschnider, genannt Franck_), who still +remains, after all the researches of enthusiastic admirers, a hand and a +name, and beyond this--nothing. But it is when Holbein's designs are +engraved with Luetzelburger's astonishingly beautiful cutting that we can +appreciate how wonderful was the design itself. To compare these fairy +pictures with the painter's large cartoons is to get some conception of +the arc his powers described. It seems incredible that the same hand +could hang an equal majesty on the wall of a tiny shell and on that of a +king's palace, and with equal justness of eye. Yet it is done. He will +ride a donkey or an elephant with the like mastery; but you will never +find Holbein saddling the donkey with a howdah. + +It is not always possible to subscribe to Ruskin's flowing judgments; +but I gratefully borrow the one with which he sums up thus, in a lecture +on wood-engraving: Holbein does not give many gradations of light, the +speaker says, "but not because Holbein cannot give chiaroscuro if he +chooses. He is twenty times a stronger master of it than Rembrandt; but +therefore he knows exactly when and how to use it, and that wood-engraving +is not the proper means for it. The quantity of it which is needful for +his story he will give, and that with an unrivalled subtlety." + +And the student of Holbein's art can but feel that Ruskin has here +touched upon a characteristic of the painter's peculiar power in every +phase of it;--the power to be Caesar within himself; to say to his hand, +"thus far," to say to his fancy, "no farther." Those who have come to +know Holbein something more than superficially, or as a mere maker of +portraits, will smile at the dictum of some very recent "authority" +which pronounces him wanting in imagination; or at the hasty conclusion +that what he _would_ not, that he could not. + +He has given us, for instance, no animal paintings or landscapes pure +and simple, or, at least, none such have come down to us. And yet what +gems of landscape he has touched into his backgrounds here and there! +And what drawings of animal life he made! There are two, for instance, +in the Basel Museum which could not be surpassed; studies in silver-point +and water-colours of lambs and a bat outstretched. No reproduction could +give the exquisite texture of the bat's wings, the wandering red veins, +the almost diaphanous membrane, the furry body,--a miracle of patience +and softness. It is all purest Nature. Like Topsy one can but "'spec' it +growed" rather than was created. + +And they are not only beautiful in themselves but full of living +meanings. Many an hour the young painter enjoyed while he made such +studies as his lambs on the pleasant slopes about Basel; the mountains +scalloping the horizon, and all the sweet fresh winds vocal with +tinkling bells or the chant of the deep-throated Rhine. Many of "the +long, long thoughts" of youth,--those thoughts that ring like happy +bells or sweep like rushing rivers, kept him company as he laid these +delicate strokes and washes that seem to exhale the very breath of +morning across four hundred years. + +In the next year after painting the portraits of Meyer and his wife +there is a sudden break in the painter's story which has always puzzled +his biographers. After such a brilliant start in Basel it is perplexing +to find the young man, instead of proceeding to join the Painters' Guild +and take the necessary citizenship, suddenly turn his back on all these +encouragements and leave the town for a long absence and remote journeys. +As will be seen when we come to consider the story of Holbein's married +life, however, I have a theory that the influence which sent him south +in such an unexpected fashion was apart from professional affairs. + +Whether this is a good shot or no, certain it is that he did now go far +south,--as distances were in those days; and that, paying his way as he +went by his brush, he went first to Lucerne, where the evidence goes to +show that he apparently thought of settling instead of at Basel,--and +then on beyond it. And it seems highly probable that at this time he +pushed on over the Alps and made his way into Italy,--already the Mecca +of every artist. + +Here he could not now, in 1517, have hoped to see either Bramante or +Leonardo da Vinci in person. The former had died at Rome two years +before; but, without getting even as far as Pavia, Milan could show some +splendid monuments to his sojourn within her walls; characteristic +examples of that architecture of the closing fifteenth century which +Holbein loved as Bramante himself. Leonardo was now in France; but in +the refectory of the Santa Maria Monastery was his immortal, though, +alas! not imperishable, masterpiece--"The Last Supper." Time had not +yet taught Leonardo, much less Holbein, the fleeting nature of mural +oil-painting; the only so-called "fresco" painting which the latter ever +attempted, so far as is known. But the great Supper was still glowing in +all the splendour of its original painting, and would impress itself +indelibly on an eye such as Holbein's. In more than one cathedral, too, +as he wandered in such a holiday, he would have noted how Mantegna had +made its architecture the background for his own individual genius. + +At any rate each of these, somehow and somewhere, set its own seal upon +the reverent heart of Holbein at about this time. Whether through their +original works or copies of them,--already familiar to Augsburg as +well as Lucerne,--the lad sat humbly at the feet of both Leonardo and +Mantegna. By the first, beside many a loftier lesson, he was confirmed +and strengthened in his native respect for accurate studies of the living +world around him. From the second he learned a still deeper scorn of +"pretty" art. Yet though he sat at their feet, it was as no servile +disciple. He would fain be taught by them; fain follow them in all +humility and frankness. But it was in order to expand his own powers, +not to surrender them; to speak his own thoughts the better, not theirs, +nor another's. + +And, in any event, on such a journey Lucerne must come first. And that +he thought of making some long stay here when he returned is shown +by his having joined in this year 1517, the Guild of St. Luke, the +Painters' Guild of Lucerne, then but newly organised. "Master Hans +Holbein has given one Gulden," reads the old entry. Two other items of +this visit give us glimpses of its flesh-and-blood realities, perhaps of +its unrest. The first, that he also joined a local company of Archers, +the Militia of his day, seems to bring his living footfall very close. +A resonant, manly, wholesome footfall it is, too! This broad-shouldered +young fellow is as ready to draw a good stout bow among mountain-marksmen +as a lamb among its daffodils. The second item makes it still clearer +that he had other elements as well as the pastoral in his blood. On the +10th of December he got himself fined for his share in a street-scrimmage, +where he would seem to have decidedly preferred the livelier to the +"better part" of valour. + +And then he would appear to have shaken the dust, or more likely the +snows, of Lucerne off his feet for the road to Italy, if not for Italy +itself. Whatever his objective, he got, at any rate, well on toward the +Pass of the St. Gothard. The scanty clues of such works as have remained +on record prove that he reached Altdorf. But there the actual trail is +altogether lost. If he spent the entire interval brush in hand, or +if--as I believe--he treated himself to a bit of a holiday beyond the +Alps, can be but a guess in the dark. + +By this time the New Year of 1518, then falling in March, could not have +been far off, before or behind him. And in 1518 Holbein executed the +commission which must have been the envy of every local artist. Jacob +von Hertenstein, Burgomaster of Lucerne, had now got his fine new house +ready for decoration; and it was to Holbein that he gave the splendid +commission to decorate it to his fancy,--the interior as well as the +facade. + +And a renowned triumph the painter made of it; a triumph such as, +perhaps, no other artist north of Italy could then have equalled. It is +idle now to dwell upon the religious subjects of one room, the genre +paintings in another, the battle scenes of a third, and so on through +those five famous rooms which were still in existence and fair +preservation so late as 1824, but are now for ever lost; to say nothing +of the painted Renaissance architecture and the historic legends which +looked like solid realities when the facade was studied. But "Mizraim is +become merchandise"; and all that is now left of what should have been a +treasured and priceless heirloom is but a monument to the shame of that +citizen, a banker, who could condemn such a thing to destruction as +indifferently as if it had been a cowshed, and to the shame of the +municipality which, at any cost, did not prevent it. Some hasty +sketches--due to individual enterprise and a sense of the dignity of +Holbein's fame--an original drawing for one of the facade-paintings, +and a few fragments of the interior paintings, which still show +themselves, by chance, in the banker's _stable wall_--these are all that +remain to speak of what must have been the enthusiastic labour of the +greater part of Holbein's twenty-first year! + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HOLBEIN BASILIENSIS + +1519-1526 + + _Holbein Basiliensis_--Enters the Painters' Guild--Bonifacius Amerbach + and his portrait--The Last Supper and its Judas--The so-called + "Fountain of Life" at Lisbon--Genius for design and symbolism in + architecture--Versatility, humour, fighting scenes--Holbein becomes a + citizen and marries--Basel in 1519--Froben's circle--Tremendous events + and issues of the time--Holbein's religious works--The Nativity and + Adoration at Freiburg--Hans Oberriedt--The Basel Passion in eight + panels--Passion Drawings--Christ in the tomb--Christ and Mary Magdalen + at the door of the sepulchre--Rathaus wall-paintings--Birth of Holbein's + eldest child--The Solothurn Madonna: its discovery and rescue--Holbein's + wife and her portraits--Suggested solutions of some biographical + enigmas--Title pages--Portraits of Erasmus--Journey to France, probably + to Lyons and Avignon--Publishers and pictures of the so-called "Dance + of Death"--Dorothea Offenburg as Venus and Lais Corinthiaca--Triumph of + the Protestant party--Holbein decides to leave Basel for a time--The + Meyer-Madonna of Darmstadt and Dresden, and its portraits. + + +And now it is 1519, and with it the true Hour of Holbein's destiny is +striking. Take away the coming seven years and you will still have what +Holbein is too often thought to be only--a great portrait-painter. No +greater ever etched the soul of a man on his mask. His previous and his +after achievements would still amply justify the honour of centuries. +But add these seven years, from 1519 to 1526, and dull indeed must be +the intelligence that cannot recognise the great Master, without +qualification and in the light of any thoughtful comparison with the +very greatest. + +His Basel career may be said to begin here; his earlier work furnishing +the Prologue. On the 25th September, 1519, when he was about +two-and-twenty, he joined the Basel Guild of Painters; that same "Guild +of Heaven" (_Zunft zum Himmel_) which his brother Ambrose had joined two +years earlier and from which he seems to have passed to the veritable +guild of Heaven at about this latter date. + +And hardly is the ink dry upon the record of his membership than Holbein +painted one of the most beautiful of his portraits--that of Bonifacius +Amerbach (Plate 6). He stands beside a tree on which is hung an +inscription. Behind him is Holbein's favourite early background,--the +blue of the sky, here broken by the warm brown and green of the branch, +and the faint glimpse of far-away mountains. Under his soft cap, with +a cross for badge, his intensely gleaming blue eyes look out beneath +grave brows. The lips are softly yet firmly set; the mouth framed by the +sunny beard which repeats the red-brown of his hair. The black scholar's +gown, with its trimming of black fur, discloses his rich damask doublet +and white collar. + + Illustration: PLATE 6 + BONIFACIUS AMERBACH + _Oils. Basel Museum_ + +Well may the inscription assert--above the signature, the name of the +sitter and the date 14th October, 1519-- + + _"Though but a painted face I am not far removed from Life; but rather, + By truthful lines, the noble image of my Possessor. + As he accomplishes eight times three years, so faithfully in me also + Is Nature's work proclaimed by the work of Art."_ + +For here in truth is a work of Nature which is no less a work of Art. + +This is the Amerbach who began and inspired his son Basilius (so named +after Bonifacius's brother) to complete the Holbein Collection, which +the Basel Museum bought long afterwards. And such was the love of +both that they included, perhaps deliberately, much that has small +probability of claim to be Holbein's work. They would reject nothing +attributed to him; thinking a bushel of chaff well worth housing if it +might yield one genuine grain. And in view of these expressive facts, it +is hardly necessary to argue in behalf of the tradition that more than a +conventional friendship bound the two young men together,--printer's son +and painter's son, musician-scholar and scholar-painter, Churchman and +Churchman; the one twenty-four, the other twenty-two. + +Bonifacius was the youngest of Johann Amerbach's three gifted sons. As +all the world knows, Johann had been also a scholar as well as a printer, +and great in both capacities. The most eminent scholars of his day +gravitated as naturally to this noble personality as they afterwards did +to that of his protege and successor, Johann Froben. He had educated his +sons, too, to worthily continue his life-work and maintain his devout +principles. Bonifacius was the darling of more than one heart not given +to softness. He had been more the friend than the pupil of Ulrich Zasius +at the University of Freiburg, before he went to Avignon to complete his +legal studies under Alciat. Five years after this portrait was painted +he became Professor of Law in the Basel University. "I am ready to die," +writes Erasmus of him, "when I shall have seen any young man purer or +kinder or more sincere than this one." + +Very possibly it was for Bonifacius himself that Holbein painted his own +portrait about this time (Plate 1, frontispiece). It is a worthy mate, +at all events. In the Amerbach Catalogue it was simply called "Holbein's +counterfeit, in dry colour" (_ein conterfehung Holbein's mit trocken +farben_); the frame, too, was catalogued, though the painting was kept +in a cabinet separately when the Basel Museum acquired it with the +Collection. + +The vigour and finish of this portrait on vellum, done in crayons or +body-colour, make it a gem of the first water. The drawing was done in +black chalk, and the tints have been rubbed in with coloured crayons or +given with the point where lines of colour were required. The work has +the delicacy of a water-colour and the strength of oils. The broad, +soft, red hat, though so fine a bit of colour, is clearly worn as part +of a simple everyday habit. There is no suggestion of studying for +effect, or even caring at all about it. He wears his hat pulled soberly +down over his brown hair exactly as when he wore it thus about the +business of the day. The plastic modelling of the puckered brow and +the mobile mouth is beautifully indicated. The bluish tone left by the +razor is just hinted. In his drab coat with its black velvet bands, with +his shirt, on which the high lights have been applied, slightly open at +the throat, Holbein himself seems to stand before one as in life. + +Among the "early works" of the Amerbach Catalogue there is one which +shows strong traces of Leonardo's and even more of Mantegna's influence +on him at this time. It is a Last Supper, painted in oils on wood. But +it was so mutilated in the iconoclastic fury of 1529, and has been so +cobbled, re-broken, re-set, and "restored" generally, that it can no +longer be called Holbein's work without many reservations. There is also +another Last Supper, one of a coarsely painted set on canvas, which +is attributed to him on much more doubtful grounds, to judge by the +composition and colouring. Myself I should be inclined to see the +inferior hand of Ambrose, Hans the elder, or perhaps even Sigmund +Holbein in these, if they are genuine Holbein works at all. + +But there are still to be seen the traces of his own hand and mind in +the Last Supper in oils on wood. St. John's head must originally have +been very beautiful; very manly, too,--dark with sudden anguish and +recoil. There is a separate head of St. John, in oils, in the same +collection, which shows how fixed was this noble originality of type in +Holbein's conception of "the beloved apostle." But it is in Judas that +the patient student will find, perhaps, most of Holbein's peculiar cast +of thought, when once the initial repulsion is overcome. + +By a very natural arrangement he is brought into the immediate foreground +and sits there, already isolated, already damned, in such a torment +of body and soul as haunts the spectator who has had the courage to +reconsider the dictum of authorities who call him "a Jew of frightful +vulgarity." Frightful he may be; but it is a strange judgment which can +find him vulgar. Unfortunately, the painting is no longer in a condition +to justify reproduction; but such as study this yellow-robed, emaciated, +shivering, fever-consumed Judas will, I venture to assert, find food for +thought in it even under all the injuries the work has undergone. + +It is a demon-driven soul if ever there was one. He is in the very act +of springing to his feet and rushing away anywhere, anywhere out of this +Presence;--no more concerned about his money-bag than about the food he +loathes. Thirty pieces of silver! If the priests have lied, if this is +in very truth the Messiah his heart still half believes Him, will thirty +pieces of silver buy his soul from the Avenger? Is there time still to +escape? What if he break the promise given when he was over-persuaded in +the market-place the other day? But did not the High Priest himself +declare that this is Beelzebub in person,--this fair, false, dear,--oh! +still too dear Illusion? Up! Let him be gone out of this!--from the +sound of that Voice, from the sight of that Face, get the thing over and +done, done--done one way or another! If God's work, as the priests +swear, well and good. He will have earned the pity of God Himself. If +the devil's, as his heart whispers, well, too! Let him take his price +and buy himself a rope long enough to house his soul in any Hell, rather +than sit on in this one! It is all painted, or was once; all written on +that sunken cheek, that matted hair and clammy brow; in that cavernous +socket, that eye of lurid despair; on the whole anatomy of a lost soul. +The hand that did it was very young, very immature; but it had the youth +and the immaturity of a Master. + +There is another and a very different work, an oil painting, in the +Royal Collection at Lisbon, signed IOANNES HOLBEIN FECIT 1519, which, +if by the younger Hans, would almost put the question as to whether +the painter knew the landscapes of Italy, beyond doubt; so southern is +the type of its background. The work, however, has been rejected by +Woltmann, on the strength of an old photograph not quite perfect. He +held the signature to be spurious, and attributed the picture to the +school of Gerard David. And he gave to the work the name by which it is +now generally styled in English works: "The Fountain of Life" (_Der +Brunnen des Lebens_[3]). He did so from the inscription within the rim +of the well immediately in the foreground; but a literal translation of +this inscription, PVTEVS AQVARVM VIVENCIVM, is, I think, to be +preferred: _The Well of Living Waters_. + +The majority of those competent to form a judgment in such matters are +inclined to attribute the work to Hans Holbein the Elder, who did not +die until some years later, and who made use of a very similar form of +signature. And for myself I find it hard to see how anyone familiar +with Hans the Younger could accept it as his work at any period of +his career; least of all at the date given in the signature. So that +equally whether Woltmann is right in believing the signature itself +spurious, or those are right who hold it to be the genuine signature of +Hans the Elder,--a more detailed description of the composition does not +fall within the scope of this little volume. But the whole matter is +most clearly set forth, and a very beautiful reproduction in colours +given of the painting itself, in Herr Seeman's article upon it, which +will be found in the appended List of References. + + * * * * * + +Considerably before 1519, as has been said, Holbein had begun to +develop his special genius for Design, and to apply it to glass or +window-paintings, as well as to metal and wood-engravings. The beautiful +drawings, whether washed, or etched with the point, in chalks or Indian +ink, of which examples may be seen in almost every great collection, +private as well as public, that year after year were created by that +fertile brain and ever more masterly hand, constitute an Art in +themselves. And since so many (perhaps the greater number as well as the +greater in subject) of his paintings have perished, it is chiefly in his +drawings that the progression of his powers can be followed, or the +plane and scope of his imagination recognised at all. There is seldom +a date on them; but they will be found to date themselves pretty +accurately by certain features. In his earliest, for instance, that +defect of which mention has been made,--the short thick figures due +to the energy of his rebound from Gothic attenuation is a grave fault. +There is a Virgin and Child among his washed drawings for glass-paintings +in the Basel Museum, for example, which, when you cut it off at the +knees, is one of the most charming pictures of Mother and Child to be +found in any painter's treatment of this subject. And behind them is a +gem of landscape. Yet the whole, as it stands, is utterly marred by the +Virgin's dwarfed limbs. But although Holbein never entirely overcame +this fault, he did very greatly do so, as the years passed. + +His architectural settings, too, tended to greater simplicity in his +later years. Yet this is not a safe guide. Some early designs have +simple forms; some comparatively late ones, a very ornate architecture. +For the truth is that these architectural backgrounds and settings +remained, so long as his fancy had any free field for disporting itself, +an integral part of his conception. But only as inseparable from the +Symbolism, the under-tow, of his imagination. To my thinking, at any +rate, they make a gravid mistake who look for "realism" in these things. + +His stately pillars and arches, his fluid forms of ornament, are not his +idea of the actual surroundings of the characters he portrays, any more +than they are your idea, or mine, of those surroundings. Is it to be +supposed that he thought the dwellings of our Lord were palaces? Or +that he could not paint a stable? Those who maintain that Holbein was a +Realist in the modern sense of the word must reconcile as best they can +the theory with the facts. But when we see the stage set with every +stately circumstance,--the Babe amid the fading splendours of earthly +palaces, our Lord mocked by matter as well as man,--I dare to think that +we shall do well to cease from insisting on an adobe wall, and to study +those "incongruous" circumstances to which the will and not the poverty +of Holbein consents. We shall, at least, no longer be dull to "the tears +of things" as he saw them. + +But it would be no less a mistake to think of Holbein as one without a +sense of laughter as well. His drawings of open-mouthed peasants +gossiping in a summer's nooning, or dancing in some uncouth frolic,--and +still more his romping children, dancing children, and the chase of the +fox running off with the goose,--all of these are full of boyish fun. +Would that they could be given here without usurping the place of +more important works! But that is impossible. And so, too, with the +costume-figures of Basel, among which is the charming back view of a +citizen's wife, with all the women bent far backward in the odd carriage +that was then "the latest fashion" among them. + +He was particularly happy, also, in his drawings of the _Landsknechte_, +those famous Mercenaries of "Blut und Eisen"; always ready to drink a +good glass, and a-many; to love a good lass after the same liberal +fashion; to troll a good song or fight a good fight; and all with equal +zest. He had not mixed with these masterful gentry for nothing; nor they +with him to wholly die. There are a number of drawings where they are +engaged in combat, too, which show that Holbein's heart leapt to the +music of sword and spear as blithely as does Scott's or Dumas's--as +blithely as did the hearts of the _Reislaeufer_ themselves. Look at +the mad rush, the hand-to-hand grapple, in a drawing of the Basel +Collection, for instance (Plate 7). The blood-lust, the heroism, the +savagery, the thrust, the oath, the dust-choked prayer, the forgotten +breathing clay under the bloodstained foot; the very clash and din of +the fray;--all is told with the brush. And yet not one unnecessary +detail squandered. It is as if one watched it from some palpitating +refuge, just near enough to see the forefront figures distinctly and +to make out the interlocked hubbub and fury where the ranks have been +broken through. It would be a great day for Art could we but chance +upon some lost painting for which such a study had served its completed +purpose. + + * * * * * + +On the 3rd of July, 1520, Holbein fulfilled what was then the +requirement of almost every guild, and purchased his citizenship; a +citizenship to reflect unfading honour on Basel, and of which she has +ever been justly proud. And somewhere about the same time he married +Elsbeth Schmidt, a tanner's widow, who had one child, Franz. + + Illustration: PLATE 7 + FIGHT OF LANDSKNECHTE + _Washed Drawing. Basel Museum_ + +For the past four or five years Basel had been steadily becoming more +and more democratic. And at a period when its _elite_ were scholars and +printers and civic officials of every origin,--when the illegitimate son +of a Rotterdam doctor was the true prince, and Beatus Rhenanus, the +grandson of a butcher, was his worthy second in the reverence of +Basel,--the widow and son of a reputable tanner and a rising young +artist, who had already the suffrages of the most influential citizens, +would find no doors closed to them on the score of social disabilities. +The friendship of such men as Erasmus, Froben, Bonifacius Amerbach, +and the Mayor,--all conspicuous stars in the Church party,--would +have ennobled a man of less genius than Holbein in the eyes of his +fellow-citizens; and rightly. But as to the exact locality in which +Holbein set up his first married roof-tree--that Bethel of sacred +or saddest dreams--no documentary evidence has yet come to light. +Circumstantial evidence, however, amounts to a strong probability in +favour of the _Rheinhalde_ of Great-Basel. + +If there was an emblem peculiarly abhorrent to the Basilisk (the Device +of Basel) it was the Crescent-and-star. But nothing could better serve +to recall the rough outline of Basel in Holbein's day than this very +emblem. As the Rhine suddenly swerves from its first wild rush westward +and races away, northerly, to the German Ocean, it shapes the hollow of +the crescent in which Little-Basel (_Klein-Basel_) nestled as the star; +and, appropriately enough, since it was here that the Catholic's Star of +Faith rallied when overcome across the river, where curved the crescent +of Great-Basel (_Gross-Basel_). And the relative proportions of the two +would be fairly enough represented by the symbols respectively used. + +Great-Basel's northern face was protected by the Rhine, while the stout +city wall secured its convex curve. Of this wall the eastern horn was +St. Alban's Gate; its north-west was St. John's Gate (_St. Johann +Thor_); beside which stood the decaying Commandery of the Knights of +Malta, which had contributed a large sum toward the expanded wall, in +order to be included within it. And just as these spots still mark the +horns of the old crescent, the _Spalen Thor_ shows where it had its +greatest depth, midway between the other two. + +A straight line running due north-east from this Spalen-Thor would cross +the big square of the Fish-market (_Fischmarktplatz_) pretty nearly as +the uncovered stream of the Birsig, or "Little Birs," did before the +quaint little bridge, which then united the two halves of the Fischmarkt, +was absorbed in the paving over of stream and square before Holbein's +day. This same straight line would of itself draw the "Old Bridge" +(_Alte Bruecke_) with approximate exactness, the even then ancient bridge +which centred the star of Klein-Basel to its crescent. And in the +Historical Museum, where the Barefooted Friars worshipped then, we may +still see the grotesque piece of clockwork, the wooden "Stammering King" +(_Laellenkoenig_), that for centuries used hourly to roll great eyes and +stick out its tongue a foot long across the river from the Gross-Basel +end of the bridge. It is often said that this monster was set up as a +public token of the hatred which the triumphant Protestantism of the +south bank felt for the stubborn Catholicism of Klein-Basel. But the +thing was a famous ancient joke before party feeling turned it into a +gibe. + +Bonifacius Amerbach's home, the "Emperor's Seat" (_Kaiserstuhl_, now 23, +Rheingasse), was in Klein-Basel. Johann Amerbach had bought it, near to +his beloved friends, the Carthusians. In 1520 the good old man had slept +for six years in the cloisters of the monastery; where to-day the +children of the Orphan Asylum play above his grave. + +But all the conditions of Holbein's daily life would lead him to prefer +Basel proper, and to choose the quarter in which he bought a home eight +years later. This was then the western quarter of Gross-Basel, along the +river-face of which ran the high southern and western bank of the Rhine, +the _Rheinhalde_, now _St. Johann Vorstadt_. About where the present +_Blumenrain_ ends stood the arch, or _Schwibbogen_. Further on still +stood the "Gate of the Cross" (_Kreuzthor_), by the House of the Brothers +of St. Anthony, the ancient _Kloesterli_ of Basel. Before the Commandery +of St. John got themselves included within the city wall the Kreuzthor +was its western gate. The whole district of _ze Crueze_, so called +because its boundaries were crosses before towers replaced them, has +however become absorbed in the St. Johann Vorstadt, while the Kreuzthor +has disappeared altogether. The quarter was a favourite one with members +of the Fishers' Guild and with decent folk of small mean +s. + +As early as 1517 the Fishers' Company had extended itself so greatly as +to become a notable institution of the Vorstadt, including many members +from Klein-Basel also; while its military record was a proud one. But +it was in this year, while Holbein was making his visit to Lucerne +and beyond, that this guild took the more truly descriptive name +which it bears to this day, that of the "Vorstadt Association" +(_Vorstadtgesellschaft_). And to this association, which in after years +gave him a famous banquet, Holbein, we know, belonged later on, if not +now. + +Every day would take him to the Fischmarkt,--the great square humming +with activity, crowded with inns, public-houses, shops, booths, +dwelling-houses,--the trade mart of every nationality. The Cornmarkt +near by, now the _Marktplatz_, with its almost finished Rathaus, was +the centre of official civic life. When the great bell clanged on the +Rathaus, and its flag was flung out, not only every professional +soldier, but every guild and every male above fourteen, knew his +appointed place at the wall, and took it. But every day, and all day, +the Fischmarkt flung out its peaceful standards, or rallied men to +this side or to that with the tocsin of its presses,--the old Amerbach +printing-house "of the Settle" (_zum Sessel_), which was Johann Froben's +home and printing-house in 1520. + +Morning after morning, and year upon year, Holbein turned his back upon +St. Johannthor, and walked eastward along the Rheinhalde;--the river +racing toward him on his left hand, the University rising in front of +him beyond the bridge, and the delicate Cathedral towers beyond the +University. For the Basel Minster was still the Cathedral of the great +See of Basel. Passing the wall of the Dominican Cemetery, on which was +painted the ancient Dance of Death with which his own after-creations +were so often to be confused, Holbein must many a time have studied the +famous old copy. For though the Dominican painting was then nearly a +century old, it was a copy of a still older original in the Klein-Basel +nunnery of _Klingenthal_, a community under Dominican direction. + +But he would pass another spot--one day to be of far more living +importance to him. In 1520 it was a corn warehouse, known by the name of +_ze Cruez_, which belonged to Adam Petri, the printer, who had inherited +it from his uncle, the famous printer Johann Petri, by whose ingenious +improvements the art of printing was so greatly facilitated. Two years +later, in 1522, Froben bought this granary, ze Cruez, and converted it +into the book-magazine which was known all over Europe as "Froben's +Book-house." And in this latter year Adam Petri, greatly to Luther's +disgust, pirated Luther's translation of the New Testament, which had +appeared three months before. + +Holbein drew a superb title-page, ante-dated 1523, for this "enterprise" +of Petri--the New Testament "now right faithfully rendered into +German,"--with the symbols of the Evangelists at the four corners, the +arms of Basel at the top, the device of the printer at the foot, and the +noble figures of St. Paul and St. Peter on either side; figures which +will bear comparison with Duerer's "Four Temperaments" of a later date. +Later still he designed another striking title-page for Thomas Wolff's +translation; and his beautiful title-pages and ornaments for Froben, +with whom his connection was not a temporary matter such as these +others, would need a volume to themselves. + +Holbein's only rival, if he could be called such, in work of this sort +was the talented goldsmith, Urs Graf, who, as an exceedingly loose fish, +lived most appropriately in the Fischmarkt in his own house near the old +Birsig Bridge, when he was not in the lock-up for one or another of his +constant brawls and scandals. But to compare the best work of both +is to recognise a difference in kind as well as degree: the essential +difference between even negligent genius and the most elaborate talent. +High talent Urs Graf had unquestionably; though stamped,--I think,--with +the lawless caprices of his own character. Holbein's every design has +not only what Urs Graf lacked--that ordered imagination which is +Style--but over and above all, the subtle expression of Power. + +Many a time, too, just where he would turn away from the Rhine for the +business centre of Gross-Basel, the artist would make some little pause +at the old "Flower" Inn (_zur Blume_), which gave its name to the +Blumenplatz, and is still commemorated in the greatly extended Blumenrain +of to-day. All the world now knows the famous hotel of "The Three +Kings"; and where it reaches nearest to the Old Bridge stood the "Blume" +of Holbein's time, even then the oldest of the Basel inns. This Blume, +not to be confused with later inns of the same name, shared with its no +less famous contemporary,--"The Stork," in the Fischmarkt,--the special +patronage of the chief printers. Basilius Amerbach, for instance, the +brother of Holbein's friend Bonifacius, lived at the Blume; and often +the painter must have turned in for a friendly glass with him and a chat +about Bonifacius, away at his law studies in Avignon. + +As for the Stork, its very rooms were named in remembrance of the envoys +and merchant traders who flocked to it on all great occasions. There +was a "Cologne Room," for instance, and a "Venetian Room," among many +others. The men of Venice, indeed, had a particular affection for it. +Here Holbein met with all nationalities, and learned much of the great +centres of other countries. Here came all the Basel magnates and +printers. And here, a few years later on, came that bizarre personage +who was for a very brief time Basel's "town physician," the Paracelsus +Theophrastus Bombastus to whom we owe our word _bombastic_. Holbein +was on a visit to England during the latter's short tenure of office, +when the combined scholarship and poverty of Oporinus made him the +hack of Paracelsus and the victim of many a petty tyranny. At that time +Oporinus,--the son of that Hans Herbster, painter, whose portrait is +now attributed to Ambrose Holbein,--was glad to place his remarkable +knowledge of Greek at Froben's service. He was not yet a printer, as +later when Holbein drew a clever device for him. And neither he nor the +painter could know that one day the daughter of Bonifacius Amerbach +should marry him out of sheer pity for his unhappy old age,--somewhat as +he himself, when but a lad of twenty, married an aged Xantippe from +gratitude. + +But in 1520, when Holbein was just married, Oporinus was still a +student and Bonifacius unmarried. Erasmus, too, did not permanently +take up his home with Froben until the following year, and was now at +Louvain. Yet what a true university was that little house _zum Sessel_ +(now 3, Todtengaesslein, the little lane where the old post-office stood) +to an intelligence such as Holbein's! And what a circle was that of +Froben's staff! From Froben himself, above whom Erasmus alone could +tower in scholarship, down through every member to the youngest, and +from such men as Gerard Lystrius on the one hand and the literally +"Beatus" Rhenanus on the other, what things were not to be learned! + +And what discussions those were that drew each man to give of his best +in the common talk! Venice sent news of the "unspeakable" Turk, whom she +had such good cause to watch and dread. For fifty years his name had +ceased to blanch the cheek of other nations; but now it was said, and +said truly, that the dying Selim, "the Grim," had forged a thunderbolt +which Suleyman II. would not be slow to hurl. No man could know the +worst or dared predict the end, as to that Yellow Terror of Holbein's +time. And closer still, to keen eyes, were the threats of the coming +Peasant Terror. Wurtemberg had battened down the flames, it is true; +but the deck of Europe was hot under foot with the passions that were +soon to make the Turks' atrocities seem gentle in comparison. + +The death of Maximilian and the election of Charles V. were a year old +now. But none knew better than the Basel printers how much the League +of Swabia and the Swiss Confederation had weighed in the close contest +of claims between those three strangely youthful competitors for the +Emperor's crown;--Charles, but nineteen; Francis I., one-and-twenty; +and Henry VIII., not twenty-five. Basel also knew that Charles had only +bought his triumph by swearing to summon the Diet of Worms. All the +more, therefore, was she intensely alive to the possible issues of the +Arabian-Nights-Entertainment which had but just concluded on the dreary +Calais flats when Holbein became one of Basel's citizens. Erasmus had +come back full of it. Marco Polo's best wonders made but a dingy show +beside the "Field of the Cloth of Gold," where in this June the two +defeated candidates for imperial honours had kissed each other midway +between the ruined moat of Guisnes and the rased battlements of Arde. + +Then, on top of this, came the rumours of the English King's undertaking +to answer Luther's most formidable attack on Rome. It was in 1520, the +year after his great disputation with Eck at Leipzig, that Luther +published his cataclysmic addresses: "To the Christian Nobles of +Germany" and "On the Babylonian Captivity,"--the latter of which itself +contains the whole Protestant Reformation in embryo. "Would to God," +exclaimed Erasmus of it, "that he had followed my counsel and abstained +from odious and seditious proceedings!" Bishop Tunstall, then in Worms, +had also written of it:--"I pray God keep that book out of England!" But +before the year was out "that book" had reached England, and Henry VIII. +had sworn to annihilate its arguments and to triumphantly defend the +dogmas of Rome. The eagerly-awaited "Defence" did not get printed, +and would remain in Pope Leo's hands for a year yet. But Basel knew, +through More and Erasmus,--whose canny smile probably discounted its +critical quality,--pretty much its line of defence. Nor was Froben's +circle one whit more surprised than its royal author when its immediate +reward was that formal style and title--_Defender of the Faith_,--to +which a few years more were to lend so different a significance. + +By this latter date Ulrich von Hutten had fled to Basel, only to find +that his violent "heresies" had completely estranged Erasmus, and closed +Froben's door, as well as all other Roman Catholic doors, against him +for ever. He lodged, therefore, at the Blume until the Basel Council +requested him to leave the town, a little before his death, in 1523. But +in 1520 Hutten was still at Sickingen's fortress, digging with fierce +ardour the impassable gulf between him and the band of friends and +Churchmen among whom Holbein ever ranged himself. + + * * * * * + +Among the five lost works which Patin says Holbein painted, there was a +"Nativity" and an "Adoration of the Kings." It is impossible now to say +what resemblances, if any, existed between these and the same subjects, +executed not much later, which are now in the University Chapel, Freiburg +Minster. These latter are the only known works of Holbein that still +hang in a sacred edifice. They were evidently designed to fold in upon a +central altar-piece with an arched top, thus making, when open, the +usual triptych; but the central painting has vanished. This large work +was a gift to the Carthusian monastery in Klein-Basel; and the arms of +the donor, Hans Oberriedt, are displayed below the Nativity, as well as +the portraits of himself and his six sons. Below the corresponding right +wing, the Adoration, are the arms of his wife and her portrait, with her +four daughters. + +In both wings what I can only describe as the atmosphere of Infancy,--and +a touching atmosphere it is too--is strengthened by keeping all the +figures small and heightening this suggestion by contrast with a grandiose +architecture. In both, too, the sacred scenes reveal themselves like +visions unseen by the Oberriedt family, who face outward toward the +altar and are supposed to be lighted by the actual lights of the church. +The whole work must once have been a glorious creation, with its rich +colours, its beautiful architectural forms, and its mingling of purest +imagination with realism. What would one not give to see the lost work +these wings covered? + + Illustration: PLATE 8 + THE NATIVITY + _Oils. University Chapel, Freiburg Cathedral_ + +In the left wing, the Nativity (Plate 8), Holbein has remarkably +anticipated the lighting of Correggio's famous masterpiece, not finished +until years after this must have been painted, by the conditions of +Oberriedt's history and Basel's as well. The Light that is to light the +world lights up the scene with an exquisite enchanting softness,--yet +so brilliantly that the very lights of heaven seem dimmed in comparison. +The moon, in Holbein's deliberate audacity, seems but a disc as she bows +her face, too, in worship. Shining by some compulsion of purest Nature, +the divine radiance glows on the ecstatic Mother; and away above and +beyond her--"How far that little candle shines," and shines, and shines +again amid the shadows! It illumines the beautiful face of the Virgin, +touches the reverent awe of St. Joseph, plays over marble arch and +pillar, discovers the wondering shepherd peering from behind the pillar +on the left, and irradiates the angel in the distance, hastening to +carry the "glad tidings." The happy cherubs behind the Child rejoice +in it; and as they spring forward one notices how Holbein has boldly +discarded the conventional, and attached their pinions as if these were +a natural development of the arm instead of a separate member. + +The same union of unfettered fancy symbolism and realism displays itself +throughout the right wing,--where the Virgin is enthroned in front of +crumbling palaces. The sun's rays form a great star, of such dazzling +light that one of the attendants shades his eyes to look upward, and +an old man with a noble head, wearing an ermine cape, presents his +offering as the chief of the three kings; while a Moorish sovereign, +dressed in white, makes a splendid figure as he waits to kneel with +his gift, and his greyhound stands beside him. The colouring of both +paintings must have had an extraordinary beauty when the painter laid +down his brush. + +To carp at such conceptions because their architecture is as imaginative +and as deeply symbolical as the action, is to demand that Holbein shall +be someone else. These pictures, beyond the portraits below them, are +the farthest possible from aiming at what we demand of Realism, though +their own realism is astonishing. Holbein all too seldom sounds them, +but when he does choose to stir only a joyous elation in the heart he +rings a peal of silver bells. Here all is glad thanksgiving. The Divine +has come into a sick and sorry world; and, behold, all is changed! +Nothing sordid, nothing shabby, consists with the _meaning_ of this +miracle. Therefore it is not here. All is transformed; all is a New +Jerusalem--splendour, peace, ineffable and mysterious Beauty. + +With the dominance of the anti-Catholic party, which unseated Meyer +zum Hasen in 1521, his friend Oberriedt also fell into trouble. And +soon after Erasmus and Bonifacius Amerbach,--disgusted with the +iconoclast fanaticism of 1528 and 1529,--took refuge in Catholic +Freiburg-in-the-Breisgau, Oberriedt also left Basel for that city. He +took these wings with him to save them from the destruction which +probably overtook the central work. The latter was, perhaps, too large +to conceal or get away. During the Thirty Years' War they were again +removed, and safeguarded at Schaffhausen. And so great was their +fame that they were twice expressly commanded to be brought before a +sovereign; once to Munich, to be seen by Maximilian of Bavaria; and +again to Ratisbon for the Emperor Ferdinand III. In 1798 they were +looted by the French, and were only restored to Freiburg in 1808. + + Illustration: PLATE 9 + THE PASSION + _Eight-panelled Altar-piece Oils. Basel Museum_ + I _Gethsemane_ + II _The Kiss of Judas_ + III _Before Pontius Pilate_ + IV _The Scourging_ + V _The Mocking_ + VI _The Way to Calvary_ + VII _"It is finished"_ + VIII _The Entombment_ + +Another great religious picture, once no less renowned than Oberriedt's +altar-paintings, has suffered a worse fate. This is the eight-panelled +altar-piece of the Passion, now in the Basel Museum (Plate 9). So far +back as is known it was preserved, probably after being hidden from the +fury that attacked all church pictures, in the Rathaus. Maximilian I., +of Bavaria, the zealous collector of Duerer's works, offered almost any +price for this altar-piece by Duerer's great contemporary. But Basel, +unlike Nueremberg, was not to be bribed; and the world-famous painting +remained to draw art-lovers from every country in Europe. Nor did the +most competent judges fail to envy Basel her jewel, and to eulogise its +perfections. Painters such as Sandrart, looking at it after it had +survived a hundred and fifty years of vicissitude, could exclaim: "It is +a work in which the utmost that our art is capable of may be found; +yielding the palm to none, whether of Germany or Italy, and justly +wearing the laurel-wreath among the works of former times." + +Alas! this laurel, too, has been filched from Holbein's fame. In 1771 +the altar-piece was consigned to the collection where it now is; and it +was then decided to gild the gold and paint the lily. The work was +subjected to one of those crude "restorations" which respect nothing +save the frame. And no monarch will ever again compete for its possession. +Red is over red and blue over blue, doubtless; but in place of Holbein's +rich harmony a jangle of gaudy conflicting colours now sets one's teeth +on edge. So that only in a photograph can one even enjoy the +composition--all that is left of the Master. + +But here it can be seen with what art the painter has so combined +eight separate and distinct pictures, each a gem, into one, by such a +distribution and balance that the whole is as integral as a pearl. The +scene on the Mount of Olives, which a great critic once pronounced +worthy to compare with Correggio's work, is only to be surpassed by the +Entombment. And in every scene--what freedom, action, verve! From the +first to the last all passes with the swift step of Calamity, yet all +with noble dignity. + +The Basel Museum possesses also a set of ten washed drawings in Indian +ink,--scenes of the Passion designed for glass-painting,--which must be +conned and conned again before one can "know" Holbein at all in his +deepest moods. They are a great Testament, though they seem unbearably +harsh at a superficial glance. But put aside your own ideas and humbly +study the ideas of Holbein,--sure that they must be well worth the +reverence of yours or mine,--and little by little you will be made free +of that Underworld where Holbein's true self has its home; you will +pierce its gloom and find its clue and understand its tongue. It is a +small matter whether you and I find ourselves in sympathy with that +world, or can never be acclimatised. The great matter, the only matter, +is to understand it; to see in its skeletons something more than lively +bones, in its graves something besides Horror. + +Without mastering the logical sequence of these ten drawings,--where +scene by scene the Divine recedes before our eyes, and the Son of Man +assumes more and more the whole burden of Sin and Death,--it is +inevitable that the life-size painting of Christ in the Grave, also in +the Basel Museum (Plate 10), should seem just a ghastly and "unpardonable" +piece of realism. Realism of the most ghastly truthfulness, as to a +corpse in the grave, it certainly is. But although it may be questioned +whether such a picture should ever be painted, no one who looks through +the form to the thought that shapes it would pronounce even this awful +utterance "unpardonable." + +There have been those who could see in this dead Christ,--lying rigid in +a green sarcophagus that throws over the waxen flesh the ghastly threat +of that decay which would follow if no miracle intervened,--there have +been those, I say, who could see in it only superb technique. And others +see only the negation of all idealism, if not of all faith. + + Illustration: PLATE 10 + CHRIST IN THE GRAVE + _Oils. Basel Museum_ + +Yet put this painting,--the acme of technical beauty as well as of +ruthless realism,--at the close of the ten Passion drawings, and I +venture to believe that the one coherent conception that runs through +them all will legitimately find its conclusion here. + +Here He lies that surrendered Himself to the punishment of Sin and the +penalty of Death--for all men and all time. His pale lips are set with +the superhuman agony of the cry with which He paid the uttermost +farthing of that bond. Man has died for man, martyrs for faith; here God +has died unto Himself, for us. There has been no playing at death. All +the pitiless terrors of the grave are here, with Him who for love of us +has chosen to know Mortality "like at all points" with mortal men. What +He bore for us, shall we shrink from so much as realising? The great +eyes are fixed in a look whose penetrating, almost liquid sweetness +not even the rigor of the final anguish could obliterate. Divine +devotion,--devotion more than mortal,--still lingers in those sockets. +The heart may well dilate before this sight; the soul fall on its knees. +By each of those bloodstained steps, by the sting of this death, we have +been paid for. Here, here only,--as Holbein saw it,--is the leverage the +heathen philosopher vainly sighed for to move the world; God's +leverage, Infinite Love. + +This is anything but a theological tangent. A great artist has +bequeathed us his beliefs,--drawn and painted in many works, with every +patient, virile, expressive power at his command. There has been enough +and to spare of shrieks or scoffs. A little humility and a little study +is in place, too. For the rest, let us not forget that this large +painting was made for some altar; and that many a weeping penitent, many +a devout heart, has been pierced with its message. On the edge of the +stone coffin, which is tinted a warm green within, and lit by some +opening at the foot, is the inscription in gold letters: "JESUS +NAZARENUS REX JUDAEORUM." The stigmata are painted with unsparing truth. +The work is dated 1521. + +There is in the Hampton Court Gallery a little painting which has only +comparatively recently been recognised as Holbein's, but which forms the +beautiful and fitting close of this set of religious pictures. As is the +case with so many of his works, the critics are not unanimous upon it. +But the authorities who have no doubts as to its being a genuine Holbein +of this period are so weighty that I need not argue the point in +support of my own convictions. + +In the Hampton Court Catalogue it is styled "Mary Magdalen at our Lord's +Sepulchre," but I prefer to call it the Risen Christ (Plate 11). It must +once have been supremely beautiful; for even now its ideal loveliness +shines through all the evil fortunes which have once again defaced +the handiwork of Holbein. The type of Christ, and indeed the work +throughout, bears a marked resemblance to the eight-panelled Basel +altar-piece. + +The painter has chosen the moment recorded in the twentieth chapter of +St. John. In that early dawn, "when it was yet dark," Mary has brought +spikenard in a marble cup, if not to anoint the sacred Dead at least to +pour it on the threshold of the sealed tomb, with tears and prayers. She +has fled to tell St. John and St. Peter of the sacrilege of the open +tomb,--has followed them back, still mechanically clasping her useless +spikenard,--has seen them go in where her trembling knees refused to +follow, and then go homeward, as we can see them in the distance, +arguing the almost incredible fact. + +Poor Mary has had no heart for discussion. She has stayed weeping by the +empty grave until two pitying angels have appeared to recall her from +despair, and she has "turned herself back,"--too frightened to stay for +comfort. And then she has seen near her a Face, a Form, she was too +dazed to recognise until the unforgettable Voice has thrilled through +her, and she has flung herself forward with the old, instinctive cry, +"Master!" to touch, to clasp that Hand, so dear, so familiar, so +all-protecting, and find it a reality. + +It is this tremendous moment that Holbein has seized. And with what +exquisite feeling for every detail of the scene, every great emotion! +Had the painting been preserved, as it deserved to be, surely it too +could claim a part of that laurel wreath which Sandrart averred could +not be torn from the Basel altar-piece by any rival, whether Italian or +German. + + Illustration: Plate 11 + THE RISEN CHRIST + _Oils. Hampton Court Gallery_ + +The misty landscape, with the crosses of Golgotha and the eastern hills +catching the first brightness of the new Day dawning over mortality; the +broken clouds of night, scattered like the conquered horrors of the +grave, and the illuminated tomb where Hope and Faith henceforth ask +us why we weep; the hurrying agitation of St. Peter and the trusting +serenity of St. John, expressed in every gesture; the dusky trees; +Mary's quivering doubt and rapture, touched with some new awe; and +the simple majesty with which our Lord stays that unconscious innocent +presumption, _Touch me not_. + +What forbidding tenderness in that Face lighted by the grave He has +passed through! What a subtle yet eloquent suggestion of the eternal +difference, henceforth, between Love and love is in these mortal +lineaments that have evermore resumed their divinity! No face, no type, +no art, can ever realise Christ; yet when this little painting was first +added to the great roll of Holbein _Basiliensis_, it must have gone as +near to realising its subject as the colours of earth can go. + +But every man, happily for himself, has a material as well as an +immaterial world with which he must be concerned. To transpose Bagehot's +profound little saying,--Each man dines in a room apart, but we all go +down to dinner together. And though Holbein knew the pinch of narrow +means, he had no lack of good cheer as well as austere food in his art. + +On March 12th, 1521, the Great Council held its first meeting in the new +Rathaus; and Meyer zum Hasen, who presided over it as Burgomaster, +entrusted to his protege the enviable task of decorating the Council +Chamber. Fifty-six years after Holbein's work was completed these +wall-paintings were described as "representations of the noblest +subjects--done by the German Apelles." By this title the painter was +everywhere recognised throughout the greater part of his lifetime. + +In all, there would seem to have been six large pictures or set pieces; +but two were not done until years later. One wall being too broken up by +windows to be suitable, there remained three,--of which "the back wall" +adjoining Meyer's house was not touched at this time. Ostensibly the +reason was want of funds; but as a matter of fact the Protestant party +(to anticipate this name), which grew strong enough to unseat Meyer +before the year was out, was at this time indifferent to art when not +positively inimical to it. + +Whether treating a facade or an interior it was Holbein's custom to make +a flat wall-space assume the most solid-looking forms of Renaissance +architecture. Iselin once said of a facade of Holbein's, that there was +a dog painted on it so naturally that the dogs in the street would run +up and bark at it. And so astounding was the realism with which he threw +out balconies, and added windows, cornices, and statues, and the richest +carvings, pillars, arches, and vistas of every sort, that no eye could +credit them with illusion. Horses neighed in the courtyards, flowers +bloomed in the gardens, dogs leaped beside master or mistress, and +children played in the spacious balconies, or moved to and fro between +the splendid marble pillars and the distant wall. To study the copies +that remain of such works is to be astounded by their feats of +perspective. + +Inside would be kindred illusions. Large pictures would seem to be +actually taking place without, and beheld through beautifully carved +archways or windows; while the apparent walls would have niches filled +with superb marble statues and the ceiling be supported by pillars, +behind which people walked and talked or leaned out to watch the chief +scenes. + +And so it was with the Council Chamber. But nothing now remains of these +works except fragments and a few drawings for the principal features. So +far as can be judged, each wall had two large scenes; the four pictures +of this period being chosen from the heroic legends of the _Gesta +Romanorum_; the two painted later, from the Old Testament. + +But while these large works were going forward Holbein was busy with +many others; private commissions for Froben, occasionally for other +printers, and for altar-pieces or portraits. All through his life his +industry and accomplishment left him small time for leisure or the +dissipations of leisure. Nor is there any year of his life when his work +does not attest a clear eye and a firm hand. These things are their own +certificate of conduct; at any rate, of "worldly" conduct. + + * * * * * + +In 1522 occurred two important events in his life. His first child, the +son he called Philip, was born; and he painted an altar-piece which is +in some respects the most beautiful of his extant works. The latter--now +in the Solothurn Museum, and therefore called the "Solothurn Madonna" +(Plate 12)--has had one of the most extraordinary histories to be found +in the records of art. + + Illustration: PLATE 12 + THE SOLOTHURN, OR ZETTER'SCHE, MADONNA + _Oils. Solothurn Museum_ + +The background of this picture,--a massive arch of grey sandstone +supported by iron stanchions,--was evidently designed to suit the +surrounding architecture of some grey-walled ancient structure. On a +dais covered with a green carpet, patterned in white and red and +emblazoned with the arms of the donor and his wife, sits the lovely +Madonna with the Child held freely yet firmly in two of the most +exquisite hands which even Holbein ever painted. Her dress is a rich +rose-red; her symbolical mantle of universal Motherhood, or "Grace," is +a most beautiful ultramarine, loaded in the shadows and like a sapphire +in its lights. The flowing gold of her hair shimmers under its filmy +veil, and the jewels in her gold crown flash below the great white +pearls that tip its points. Where the sky-background approaches Mother +and Child, its azure tone is lost in a pure effulgence of light; as if +the very ether were suffused with the sense of the Divine. + +The Child is drawn and painted superbly. The carnations are exquisite; +the gravity of infancy is not exaggerated, yet fittingly enforces the +gesture of benediction. The left hand is turned outward in a movement so +peculiar to happy, vigorous babyhood that it is a marvel of observation +and nature. The little foot is admirably foreshortened, and the wrinkled +sole a bit of inimitable painting. But perhaps most wonderful of all is +the art with which, amid so many splendid details, the Child is the +centre of interest as well as of the picture. How it is so, is Holbein's +own secret. + +To right and left of the Virgin stand two fine types of spiritual and +temporal authority. Behind and at her right, almost hidden by the +amplitude of her mantle, kneels a poor wretch who is introduced here by +some necessity of the commission itself, but is skilfully prevented from +obtruding his needs on the serene beauty of the scene. Dropping gold +into his alms-bowl with a hand effectively contrasted with his brown +thumb, stands "the sinner's saint"--the good Bishop of Tours; while some +other condition of the work has embroidered St. Martin's red mitre with +the figure of St. Nicholas. There is one other striking circumstance +about St. Martin; and that is that, although he is in the Virgin's +presence, he wears the violet chasuble of an Intercessor. The chasuble +is lined with red, and it and the rich vestments, on which scenes of +the Passion are displayed, are the patient verisimilitude of ancient +vestments. In St. Martin's gloved left hand is his crozier and the right +glove, which he has drawn off to bestow his alms. + +Opposite to him stands the patron-saint of Solothurn,--St. Ursus, a +hero of the Theban legend,--dressed from head to foot in a suit of +magnificently painted armour. His left hand grasps his sword-hilt; his +right supports the great red flag with its white cross. Nor is that flag +of the year 1522 the least interesting detail of this work. With the +crimson reflections of the flag streaking the cold gleams of his +glittering armour, his stern dark face and the white plumes tossing +to his shoulder, St. Ursus is a figure that may well leave historical +accuracy to pedants. Below his foot are the initials H.H., and the date, +1522; as if cut into the stone. + +This work was commissioned by Hans Gerster, for many years Town +Archivist of Basel, in which capacity he had to convey important state +papers to other councils with which that of Basel had negotiations. From +this it came about that from the year when Basel entered the Swiss +Confederation, in 1501, Gerster was almost as much at home in the "City +of Ambassadors" as in his own, and the Dean or _Probst_ of the Solothurn +Cathedral--the "Cathedral of St. Ursus and St. Victor"--became not only +his spiritual director, but one of his most intimate friends. Many +circumstances which cannot be given here make it pretty evident that in +1522 Gerster, probably under the advice of the Probst, the Coadjutor +Nicholas von Diesbach, made this picture an _expiatory_ offering for +some secret sin of grave proportions. There are hints that point to +treachery to the Basel troops, in the Imperial interests, sympathy with +which finally cost him, as well as his friend Meyer zum Hasen, his +official position. Gerster himself was not a native of Basel, although +his wife, Barbara Guldenknopf, was. + +Be this as it may, it is apparently in direct connection with this +confessed sin that "the sinner's saint," St. Martin of Tours, is chosen +as Intercessor for Gerster, wearing the prescribed chasuble for this +office. And it seems likely that the addition to his mitre of the figure +of St. Nicholas was Gerster's wish, in order to specially associate the +name-saint of his friend--Nicholas von Diesbach--with this intercession. +It is assumed by those who have patiently unearthed these details of +circumstantial evidence, that the beggar is introduced to mark the +identity of the boundlessly charitable Bishop of Tours. But I venture to +suggest still another reason: this is, that in the uplifted, pleading +face of the mendicant, whose expression of appeal and humility is a +striking bit of realism in these ideal surroundings, we may have the +actual portrait of the donor, Hans Gerster himself. That this should be +so would be in strict accord with the methods of the period. There is a +striking parallel which will occur to all who are familiar with the St. +Elizabeth in the St. Sebastian altar-piece at Munich. Here the undoubted +portrait of Hans Holbein the elder is seen as the beggar in the +background. + +It is, as has been said, a marvellous story by which this glorious +painting,--in which the introduction of the patron-saint of Solothurn +proves that it was created for one of her own altars,--was completely +lost to her, and to the very histories of Art, and then returned to the +city for which it was originally destined; all by a chain of seemingly +unrelated accidents. But only the skeleton of that story can be given +here.[4] + +In all probability this Madonna was executed for the altar of the ancient +Lady Chapel of the Solothurn Cathedral. A hundred and twenty-six years +after it was painted, this chapel was pulled down, to be replaced by a +totally different style of architecture; and as the picture was then +smoke-stained and "old-fashioned" it would in all likelihood drop into +some lumber-room. At all events, it must have become the property of the +Cathedral choirmaster,--one Hartmann,--after another five-and-thirty +years. For at this time he built, and soon after endowed, the little +village church of Allerheiligen, on the outskirts of the industrial town +of Grenchen, which lies at the southern foot of the Jura. + +_Facilis descensus!_ Another turn of the centuries' wheel and the gift +of this chapel's founder was once again thought unworthy of the altar to +which it had been presented. When Herr Zetter of Solothurn first saw it +in the queer little Allerheiligen chapel, it hung high up on the choir +wall; blackened, worm-eaten, without a frame, suspended by a string +passed through two holes which had been bored through the painted panel +itself. Yet his acute eye was greatly interested by it. And when, during +an official visit in 1864, he heard that the chapel was undergoing a +drastic renovation, he was concerned for the fate of the discoloured old +painting. At first it could not be discovered at all. Finally he found +it, face downward, spotted all over with whitewash, under the rough +boards that served for the workmen's platform. A few hours later and it, +too, would have been irrevocably gone; carted away with the "old +rubbish"! + +He examined it, made out the signature, knew that this might mean either +any one of a number of painters who used it, or a clumsy copy or +forgery, yet had the courage of his conviction that it was Holbein's +genuine work. He bought it of the responsible authority, who was glad +to be rid of four despised paintings, for the cost of all the new +decorations. He had expert opinion, which utterly discouraged his +belief; but stuck to it, took the risks of having it three long years +(so rotten was its whole condition) under repairs which might at any +moment collapse with it, yet leave their tremendous expenses behind to +be settled just the same; and finally found himself the possessor of a +perfectly restored chef-d'oeuvre of Holbein's brush, which, from the +first, Herr Zetter devoted to the Museum (now a fine new one) of +Solothurn. + +To-day this work, which some forty years ago no one dreamed had ever +existed, smiles in all the beauty of its first painting; a monument to +the insight and generous enthusiasm of the gentleman whose name is rightly +connected with its own in its official title--"The Zetter-Madonna of +Solothurn." And it smiles with Holbein's own undebased handiwork +throughout. _Pace_ Woltmann's blunder,--its network of fine cracks, even +over the Virgin's face, attests that it has suffered no over-painting. +The work has been mounted on a solid back, the greatest fissures and the +holes filled up to match their surroundings, the stains and defacements +of neglect cleared away, and the triumph is complete. It might well be +the "swan song" of a veteran artist at such work. Whatever the mistakes +of Eigener's career, the restoration of the Solothurn Madonna was a +flawless achievement for himself and his associates. + +This work, too, is the most precious of all that have come down to us of +Holbein's imaginative compositions, from the fact that his first-born, +Philip, who was born about 1522, was the model for the Child, and that a +portrait of Elsbeth, his wife, served as a study for the Virgin. This +portrait is an unnamed and unsigned drawing in silver-point and Indian +ink, heightened with touches of red chalk, now in the Louvre Collection. +(Plate 13.) + + Illustration: PLATE 13 + UNNAMED PORTRAIT-STUDY: NOT CATALOGUED AS HOLBEIN'S + _Silver-point and Indian-ink. Louvre Collection_ + _Believed by the writer to be Holbein's drawing of + his wife before her first marriage, and the model + for the Solothurn Madonna_ + +That this is a portrait of Holbein's wife any careful comparison with +her portrait at Basel must establish. Feature for feature, allowing for +the changes of sufficient years, the two faces are one and the same. The +very line of the shoulder, setting of the head, and even the outline of +the fashion in which the low dress is cut, is alike in both. And equally +unmistakable is the relation between this Louvre drawing and the +Madonna of Solothurn. + +Yet I am unable to accept Woltmann's theory that the drawing was made in +1522 "for" the Virgin. He assumes that the lettering which borders the +bodice in this drawing--ALS. IN. ERN. ALS. IN....--and the braids in +which the hair is worn are simply some "fancy" dress. But surely if ever +hair bore the stamp of unstudied, even ugly custom, it does so here. +Then, too, Woltmann himself, as are all who adopt this explanation, is +unable to reconcile the oldest age which can be assigned to this sitter +with the youngest that can be assumed for the Basel painting of 1529 +upon a hypothesis of only seven years' interval. Temperament and trouble +can do much in seven years; but not so much as this. I say _temperament_ +advisedly; because all the evidence of Holbein's life substantiates +the assertion of Van Mander, who had it from Holbein's own circle of +contemporaries,--that the painter's life was made wretched by her +violent temper. We shall find him far from blameless in later years; but +though it may not excuse him, his unhappy home must largely explain his +alienation. + +Yet that it can explain such an alteration as that between the Louvre +drawing and the Basel portrait I do not believe. Nor could I persuade +myself either that any married woman of the sixteenth century wore her +hair in that most exclusive and invariable of Teuton symbols--"maiden" +plaits;--or that any husband ever thought it necessary to advertise upon +a picture of his wife that he held her "in all honour." + +Myself, I must believe, then, that this portrait was made years before +1522; probably in the young painter's first months in Basel, in 1515; +and thus some fourteen years before the Basel group of 1529 was painted. +It may well have been that some serious misunderstanding between them +was at the bottom of that otherwise inexplicable departure in 1517, and +the two years' absence in Lucerne and still more southern cities. Of +course this is mere guesswork; so is every hypothesis until it is proved. +But all the simple commonplaces of first love, estrangement, separation, +and a renewed betrothal after Elsbeth's early widowhood with one child, +could easily have run a natural course between 1515 and their marriage, +somewhere about 1520. + +As for the inscription,--it is a detail that Woltmann thinks represents +a repetition of the one phrase, and that I imagine to have suggested +what for some reason Holbein did not wish to proclaim:--"In all honour. +[In all love.]" But nothing can shake my conviction that in it we hear +the faint far-off echoes from some belfry in Holbein's own city of Is. +The realities of that chime are buried,--whether well or ill,--four +hundred years deep in the seas that roll over that submerged world of +his youth and passion. But living emotion, we may be sure, went to the +writing and the treasuring of this pledge to Elsbeth or himself; a +pledge redeemed when she became his wife. + +Thus for the altar-piece of 1522 there would be this portrait of Elsbeth +in her girlhood ready to his hand. But even so, see how he has idealised +it, made a new creature of it, all compact of exquisite ideals! He has +eliminated the subtle sensuousness which has its own allure in the +drawing. Every trait is refined, purified, vivified, raised to another +plane of character. Genius has put the inferior elements into its +retort, and transmuted them to some heavenly metal far enough from +Holbein's home-life. + +Throughout all these years, as has been said, he was busy for the +printers also. In 1522 he drew the noble title-page for Petri's edition +of Luther's New Testament, with the figures of St. Peter and St. Paul +at either side, of which mention has been made. And in Thomas Wolff's +edition of 1523 there is a series of his designs. His alphabets, borders, +illustrations of all sorts, continued to enrich the Basel press from +this date, and were often borrowed by printers in other cities. In 1523 +there came to Basel that masterly wood-cutter who has been already +referred to,--Hans Luetzelburger. And from this time on, therefore, +Holbein's designs may be seen in their true beauty. + +He had painted, besides portraits of Froben and others, at least three +portraits of Erasmus by 1524. For in June of this year the latter writes +to his friend Pirkheimer, at Nuernberg, to say that he has sent two of +these portraits by the "most accomplished painter" to England; while the +artist himself, he adds, has conveyed still a third to France. + +The smaller of the two sent to England, two-thirds the size of life, is +probably the one now in the Louvre (Plate 14). It is a masterpiece of +penetration and technique. Erasmus is here seen in the most unaffected +simplicity of dress and pose; in profile against a dark-green tapestry +patterned with light green, and red and white flowers. The usual +scholar's cap covers his grey hair. The blue-grey eyes are glancing down +at his writing. Studies for the marvellously painted hands are among the +Louvre drawings. The very Self of the man--the lean, strong, _thinking_ +countenance,--the elusive smile, shrewd, ironical, yet kindly, stealing +out on his lips,--is alive here by some necromancy of art. + + Illustration: PLATE 14 + ERASMUS + _Oils. The Louvre_ + +The portrait now in the Basel Museum, in oils on paper, afterwards +fastened to the panel, is in all likelihood that third portrait which +Erasmus told Pirkheimer the painter himself had taken to France. So +that Holbein must have painted it for, and carried it to, Bonifacius +Amerbach, who was then, in 1524, finishing a renewed course of study at +Avignon. Probably it was during this visit to France, too, that he made +the spirited sketches of monuments at Bourges. In that case it would +seem that he struck across by way of Dijon to the Cathedral City, in +connection with some matter not now to be discovered, and from there +took the great highway to Avignon by way of Lyons; carrying with him the +gift of his sketches from the monuments of Duke Jehan of Berri and his +wife. These were treasured in Amerbach's collection. + +Whatever the reason that sent him abroad on this journey,--whether +unhappiness at home or the troubled state of public affairs during the +Peasants' War of 1524 and 1525,--or whether he simply had business in +France which delayed him there for a year or two--at all events, all +records fail as to his wanderings or work in this long interval. And +many circumstances go to show that it was at this time that he entered +upon the immortal work which was published at Lyons, by the Trechsel +Brothers, many years later;--those "Images of Death" which have borrowed +the old name in popular parlance, and are generally called Holbein's +"Dance" of Death. + +Just why the Trechsels did not issue the publication until 1538 it is +impossible to say. As one of the largest Catholic publishing-houses of +France, they would be governed by circumstances entirely outside of +Holbein's history or control. But more than one circumstance presses the +conclusion that the designs were made between 1523 and 1526. And there +is a certain amount of evidence for the belief that they may have been +first struck off in Germany, possibly by some one of the multifarious +connections of the Trechsels, as early as 1527. But this is a large +subject, not to be dealt with as an aside. + +All the world knows these wonderful designs; their beauty of line, power +of expression, and sparkling fancy. Among them all there are only two +where Death is a figure of violence; and but one,--the knight, transfixed +by one fell, malignant stroke from behind--where Death exhibits positive +ferocity. In both of these,--the Count, beaten down by his own great +coat-of-arms, is the other,--it is easy to read a reflection of the +actualities of the Peasants' War then raging. + +For the rest, the grim skeleton wears no unkind smile; though that he +_is_ Death makes it look a ghastly-enough pleasantry. But toward the +poor and the aged he is better than merry; he is kind. His fleshless +hand is raised in benediction over the aged woman; and the bent +patriarch leans on his arm, listening to Death's attendant playing the +sweet old melodies of Long-Ago as he stands on the verge of the great +Silence. + +But where a selection must be made, there are two drawings with their +own special claim to consideration. These are the Ploughman and the +Priest (Plates 14 and 15). The former has been cited by Ruskin as an +example of a perfect design for wood-engraving; but even higher than its +art, to my thinking, is its feeling. To the labourer of this sort,--poor, +patient, toilworn,--Holbein's heart is very gentle. And so is Death--who +muffles up his harsh features and speeds the heavy plough with a step +like that of Hope. And at the end of the long, last uphill furrow, see +how the setting sun shines on "God's Acre!" + + Illustration: PLATE 15 + THE PLOUGHMAN + _"Images of Death" Woodcut series_ + + THE PRIEST + _"Images of Death" Woodcut series_ + +The second selection, the Priest, is its own proof, if any were needed, +of how sharply Holbein distinguished cloth from cloth. In it, nearly a +decade after he had pointed Erasmus's satire on the unworthy prelate or +the unclean friar, may plainly be read that reverence for the true +priest which Holbein shared with all his best friends. In the quaint, +quiet street this solemn procession is too familiar a sight to draw any +spectator from the hearth where the fire of the Living is blazing +so cheerily. The good Father, very lovingly drawn, casts his kind +glance around as he passes on his Office with the veiled Pyx carried +reverently. Before him goes Death, his Server, hastening the last mercy +with eager steps. Under his arm is the tiny glass that has measured the +whole of a mortality; the sands have lost their moving charm, and all +their dazzle makes but a little shadow now. In his hand is the bell that +sounds Take heed, Take heed, to the careless; and Pardon, Peace, to +dying ears that strain to hear it. But largest of all his symbols is the +lamp in his right hand; his own lamp, the lamp that dissipates Earth's +last shadows--the Light of Death. + +Holbein must have had his own solemn memories of the Last Office as he +drew this picture of the good parish priest. For it was just about this +time that the Viaticum must have been administered to his father. In +1526 the then Burgomaster of Basel wrote to the monastery at Issenheim, +where Hans Holbein the Elder had left his painting implements behind him +years before, in which he recalls to the Fathers how vainly and how +often "our citizen," Hans the Younger, had applied to get these costly +materials restored to their owner during his life; or to himself as his +father's heir afterwards. This application was no more successful than +Holbein's own, apparently; and the painter was told to seek his father's +gold and pigments among the peasants who had pillaged the monastery. + +By 1526 Holbein was back in Basel; but two works of this year would go +to show that he was little less separated from his wife in Basel than +when away. The first of these, about one-third life-size, is a portrait +of a woman with a child beside her who grasps an arrow to suggest the +Goddess of Love attended by a wingless Cupid (Plate 16). The little +red-haired child does not do much to realise the ideal; but the woman, +though not an ideal Venus, might nevertheless well pose as a man's +goddess. A "fair" woman in more senses than her colouring. Her dark-red +velvet dress slashed with white; wide sleeves of dusky gold-coloured +silk; her close-fitting black head-dress embroidered with gold; the soft +seduction of her look; the welcoming gesture of that pretty palm flung +outward as if to embrace; these are all in keeping. + + Illustration: PLATE 16 + DOROTHEA OFFENBURG AS THE GODDESS OF LOVE + _Oils. Basel Museum_ + +This was a lady whose past career might have warned a lover that +whatever she might prove as a goddess, she could play but a fallen +angel's part. The annals of Basel knew her only too well. This was +Dorothea, the daughter of a knight of good old lineage,--Hans von +Offenburg. But the knight died while she was quite young, and her +mother, better famed for looks than conduct, married the girl to a +debauched young aristocrat,--Joachim von Sultz. His own record is +hardly less shameless than Dorothea's soon became,--though the latter +is chiefly in archives of the "unspeakable" sort. At the time when this +picture was painted she must have been about two-and-twenty. + +Unhappy Holbein, indeed! The temper of Xantippe herself, if she be but +the decent mother of one's children, might work less havoc with a life +than this embroidered cestus. But "the German Apelles" was no Greek +voluptuary, ambitious in heathen vices, such as that other Apelles +whose painting of Venus was said to be his masterpiece. And when +Holbein inscribed his second portrait of Dorothea with the words LAIS +CORINTHIACA, the midsummer madness must have been already a matter of +scorn and wonder to himself. His whole life and the works of his life +are the negation of the groves of Corinth. + +The paint was not long dry on the Goddess of Love--at any rate, her +dress was not worn out--before he had seen her in her true colours; "the +daughter of the horse-leech, crying Give, Give." + +And so he painted her in 1526 (Plate 17); to scourge himself, surely, +since she was too notoriously infamous to be affected by it. As if in +stern scorn of every beauty, every allure, he set himself to record +them in detail: something in the spirit with which Macaulay set himself, +"by the blessing of God," to do "full justice" to the poems of Montgomery. +Lais is far more beautiful, and far more beautifully painted, than +Venus. No emotion has hurried the painter's hand or confused his eye +this time. In vain she wears such sadness in her eyes, such pensive +dignity of attitude, such a wistful smile on her lips. He knows them, +now, for false lights on the wrecker's coast. No faltering; no turning +back. He can even fit a new head-dress on the lovely hair, and add the +puffed sleeves below the short ones. He is a painter now; not a lover. +And lest there should be one doubt as to his purpose, he flings a heap +of gold where "Cupid's" little hand would now seem desecrated, and +inscribes beneath it the name that fits her beauty and his contempt. +The plague was raging in Basel all through that spring and summer, +but I doubt if Holbein shuddered at its contact as at the loveliness he +painted. The brand he placed upon it is proof of that--Lais Corinthiaca, +the infamous mistress of the Greek Apelles. + + Illustration: PLATE 17 + DOROTHEA OFFENBURG AS LAIS CORINTHIACA + _Oils. Basel Museum_ + +But in 1526 men sat among the ashes of far goodlier palaces and larger +interests than personal ones. The party in power was not friendlier to +Art than to the Church of Rome. In January the Painters' Guild had +presented a petition to the Council,--humbly praying that its members, +"who had wives and children depending on their work," might be allowed +to pursue it in Basel! And so hard was Holbein himself hit by the +fanatical excitement of the time that the Council's account-books show +the paltry wage he was glad to earn for painting a few shields on some +official building "in the borough of Waldenburg." + +Small wonder that an artist such as Holbein should feel his heart grow +sick within him, and should turn his thoughts with increasing +determination to some fresh field. Even without the bitterness that now +must have edged the tongue of a wronged wife, or the bitterer taste of +Dead Sea fruit in his own mouth,--he must have been driven to try his +luck elsewhere. And of all the invitations urged upon him, the chances +which Erasmus's introductions could give him in England would probably +offer the greatest promise. + +But before he set out with these letters, in the late summer of 1526, he +executed yet one more great commission for his old friend, Jacob Meyer +zum Hasen, now leader of the Catholic party in opposition. This was the +work known now to all the civilised world as "The Meyer Madonna." For +centuries the beautiful picture which bears this name in the Dresden +Gallery has been cited by every expert authority and critic as this +work. But since the mysterious appearance of the Darmstadt painting, +which suddenly turned up in a Paris art collector's possession, from no +one knows where in 1822, the tide of belief has slowly receded from the +Dresden painting. Until now there are only a few judges who do not +hold--especially since the public comparison of the two works at Dresden +in 1871--that the Dresden picture is "a copy by an inferior hand." + +Unquestionably the painting now in the Schloss at Darmstadt is the +earlier version. And unquestionably, too, the changes introduced in the +Dresden copy,--the elevated architecture, slenderer figures, and less +happy Child,--are so great as to lend weight to the arguments of those +who still claim that no copyist would ever have made them. But, as has +been said, the contention that the Dresden work is a replica by Holbein +of the older Darmstadt altar-piece, is now maintained by only a very +small minority of judges. The painting of the Darmstadt work is admitted +by all to be more uniformly admirable, more completely carried out; +the details more finished (except in the case of the Virgin), and the +colours richer and more harmonious. Yet both works should be studied to +appreciate fully their claims and differences (Plates 18 and 19). + + Illustration: PLATE 18 + THE MEYER-MADONNA + _Oils. Grand Ducal Collection, Darmstadt_ + + Illustration: PLATE 19 + THE MEYER-MADONNA + [_Later Version. Held by many to be a copy_] + _Oils. Dresden Gallery_ + +In the Darmstadt work the Virgin's dress is wholly different in tone +from her robe at Dresden; otherwise the colouring aims to be the same +in each. Here, in the original altar-piece, it is a greenish-blue. The +lower sleeves are golden, a line of white at the wrist, and a filmier +one within the bodice. Her girdle is a rich red; her mantle a +greenish-grey. Over this latter her fair hair streams like softest +sunshine. Above her noble, pity-full face sits her crown of fine gold +and pearls. + +The woman kneeling nearest to the Madonna is commonly believed to be +Meyer's first wife, who had died in 1511, the mother of one child--a +daughter--by a previous husband. Between this stepdaughter and Meyer +there was considerable litigation over her property. The younger woman, +whose chin-cloth is dropped in the painting though worn like the others +in the drawing for her portrait, is Meyer's second wife, Dorothea +Kannegiesser, whom he married about 1512, and with whom he was painted +by Holbein in 1516. The sombre garments of both women are echoed by the +black of Meyer's hair and coat, the latter lined with light-brown fur. +Meyer's face, in its manly intensity of devotional feeling, is a +wonderful piece of psychology in the Darmstadt picture. + +In the drawing for the young girl, Anna Meyer, who kneels beside her +mother with a red rosary in her hands, she has her golden-brown hair +hanging loose down her back, as befits a girl of thirteen. But in +the painting it is coiled in glossy braids beneath some ceremonial +head-dress; this is richly embroidered with pearls, with red silk tassel +and a wreath of red and white flowers above it. This head-dress is +painted with much more beautiful precision in the older work, and the +expression of the girl's face is much more deeply devout; her hands, +too, are decidedly superior to those of the Dresden work. + +This is true also of the carpet, patterned in red and green, with +touches of white and black, on a ground of deep yellow. The Dresden +carpet is conspicuously inferior in finish and colour to that of +Darmstadt, so much so that Waagen and others, who believe the former a +replica, think a pupil or assistant may have been responsible for this +and other details, which for some reason Holbein himself was unable to +finish. + +The elder boy, with the tumbled brown hair, dressed in a light-brown +coat trimmed with red-brown velvet, and hose of cinnabar-red, with +decorations of gold clasps and tags on fine blue cords, has a +yellowish-green portemonnaie, with tassels of dull blue hanging from his +girdle. All the carnations are superb, and in the Darmstadt picture the +infant Christ wears a sweet and happy smile. In that of Dresden He looks +sad and ill; a fact which has given rise to the theory Ruskin +adopted--that the Virgin had put down the divine Child and taken up +Meyer's ailing one. But the absence of wonder on the faces of Meyer's +family, and, indeed, the familiar affection of the elder boy, would of +itself negative this theory. I have my own ideas as to this point, but +it would serve no useful purpose to go into them in this place. Of these +two sons of Meyer there is no other record. Anna alone survived her +mother, who married again after Meyer's death. Anna's daughter married +Burgomaster Remigius Faesch, or Fesch, whose grandson--Remigius Faesch, +counsellor-at-law--was the well-known art collector whose collection and +manuscript are also in the Basel Museum, where there is an oil-copy of +the Dresden Meyer-Madonna. + +Even the cool eye of Walpole was warmed by this great work of 1526, as +he saw it in the Dresden painting then hanging in the Palazzo Delfino +at Venice. "For the colouring," he exclaims, "it is beautiful beyond +description; and the carnations have that enamelled bloom so peculiar to +Holbein, who touched his works till not a touch remained discernible." +Twenty years earlier Edward Wright had written of Meyer's youngest +boy--"The little naked boy could hardly have been outdone, if I may +dare to say such a word, by Raphael himself." And in our own day that +fine and measured critic, Mrs. Jameson, has spoken for generation upon +generation who have thought the same thought before the Meyer-Madonna +of Dresden, when she says of it: "In purity, dignity, humility and +intellectual grace this exquisite Madonna has never been surpassed; not +even by Raphael. The face, once seen, haunts the memory." + +When Wright and Walpole saw this Dresden work at Venice, it was supposed +to be "the family of Sir Thomas More"--_Meier_ having slipped into +"More" in the course of centuries, which had retained only the vivid +impression of Holbein's association with the latter, and knew that +the painter had drawn him in the midst of his family. That living +association was now, late in the summer of this year, about to begin. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +CHANCES AND CHANGES + +1526-1530 + + First visit to England--Sir Thomas More; his home and portraits--The + Windsor drawings--Bishop Fisher--Archbishop Warham--Bishop + Stokesley--Sir Henry Guildford and his portrait--Nicholas + Kratzer--Sir Bryan Tuke--Holbein's return to Basel--Portrait-group of + his wife and two eldest children; two versions--Holbein's children, + and families claiming descent from him--Iconoclastic fury--Ruined + arts--Death of Meyer zum Hasen--Another Meyer commissions the + last paintings for Basel--Return to England--Description of the + Steelyard--Portraits of its members--George Gysze--Basel Council + summons Holbein home--"The Ambassadors" at the National Gallery; + accepted identification--Coronation of Queen Anne Boleyn--Lost paintings + for the Guildhall of the Steelyard; the Triumphs of Riches and + Poverty--The great Morett portrait; identifications--Holbein's industry + and fertility--Designs for metal-work and other drawings--Solomon and + the Queen of Sheba. + + +Two years earlier Erasmus had evidently thought that London was the +true stage for such a genius as Holbein's, and More had written that +he would gladly do all he could to further the painter's success if +he should decide to visit England. More himself called Holbein "a +marvellous artist" for his portrait of Erasmus, and could not but be +delighted with the beautiful little woodcut which opened Froben's +edition of his own _Utopia_. + +This illustration represents More and his only son seated with AEgidius, +or Peter Gillis, in the latter's own garden at Antwerp, listening to the +tale of _Utopia_ from the ancient comrade of Amerigo Vespucci. And very +likely Holbein himself sat in this garden, in the late summer of 1526, +when he was passing through Antwerp to England. He had a letter of +introduction from Erasmus to AEgidius, as also to the host who was +expecting him in England--Sir Thomas More. + +Van Mander says that long before this the Earl of Arundel, when pausing +at Basel, had been so much pleased with Holbein's works in that city +that he had urged the painter to forsake it for London. But it would +pretty surely have been the promise of More's influence which actually +induced him to try his fortune so far afield. And by the autumn of 1526 +he was one of that happy company which the genial soul of More drew +around him in his new home in "Chelsea Village," where Beaufort Row now +has its north end. Here the master's love of every art, and aptitude in +affairs, filled his hospitable mansion with wit and music and joyous +strenuousness. Here he was the idol of his family, as well as the King's +friend. Henry himself must surely have shuddered could he have pictured +that face, over which thought and humour were ever chasing one another +like sun and shadow on the lawn, black above London Bridge and flung at +last from it into the Thames only a few years hence. Now it turned to +his own all life and loyalty, as he laid his arm around More's shoulders +while they wandered between the garden beds of Chelsea. + +Early in 1527, probably, Holbein had finished the fine portrait of his +host, which is now in Mr. Huth's collection. The study for this oil +painting is among the Windsor drawings (Plate 20), as also one for +the large family picture now lost, if indeed it was ever completed by +Holbein; a matter of some doubt, notwithstanding Van Mander's account +of it in the possession of the art-collector Van Loo. An outline sketch +of it, or for it, he certainly made. And that precious pen-and-ink +outline,--with the name of each written above or below the figure +in More's hand, and notes as to alterations to be made in the final +composition in Holbein's hand,--is now in the Basel Museum; having come +into Amerbach's possession as the heir of Erasmus. + + Illustration: PLATE 20 + SIR THOMAS MORE + _Chalks. Windsor Castle_ + +In Mr. Huth's oil portrait More is wearing a dark-green coat trimmed +with fur, and showing the purple sleeves of his doublet beneath. His +eyes are grey-blue. He never wore a beard, made the fashion by Henry +VIII. at the same time that the head was "polled,"--a singularly ugly +combination,--until he was in the Tower and grew that beard which he +smilingly swept away from the path of the executioner's axe. "It," he +said with astonishing self-possession, could be "accused of no treason." +In 1527, however, no shadow of tragedy seemed possible unless the +suspicion of it slept in More's own heart when he said to his son-in-law, +in answer to some flattering congratulation on the King's favour, "Son +Roper, if my head could win him a castle in France, my head should +fall." + +But for these superb drawings in the Royal Collection at Windsor, we +should know nothing at all of many a portrait Holbein painted--all +among the immediate friends of More and Erasmus on this first visit +to England; nor, for that matter, of many a portrait painted in later +years. And how little these can be trusted to tell the whole tale of +achievement is shown by the fact that they include no studies for a +number of oil paintings that are still in existence. + + Illustration: PLATE 21 + JOHN FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER + _Chalks. Windsor Castle_ + +Of the drawings which represent a lost painting, there is a noble one of +Bishop Fisher, whose execution preceded More's by only a few weeks. A +literally venerable head it was (Plate 21), to be the shuttlecock of +papal defiance and royal determination not to be defied with impunity. +For assuredly if the life of the Bishop of Rochester hung in the +balance, as it did, in May, 1535, it was Paul III.'s mad effrontery +in making him a Cardinal while he was actually in the Tower under his +sovereign's displeasure which heated the King's anger to white-hot +brutality. "Let the Pope send him a hat," he thundered, "but I will so +provide that he shall wear it on his shoulders, for head he shall have +none to set it on!" And on the 17th of that June he made good the savage +oath. Yet the painter, after all, has been more potent than the King. +For here lives Fisher. Bishop or Cardinal this is the man, as More loved +him. + +A striking and richly painted oil portrait of Erasmus's "Maecenas," +Archbishop Warham, is in the Louvre; of which there are a number of +copies, as well as a replica, at Lambeth Palace. The latter was +exhibited at Manchester in 1857. The study for these portraits is among +the Windsor drawings. The painting in the Louvre has more vividness in +the carnations, and the impasto is thicker than at Lambeth; otherwise +the two are identical. But for myself I find a more seizing quality in +the chalk drawing than in either. There is something in its sunken +fading eyes that speaks of the majesty of office as well as its burdens. + +Holbein painted a prelate of a very different sort in the oil portrait +of John Stokesley, Bishop of London, which is preserved at Windsor +Castle. And yet he dared to paint the Truth--now as always. The painting +is a masterpiece of modelling and soft transparency of light and shade. +But the truculent, lowering countenance leaves small doubt that the +sitter was a gentleman pre-eminently "gey ill to live wi'." + +There is another oil painting at Windsor which has not escaped the +injuries of time, but is none the less a splendid survival of 1527. This +is the portrait of Sir Henry Guildford, Master of the Horse to Henry +VIII., and holder of many another office of trust (Plate 22). It has +sometimes been thought that the yellow tone of the complexion was due to +over-painting, but the chalk drawing shows that it was a personal +peculiarity. + +Sir Henry, a warm friend to both More and Erasmus, was forty-nine when +he sat for this portrait. Under his black fur-trimmed surcoat he wears +a doublet of gold brocade. In his hand is the wand of office as +Chamberlain, and he is decorated with the collar and badge of the +Garter. + +He was always a great favourite with the King from the time when the +latter came to the throne and young Guildford, then twenty, was one of +the gayest, bravest, most loyal spirits about it. Always as ready for a +real battle as a mimic one; as clever at writing plays for the King's +amusement as at acting in them; as good in a revel as at a piece of +diplomacy; it is not much wonder that his knighthood in 1512 should but +have been the prelude to a long series of promotions. + + + Illustration: PLATE 22 + SIR HENRY GUILDFORD + _Oils. Windsor Castle_ + +The affection of master and man, too, was singularly sincere for a +court. Sir Henry loyally supported the King's demand for a divorce, but +he was by no means ready to support a second marriage without the papal +preliminary. Hence he was not a persona grata to Anne Boleyn. Nor +would he stoop to curry favour at the expense of an honest conviction. +When Anne warned him that he was likely to lose his office as soon as +she became Queen, he promptly replied that he would spare her all +concern about that, and went straight to the King to resign the office +of Controller. The latter showed the depth of his affection by urging +Sir Henry, twice, to reconsider his determination. But he wisely +preferred to quit his apartments under the King's roof,--without, +however, breaking the bond of mutual attachment. Five years after this +picture was painted he died; in May, 1532. Holbein also painted Lady +Guildford's portrait; an oil painting in Mr. Frewer's collection. And +Sir Henry selected him as one of the chief artists commissioned to +decorate the interior of the Banqueting Hall specially erected for the +celebration of the French Alliance in 1527. By all of which it would +seem that in securing a new patron the painter had once more made a +friend. + +Erasmus had asked AEgidius to assist Holbein's success in any way he +could. And it was probably owing to a letter from the Antwerp scholar +that a friendship of many years sprang up between the painter and +Nicholas Kratzer of Munich, then Astronomer-Royal at the Court of Henry +VIII. It began with what was once a fine portrait. But the oil painting, +now in the Louvre (Plate 23), has suffered such severe injuries as to be +but a poor ghost of what it was originally. Only the composition, and +the fidelity with which all his friend's scientific instruments are drawn +attest Holbein. He never adds a detail for merely pictorial purposes; +and never shuffles one that concerns the personality of a sitter. No +biographer with his pen sets every straw to show the winds of character +and circumstance more deliberately than does this historian with his +brush. Something of Kratzer's shrewd wit,--for he was a "character"--can +still be read in his half-destroyed picture. Years later we shall +see the intimate friend of both him and his painter writing of the +astronomer as a man "brim-full" of humour and fancy. And once, we may be +sure, it sparkled in the eyes of Kratzer's portrait as brilliantly as in +his own. + + Illustration: PLATE 23 + NICHOLAS KRATZER + _Oils. The Louvre_ + +In the Munich Gallery there is another portrait in oils which has +undergone, if possible, still more atrocious treatment than Kratzer's; +yet, like it, still keeps enough of its original charm to rivet attention +in any company. This latter is one of the most striking of the +half-dozen portraits of Sir Bryan Tuke, which all claim, with more or +less of probability, to be paintings by Holbein. And certainly in the +years when Sir Bryan was Treasurer of the King's Household it would be +natural that the painter, whose salary he regularly disbursed, should +gladly oblige him to his utmost. + +But the Munich portrait also shows a far deeper bond of interests than +one of money. The undercurrent of their natures ran in a groove of more +than common sympathy; and to an analyst, such as Holbein was, the +reflections behind these inscrutable eyes were full of unusual +attraction. + +Myself, I feel convinced, for more than one reason, that it is a work of +some years later. But as a consensus of authorities places it during +this visit, the picture is noticed here. It gains rather than loses by +reproduction;--since the painting now shows a strange disagreeable +colour most unlike the carnations of Holbein. But the composition is +unmistakable (Plate 24). Between the sitter and the green-curtained +background stands perhaps the ghastliest of all Holbein's skeletons,--one +hand on his scythe, the other grimly pointing at the nearly-spent sands +of the hour-glass. Below the latter is a tablet on which, in Latin, are +the words of Job: "My short life, does it not come to an end soon?" and +the signature without the date. Sir Bryan wears a fur-trimmed doublet +with gold buttons; the gold-patterned sleeves revealed by the black silk +gown, also trimmed with fur. On a massive gold chain he wears a cross of +great richness, enamelled with the pierced Hands and Feet. Fine lawn is +at throat and wrists; and in one hand he holds his gloves. + + Illustration: PLATE 24 + SIR BRYAN TUKE + _Oils. Munich Gallery_ + + * * * * * + +Before the researches of Eduard His, it used to be sometimes said that +Holbein had virtually deserted his family when he left Basel in 1526. We +know now, however, that whatever were the moral wrongs which he suffered +or committed, he never forsook the duty of providing for his wife and +children in no ungenerous proportion to his means. + +The records show that the fruit of his two years' industry was used to +acquire a comfortable home which remained the property of his wife. And +the inventory of its contents at Elsbeth's death, some six years after +Holbein's death, proves that this home was to the full as well furnished +and comfortable as was usual with people of similar condition. + +In the summer of 1528 the painter bade farewell for ever to Sir Thomas +More's gracious Chelsea home. He took with him the pen-and-ink sketch +for a large picture of More in the midst of his family, which has been +already referred to. This was for Erasmus, who had temporarily abandoned +Basel,--now so utterly unlike the Basel of former years,--and had sought +the more sympathetic atmosphere of Freiburg. Bonifacius Amerbach, from +the same causes, was here with Erasmus for some time. So that something +like the old Froben days must have seemed still about them as the three +friends sat together and talked of all that had come and gone. + +But by the latter part of August Holbein was back in that now +sadly-altered Basel whence his best friends were reft by trouble or +death. And on the 29th of August, 1528, he bought the house next to +Froben's _Buchhaus_, the deed attesting that he did so in person, in +company with Elsbeth. The price, 300 guldens or florins, was by no means +the small one it now seems, nor could the painter pay the whole sum at +once. He paid down one-third, and secured the rest by a mortgage. The +site of this house is now occupied by 22 St. Johann Vorstadt. Three +years later, March 28th, 1531, Holbein bought out a disagreeable +neighbour; and thus added to his two-storied house overlooking the +Rhine the little one-storied cottage which cost him only seventy +guldens. The factory at No. 20 now partially covers this latter site. +Fifty years ago both of the original houses were still standing; quaint, +crumbling, affecting monuments of days when Holbein's voice and +Holbein's step rang through their rooms, when Frau Elsbeth swept and +garnished them; and when four children added their links to the chain of +a marriage which Holbein was now manfully trying to make the best of. + +It must have been in the year after the purchase of the larger house +that he painted the group of his wife and the two children she had then +borne him. This life-size group, done in oils on paper, is now in the +Basel Museum (Plate 25). The stoical sincerity with which they are +represented, and the hard outline produced by cutting out the work to +mount it on its wood panel, makes a somewhat repellent impression at the +first glance. And this is in no way dispersed by studying Elsbeth's +traits. But the painting itself is a tour-de-force. By sheer Quality +Holbein has invested these portraits,--a middle-aged, coarse-figured, +unamiable-looking woman, a very commonplace infant, and a bright-faced +boy,--with the prestige inseparable from an achievement of a high +order. + + Illustration: PLATE 25 + ELSBETH, HOLBEIN'S WIFE, WITH THEIR TWO ELDEST CHILDREN + _Oils. Basel Museum_ + +Clearly Elsbeth Holbein was not one to give up the costume of her youth +simply because she would have been well advised to do so; and the cut +and fashion of her dress remains almost identical with the drawing in +the Louvre. Her lustreless light-brown hair is covered with a gauzy veil +and a reddish-brown cap. Her brown stuff upper garment, trimmed with +thin fur, shows a dark-green dress beneath it. The baby wears a gown of +undyed woollen material, and the boy a jacket of dark bluish green. + +Out of such unpromising materials has the painter made a picture that +would challenge attention among any. If we knew nothing as to the +identity of this woman, sitting oblivious of the children at her knee, +wrapped in her own dark thoughts, we should certainly want to know +something of her story and of the story of the little fellow whose eyes +are breathlessly intent upon some purer, sweeter vision. There is at +Cologne, in a private collection, a deeply interesting duplicate of +this work; also on paper afterwards mounted on wood, but not cut out. +Unfortunately this latter has suffered such irremediable injuries that +it is quite impossible now to pronounce upon its claim to be either the +earlier example or a replica; but good judges have believed it to be by +Holbein. Its chief interest, however, from a biographical point of view, +may be said to lie in the sixteenth-century writing pasted on at the +top. Literally translated, this runs-- + + "Love towards God consists in Charity. + Who hath this love can feel no hate."[5] + +It is difficult to see on what grounds Woltmann, who was inclined to +accept the picture as genuine, should hold the inscription to have +been added by someone desirous of increasing the value of the work by +representing it to be an allegorical picture of Charity. There was never +a time when the allegory, if accepted, could have carried the same value +as the portraits. And surely the second line is utterly inconsistent +with the theory. Original or not, it has a very startling likeness to a +plea which Holbein himself must have urged more than once, to soften a +bitterness his own errors could not have tended to cure. + +When the Basel painting was cut out to be mounted, the last numeral was +lost; so that it now stands dated 152-. But all the other facts put it +beyond question that the picture could not have been done before 1529. +The baby of 1522 was now the boy of seven, and his successor would seem +to have been born during the first months of its father's visit to +England, and to be now some eighteen months old. + +It may be as well to say here, once for all, as much as need be said of +Holbein's family. As already stated, his wife survived him by six years, +dying at Basel in 1549. By her first marriage she had one son, Franz +Schmidt--who seems to have been a worthy and successful man of trade. +She was the mother of four children by her marriage with Holbein;--Philip, +born 1522; Katharina, 1527; Jacob, about 1530; and Kuenegoldt, about +1532. + +Some years before the painter's death he took Philip Holbein to Paris, +and there apprenticed him to the eminent goldsmith, Jerome David, with +whom he remained until a couple of years after Holbein's death. Later, +he somehow drifted to Lisbon, where he followed his trade until he +settled in the old home of his grandfather and great-grandfather, +Augsburg. In 1611 his son, Philip Holbein, junior, then "Imperial Court +Jeweller" at Augsburg, petitioned the Emperor Matthias for letters +patent to "confirm" his right to certain noble arms. The claims put +forward in this document are utterly at variance with the received +belief in Holbein's humble Augsburg origin. Yet the most expert +investigators who have carefully studied this subject agree in thinking +that this grandson based the genealogical tree on mythical foundations, +and therefore planted it remote from Augsburg itself. But be this as it +may--and it seems hard to reconcile such discrepancies within a century +of the time when both Hans Holbein the Elder and his son were well-known +citizens of Augsburg,--the application was successful. Mechel says that +this Philip, who claims descent from the renowned "painter of Basel," +lived in Vienna during his later years; and that a descendant of his +again got their patent "confirmed" in 1756, with the right to carry the +surname of _Holbeinsberg_; also that this latter descendant was made a +Knight of the Empire in 1787, as the noble _von Holbeinsberg_. So much +for the eldest branch, that of Philip Holbein. + +The younger boy, Jacob, was a goldsmith in London after Holbein's death. +The evidence seems to show that he was never here previous to that +event,--which of itself may have first occasioned his coming, though +hardly at the time, as Jacob was not more than thirteen at his father's +death. A document in existence proves that he also died in London, about +1552, and apparently unmarried; at which time his elder brother, Philip, +was still in Lisbon. + +Katharina, the elder daughter, the baby of the Basel painting, seems to +have left no descendants. She married a butcher of Basel and died in +1590. And in the same year, very likely from one of the frequent +epidemics so fatal to Basel, died Kuenegoldt, Elsbeth's youngest child. +The Merian family of Frankfurt-am-Main claims an hereditary right to +the artistic gifts of its famous copper-engraver, Mathew Merian, as +descendants of Holbein through this daughter Kuenegoldt, who, when she +died, was the wife of Andreas Syff, a miller, of Basel. According to +the greatest authority on this subject, Eduard His, to whose exhaustive +researches we owe almost all that is known of Holbein's family, the +Merian claims have not, so far, been proved by actual archives; but he +is of opinion that there is considerable circumstantial evidence to +support their claim to be lineal descendants of Holbein through the +female line. + +But in 1529, when the family group was painted, neither Jacob nor +Kuenegoldt were yet born; and the painter was much more concerned with +the anxieties of a living father than with the shadowy cares of an +ancestor. + +And dark enough was the outlook in Basel, where the Lutheran agitation +had, as Erasmus said, "frozen the arts." Before Holbein came back from +England many churches had abjured all pictures. The tide of religious +antagonism had, as we know, driven both Erasmus and Bonifacius Amerbach +for a time to a Catholic stronghold; and had driven their old friend +Meyer to do literal battle on behalf of the Church. + +Altar paintings were out of the question. And Holbein could but devote +himself to designs for the printers and for goldsmiths. Many beautiful +compositions for both crafts remain to testify of his matured powers +and constant industry. The exquisite designs for dagger-sheaths, in +particular, are rightly counted among the treasures of art. But in the +summer of 1530 came a commission for the painter's last great work in +Basel. This was the long-delayed order for the decoration of that vacant +wall in the Council Hall, which adjoined the house _zum Hasen_. + +Oddly enough, this commission also came officially through a +burgomaster, Jacob Meyer. But the Meyer of 1530, Meyer "of-the-Stag" +(_zum Hirten_), had neither blood nor sentiments in common with the +Meyer under whom Holbein had done his first work in the Rathaus. Each +headed a party at deadly issue. For the past year Meyer-of-the-Hare had +vainly tried to turn back the clock or to stay the iconoclastic fury +of the hour. Religious fanaticism had wrecked him as well as every +beautiful piece of art on which it could lay its hands. And now at last +it mattered nothing any more so far as he was concerned. The dreadful +harvests that had brought virtual famine, the earthquake shocks which +had unsettled many a mental as well as material foundation, the flooding +devastations of the Birsig, the rage of Canton against Canton, the Civil +War ready to begin, Pope or Luther come by his own,--it was all one at +last to Meyer zum Hasen, who died just as his protege of earlier years +was commissioned to paint the blank wall. + +But something of his spirit, something of what he himself had been +preaching to Basel in warning and threat for years, seems to have passed +on into the pictures Holbein set before the Council. The paintings, +alas! are no more. But a fragment or two and the drawings for them show +how truly grand the two works were which Holbein had probably already +intended should be his swan-song as Holbein _Basiliensis_. He chose for +his subjects Rehoboam's answer to the suffering Israelites: "My little +finger shall be thicker than my father's loins; my father hath chastised +you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions"; and Samuel +prophesying to Saul how dearly he shall learn that "Rebellion is as the +sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness as an iniquity and idolatry." + +Both subjects are treated in the Great manner. Rehoboam, leaning forward +from his throned seat with flashing eyes, and his little finger seeming +actually to quiver in the air, is wonderfully conceived. But the meeting +of Samuel and Saul (Plate 26) most splendidly demonstrates how far +Holbein towered above mere portraiture when he had the opportunity. To +picture this drawing in all the beauty of colour is to realise what we +have lost, and what his just fame has lost, with the utter destruction +of such works. + + Illustration: PLATE 26 + _Behold to obey is better than sacrifice_ + SAMUEL DENOUNCING SAUL + _Washed Drawing. Basel Museum_ + +Not the greatest of the Italians could have improved upon the +distribution and balance of this composition. The blazing background, +the sense of a densely crowded host beyond what the eye can grasp, of +captives and captors--all the stupendous crackle and roar and shout +and sudden strained silence of Saul's immediate followers--is amply +matched by those two typical protagonists, just then repeating the old +drama with varying fortunes on the world's new stage. The Secular Arm +has been short in the service of God, as interpreted by his Vicar; it +has thought, in Saul's person, to win the cause, yet spare its enemies. +Vain is it for him to run with humility, to tell what he has won and +what overcome and done. He has not destroyed All--root and branch. For +reasons of personal policy, he has given quarter. And the Priest, for +God, will have none of his well-meaning excuses, of his good intentions, +his policy, his burnt offerings of half-way measures;--"Behold to obey +is better than sacrifice," begins his fierce anathema, "and to hearken +than the fat of rams." + +Doubtless the Protestant party read its own meanings into these texts, +when once the pictures were painted and paid for with seventy-two good +guldens. But two very significant facts form their own commentary. One +is that the only employment he received from the Council afterward was +to redecorate the old Laellenkoenig monstrosity on the bridge!--and the +other, that as soon as Holbein got his pay for this disgraceful +commission, a pay he was now much too hard pressed to refuse, he quietly +slipped away from Basel without taking the Council into his confidence. +Judging from his after conduct to his family, he probably left the +seventy-two guldens to support his wife and children--now four little +ones--until such time as he could send them more from England; and took +his way once more, in the late autumn of 1531, with knapsack and +paint-brushes for the journey, to a city that might give him few walls +to cover, but would certainly not set him to painting the town clock. + + * * * * * + +Things had changed in London also, and gravely, Holbein found, since +he had quitted Sir Thomas More's home at Chelsea with the sketch for +Erasmus, in the summer of 1528. He had barely settled himself, in the +City this time, before the struggle between Henry VIII. and the English +Clergy ended in that Convocation when the latter made its formal +"Submission." And in the same month that this took place, Sir Henry +Guildford died. Then the three great Acts of Parliament, which swept +away the crying abuses of "Benefit of Clergy," resurrected the "dead" +lands (so called because perpetually _aliened in mortmain_) by restoring +them to the national circulation of the Sovereign-Will, and turned the +rich stream of Annates or "First-Fruits" of the bishoprics from the +Pope's coffers to the King's,--were passed in this year. + +This legislation was followed by the solemn protest and then the death +of Archbishop Warham. So that now of that great and close quartet of +friends,--Colet, Warham, More, and Erasmus,--there were two on either +shore of the last crossing. And More could already see the dark river +ahead. His eye marked the consequences of the Acts as keenly as his aged +friend Warham had discerned them on his death-bed; and shortly after the +"Submission," More resigned his great office as Chancellor. + +These seem matters too high to twist the threads of a poor painter's +life. But in reality Holbein's career was shaped, from many a year back, +by such events as rarely touch the humble individual directly. All his +friends and all his patrons in this country were carried far out of +reach by 1532; and he must sink or swim, as they in darker waters, +according to his own powers. That under such unexpected ill-fortune he +did not immediately sink was due to two things--the greatness of his +powers, and the circumstance that a trading-company of Continentals, +chiefly German, was seated in London with immense wealth and immense +influence at its disposal, and that they were men who knew how to +appreciate Holbein at his worth. + +The roots of the Steelyard (_Stahlhof_), or "Stilyard," as it is often +called in early dramatists, go far back to the legendary centuries of +English history. From before the time of Alfred the Great, traders from +Germany had clustered together on the bank of the Thames, close to where +Cannon Street Station now stands. Amalgamation with the Hanseatic +League, and the necessities and gratitude of more than one king of +England--but especially of Edward IV.--had made of the Steelyard a +company such as only the East India Company of later centuries may +be compared to. With the world's new geography and new commercial +conditions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, its methods and +its monopoly of the seas were gradually superseded by the great seamen +of the Elizabethan era. But in Holbein's time, though already some of +the Hanseatic ships were too overgrown to pass London Bridge and cast +anchor at their own docks just above it, there was scarce a cloud upon +the colossal prosperity of the Steelyard. + +Its walled and turreted enclosure, able to withstand the fiercest +assaults of Wat Tyler's men, stretched from the river northward to +Thames Street, and from Allhallows Street on the east to Dowgate Street +on the west; and it might well have been described as a German city and +port situated in the heart of the City of London. Its massive front in +Thames Street, where were its three portcullised and fortified gateways +with German inscriptions above and the Imperial Double-Eagle high over +all, was one of the sights of London. And the Steelyard Tavern was a +famous resort. When Holbein knew it well the greatest prelates and +nobles and all the Court crowd,--which stretched its gardens and great +houses from the stream of the Fleet, just west of the City wall, to +Westminster Abbey,--used to flock to this Thames Street corner of the +Steelyard to drink Rhenish wine and eat smoked reindeer-tongue and +caviar. + +Within the gates stood the big Guildhall, which answered both for its +councils and its noted banquets. The high carved mantelpieces and +wainscotting served admirably to display the glittering plate and +strange souvenirs of every known land and sea. On the walls which +Holbein's works were so to enrich hung portraits of eminent members of +the Guild. The Hall was flanked by the huge stone kitchen and by a +strong-tower for the safeguarding of special valuables. In the open +space between the Hall and the west wall of the enclosure was the +garden, where trees and flowers and a greenery of vines had been planted +in exact imitation of the gardens of the Fatherland. And here sat +Holbein among the Associates, many a time, over their good cheer,--as in +the old Basel gardens of the Blume or the Stork in other years, and +heard only the German tongue or the songs of home around him. + +Away down to the docks ran the lanes of warehouses; shops and booths +where every German trader or craftsman in London had his place; and +where the merchandise of the world--the greater part of it destined for +Luebeck as a centre of European distribution--might be sampled. Here were +choicest specimens of the then costly spices of Cathay, or the famous +falcons of Norway and Livonia, for which English sportsmen were willing +to pay fabulous prices. + +As in other guilds, the government of this cosmopolitan beehive was that +of a despotic democracy. All the inmates of the precincts were subjected +to a rule little short of monastic in its strict discipline. The penalties +for any infringement, for drunkenness or dicing or even for an abusive +epithet, were very severe. The civic duties of the corporation, too, +were sharply defined. In case of war every member had his appointed post +in the defence of London. Every "master" had to keep the prescribed +accoutrements and arms ready for immediate use, and the repairs and +maintenance of the Bishop's Gate were at the sole cost of the Steelyard. + +No chapel was erected within its enclosure, the Guild preferring to be +incorporated with the adjoining parish of Allhallows. Whether or not +there is any truth at the bottom of the ancient tradition that this +church had been originally founded by Germans, the Guild maintained its +own altar in it in Holbein's time, where Masses were said on its own +special days and festivals. So far are the facts from the common +supposition that the doctrines of Luther would find natural favour in +such a community, that the latter only gradually came into the "Church +of England" by the same slow processes which transformed the whole +parish around it. And when More, who was anything but _Utopian_ himself +in the practice of tolerating "heresy" during his chancellorship, headed +a domiciliary visit in search of Lutheran writings, he could find +nothing but orthodox German Prayer-books and the Scriptures, whose use +among laymen he always strenuously advocated; while every member of the +community was able to make honest and hearty oath at St. Paul's Cross +that no heretic or heretical doctrine would be tolerated amongst them. + +Here, then, in this staunch citadel of his own faith, Holbein naturally +found a new circle of friends among whom it must have been strangely +easy to fancy himself back in the Fischmarkt of his young years, with +Froben and Erasmus and Amerbach and Meyer zum Hasen. + +The curtain rings up on his work for the Steelyard,--work which covered +many years and more fine paintings than could even be enumerated +here--with a superlative exhibition of all his powers. The oil portrait +of Georg Gyze, or George Gisze, as it is often written, now in the +Berlin Gallery (Plate 27), inscribed 1532, has called forth the +enthusiastic eulogies of every competent judge. By a piece of rare good +fortune it is in perfect preservation. The black of the surcoat alone +has lost a little of its first lustre; all the rest is as though it had +left the easel but the other day. + + Illustration: PLATE 27 + JOeRG (OR GEORGE) GYZE + _Oils. Berlin Museum_ + +The young merchant is seated among his daily surroundings in the +Steelyard. He is in the act of leisurely opening a letter addressed, "To +the hand of the honourable Joerg Gyze, my brother, in London, England" +(_Dem ersamen herrn Joerg Gyzen zu Lunden in Engelant meinem broder to +henden_). The merchant's motto, "No pleasure without care," is chalked +up in Latin on the background, with his signature beneath it. Written on +a paper stuck higher up is a Latin verse in praise of the portrait; also +the date, and the sitter's age--thirty-four. On the racks and shelves +are documents, books, keys, a watch and seals, and a pair of scales. A +gold ball is hanging from above with a lovely chasing in blue enamel; a +miracle of painting in itself, to say nothing of the exquisite Venetian +glass, filled with water and carnation-pinks. This flower has its own +meaning, and is introduced in more than one of Holbein's portraits. On +the rich oriental table-cloth are writing materials also, with +account-books, seal and scissors. + +Gyze himself is a fair-haired man, wearing a brilliant red silk doublet +beneath his black cloak. And the amazing thing is that amidst this +bewildering array of pictures--for every article is such in itself, +owing to the perfection of its painting--Gyze is not lost or overridden +for a moment. It is unmistakably _his_ picture; and he dominates the +accessories as much as he did in reality. The man, the whole man, is +there; and the things are there around him; that is all. But that +the eye recognises this is the demonstration of the painter's own +mastership. It is as much Holbein's peculiar secret as are the cool +shadows, the luminous glow, the astounding elaboration, all made to +express the dignity of one, and but one, theme. + +As has been said, the Steelyard portraits are too many to even catalogue +here, covering many years. But Gyze's may be taken as their high-water +mark. For that matter it could not, in its own way, be surpassed by +any portrait. Holbein himself greatly surpassed it in the matter of +subtle and noble simplicity, in his two greatest extant pieces of +portraiture--the Morett of Dresden and the Duchess of Milan, now +in our National Gallery. But in technical powers, and the power of +subordinating their very virtuosity to the requirement of a true +picture, this was a superlative expression of his matured method. + +In the midst of all his fresh London successes came a summons from +Basel, which must have made the painter smile a little grimly. It had +slowly dawned on the Council that Holbein--whose renown they well knew +was a feather in Basel's cap--was proposing to make a prolonged absence. +The result was a decision which the Burgomaster officially conveyed to +him. Jacob Meyer zum Hirten wrote to say that Holbein was desired to +return immediately to resume the duties of a citizen-artist, and that +the Council, anxious to assist him in the support of his family, had +resolved to allow him an annuity of thirty guldens yearly "until +something better" could be afforded. Whether he replied in evasive +terms, or whether he let the Laellenkoenig speak for him, is not on +record. + +By the time Holbein received this letter, written late in the autumn of +1532, he was plunged into a year of almost incredible activity. The +whole of it would hardly seem too long for one such painting as the +life-size double portrait--his largest extant portrait-painting--that +now belongs to the National Gallery: "The Ambassadors" (Plate 28). + +At the extremities of a heavy table, something like a rude dinner-waggon, +are two full-length figures which show a curious reflection of his +early defect in their want of sufficient height. At the spectator's left +stands a richly-costumed individual, whose stalwart proportions, ruddy +complexion, and boldly ardent eye denote the perfection of vigorous +health, and are in striking contrast to the physique, colouring, and +expression of his companion. The former wears a black velvet doublet, +which reveals an under-garment of gleaming rose-red satin. Over all +is a black velvet mantle lined and trimmed with white fur. On his black +cap is a silver brooch which displays a skull. He wears a gold badge +exhibiting a mailed figure spearing a dragon suspended by a heavy gold +chain. The hilt of his sword is seen at his left hand, and his right +grasps a gold-sheathed dagger. On this latter is the inscription: AET. +SVAE. 29; and from it depends a massive green-and-gold silk tassel, +incomparably painted. + + Illustration: PLATE 28 + "THE AMBASSADORS" + _Oils. National Gallery_ + +As has been noted, the complexion of the man at our right is singularly +pallid; the eyes mournfully listless; the skin of his knuckles drawn +into the wrinkles of wasting tissues. He wears a scholar's cap and gown; +the latter of some chocolate-brown pile, richly patterned, and lined +with brown fur. He holds his gloves in his right hand and leans this +arm on a closed book, on the edges of which is the lettering: AETATIS SVAE +25. + +An oriental cover is spread on the table, and upon it are a number of +the scientific instruments common to astrology and to the uses of +astronomers like Kratzer, in whose portrait at the Louvre they are also +to be seen. On the lower shelf are mathematical and musical instruments +and books. The two latter are opened to display their text conspicuously. +Near the man at our left, and kept open by a T-square, is the Arithmetic +which Peter Apian, astronomer and globe-maker, published in 1527. It is +opened at a page in Division, with its German text plainly legible and +identical with the actual page, as seen in the British Museum's copy of +this edition. + +The book nearest the man at our right, lying beneath the lute, has been +also identified as Luther's Psalm-book with music,--in which the German +text is by himself and the music by Johann Walther--first published in +1524. Mr. Barclay Squire has shown that the two hymns could not, however, +have faced each other in reality, as they do in the painting, without +the intervening leaves having been purposely suppressed to gain this +end. These hymns are "Come Holy Ghost" (_Kom Heiliger Geyst Herregott_) +and "Mortal, wouldst thou live blessedly?" (_Mensch wiltu leben +seliglich_). In each case the entire verse is given. + +The background is a green-diapered damask curtain most significantly +drawn aside to show a silver crucifix high up in the left-hand corner, +above the man with the dagger and sword. On the beautiful mosaic +pavement is an ugly object that looks like some dried fish. But +experiments have shown that the French Sale-Catalogues in which this +work first appears in the eighteenth century--first, that is, so far as +we can trace it by any records now known--were right in calling this a +"skull in perspective"; _i.e._ a skull painted as seen distorted in a +convex mirror. Some hint of its true character can be gathered, though +not much, by looking at this object from the lower left-hand corner of +the painting, when the exaggerated length will be seen to be reduced to +something more nearly approaching the height of the usual "Death's +Head." + +According to the views which are now officially accepted by the National +Gallery, the persons of this picture are two French Catholics. The one +at our left is Jean de Dinteville, Seigneur of Polisy, Bailly of Troyes +and Knight of the French Order of St. Michael, of which he wears the +badge without the splendid collar--as was permitted, by a special +statute, to persons in the field, on a journey, or in a privacy that +would not require the full dress of a state occasion. Jean de Dinteville +was French Ambassador at the Court of Henry VIII. in 1533; born in 1504, +he was then twenty-nine. He died in 1555. + +The man in the scholar's cap and gown is George de Selve, privately +associated with de Dinteville's mission for a few weeks in the spring of +1533. He was born in 1508, nominated Bishop of Lavaur in 1526, and +confirmed in that office in 1529, in which year he was French Ambassador +at the Court of Charles V. He was twenty-five in 1533, and died in 1541. + +For myself, holding convictions concerning these portraits utterly at +variance with any published opinions--and that in more than one vital +respect--I am compelled to limit my account to the bare record of its +appearance and catalogued description, until prepared to submit other +facts and conclusions to a verdict. + +Two portraits in the Hague Gallery, each with a falcon hooded on the +wrist, show to how much purpose Holbein had studied these birds in the +Steelyard. The one of Robert Cheseman, done in this year, is especially +fine, with a strange, elusive suggestion of something kindred in the +nature of man and bird. + +In 1533, also, the Steelyard placed its contribution to the celebration +of Anne Boleyn's coronation in the painter's hands. And the result was, +as Stow tells us, "a costly and marvellous cunning pageant by the +merchants of the Stilyard, wherein was the Mount Parnassus, with the +Fountaine of Helicon, which was of white marble; and four streams +without pipe did rise an ell high and mette together in a little cup +above the fountaine; which fountaine ran abundantly with Rhenish wine +till night. On the mountaine sat Apollo, and at his feet sat Calliope; +and on every side of the mountaine sate four Muses, playing on severell +sweet instruments." + +But of more importance to his living fame were the two large oil +paintings--the Triumph of Riches and the Triumph of Poverty--which he +executed for the Hall of the Steelyard. In their day they were renowned +far and wide; but they also have slipped into some abyss of oblivion, +perhaps to be yet recovered as miraculously as was the Solothurn +Madonna. + +When the Guild was compelled to abandon the Steelyard, in Queen +Elizabeth's reign, the Hall stood so long unguarded and uncared for that +when it regained possession, under James I., everything was in a sad +state of neglect. And when the association finally dissolved not long +after, the Hanseatic League agreed to present these paintings to Henry +Prince of Wales, known, like Charles I., to be a lover of Art. + +If they passed to the possession of the latter, he must have exchanged +them with, or presented them to, the Earl of Arundel. For in 1627 +Sandrart saw them in the collection of the latter, like his father an +enthusiastic admirer of Holbein's work. After this, one or two vague +notices suggest that they somehow drifted to Flanders, and thence to +Paris. But there every trace of them is lost. Federigo Zucchero thought +they yielded to no work of the kind, even among Italian masters; and +copied them from pure admiration. Holbein's drawing for the Triumph of +Riches is in the Louvre Collection. + +That he ever painted Anne Boleyn, unless in miniature, seems doubtful. +The portrait among the Windsor drawings which has been labelled with her +name agrees with no description of her in any single respect. But in +1534 he painted one whose destiny was closely linked to hers--Thomas +Cromwell, then Master of the Jewel House. + +And it was probably about this time that he painted what is in some +respects the greatest of all his portraits--one of the galaxy of supreme +works of all portraiture--the oil painting of Morett, or Morette, so +long regarded as a triumph of Leonardo da Vinci's art. The world knows +it well in the Dresden Gallery (Plate 29). + +The figure is life-size. The pose, even the costume in its feasible +essentials, strikingly repeats the Whitehall portrait of Henry VIII., as +copies show this to have been completed in the wall painting. The +background is a green curtain. + + Illustration: PLATE 29 + THE MORETT PORTRAIT + _Oils. Dresden Gallery_ + +The sitter wears neither velvet nor cloth-of-gold, nor Order of any +sort; but his costume is rich black satin, the sleeves puffed with +white, the broad fur collar of sable. In his cap is a cameo brooch. His +buttons are gold; and a gold locket hangs from a plain, heavy chain of +the same metal. His right hand carries his gloves, his left rests on the +gold sheath of the dagger that hangs from his waist. His auburn hair and +beard is streaked with grey. + +No words, no reproduction, can hope to express the qualities of such +a painting. Neither can show the mastery or the spell by which the green +background, the hair, the cool transparent flesh-tones, the fur, the +satin, the gold, are all woven into a witchery as virile as it is +penetrating. + +This is another work which has undergone more than one transformation in +the course of its records. As late as 1657 it was correctly ascribed to +Holbein in the Modena Collection. But the first syllable of the sitter's +name has been its only constant. In time Morett slipped into Moretta, +and then--like _Meier_ in the Madonna picture--into Morus. So far it +seems to have clung to some English tradition. But when Morus got +changed to Moro it was but natural for an Italian to think of Ludovico +Sforza, "Il Moro." Long before this Holbein had become Olbeno; and +thereafter a puzzle. When the portrait was labelled Sforza, however, who +could its obviously great painter be but Leonardo? _Et voila!_ Thus the +work passed to the Gallery and Catalogue of the Royal Collection at +Dresden. And thus it long remained, as if to attest the true level of +Holbein's genius. + +But when the Gallery also acquired the drawing of the Arundel +Collection, labelled "Mr. Morett" in Hollar's engraving from it, the +painting was held to be unquestionably identified by it as Hubert +Morett, goldsmith to Henry VIII. Nor is there anything incongruous in +this belief. Such a master goldsmith was no tradesman, in our sense of +the word. He was often much more like one of our merchant princes. The +merchants of the Steelyard were frequently the royal bankers, and many +times were employed on high and delicate diplomatic missions to other +courts. Neither is there anything in the sitter's dress to forbid it to +a man of this stamp, even after the sumptuary laws of Henry VIII. were +passed; while there is much, very much, to suggest an English origin. + +On the other hand, M. Larpent has now shown that the Arundel drawing was +down in a catalogue of 1746-7 as: "One Holbein, Sieur de Moret, one of +the French hostage in England"; and also that a "Chas. sieur de Morette" +is recorded among the four French hostages sent to England in 1519. It +would thus appear that the painting is a portrait of Charles de Solier, +seigneur de Morette; an eminent soldier and diplomatist of France; born +in 1480, Ambassador to England more than once, and finally, in 1534. + +Besides all the portraits of Holbein's English period, many of them +scattered throughout the collections of all Europe, and many others now +lost, it must not be forgotten that he was at the same time pouring +forth miniature paintings, designs for engraving, designs for the +goldsmith, and conceptions of every sort--from a carved chimney-piece to +a woman's jewelled trinket; and all designed with the same exquisite +precision and felicity. In the British Museum as on the Continent these +drawings are an education in themselves. And besides the portrait +studies in the Windsor Collection there is a sketch for a large painting +which, if ever executed, is lost: "The Queen of Sheba visiting King +Solomon." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +PAINTER ROYAL + +1536-1543 + + Queen Jane Seymour--Death of Erasmus, and title-page portrait--The + Whitehall painting of Henry VIII.--Munich drawing of Henry VIII.--Birth + of an heir and the "Jane Seymour Cup"--Death of the Queen--Christina, + Duchess of Milan--Secret service for the King--Flying visit to Basel + and arrangements for a permanent return--Apprentices his son Philip at + Paris--Portrait of the Prince of Wales and the King's return gift--Anne + of Cleves--Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk--Catherine Howard--Lapse + of Holbein's Basel citizenship--Irregularities--Provision for wife + and children--Residence in London--Execution of Queen Catherine + Howard--Marriage of Catherine Parr--Dr. Chamber--Unfinished work for + the Barber-Surgeons' Hall--Death of Holbein--His will--Place of + burial--Holbein's genius; its true character and greatness. + + +These were years of pleasant friendships, too, as well as work and +cares. Nicholas Bourbon, scholar and poet, after his sojourn in London, +writes back in 1536: "Greet in my name as heartily as you can all with +whom you know me to be connected by intercourse and friendship." And +after mentioning high dignitaries who had followed the King's example of +showing special courtesies to Bourbon, he adds: "Mr. Cornelius Heyss, my +host, the King's Goldsmith; Mr. Nicolaus Kratzer, the King's Astronomer, +a man who is brimful of wit, jest, and humorous fancies; and Mr. Hans, +the Royal Painter, the Apelles of our time. I wish them from my heart +all joy and happiness." This little pen-picture of Holbein's intimate +circle is a beautiful break in the mists of centuries--and shows us what +manner of men they were among whom he had made for himself an honoured +place. We could ill spare it from the few and meagre records of his +life. It is also the very earliest documentary evidence of his being in +the King's immediate service. + +It was in this very year, 1536, that he received his commission to paint +Anne Boleyn's successor, Jane Seymour, then on the throne the block +had left vacant. The Vienna Gallery possesses this painting, of which +another version is at Woburn Abbey, and the chalk drawing at Windsor +(Plate 30). + + Illustration: PLATE 30 + QUEEN JANE SEYMOUR + _Oils. Vienna Gallery_ + +The Queen was noted for her milk-white fairness, and Holbein has +borrowed the pearly shadows of the lily in rendering it. The figure is a +little under life-size. Her head-dress and robes of silver brocade and +royal velvet are studded with splendid rubies and pearls to match the +jewels on her neck and breast. The hands are as full of character as of +art. + +The Queen's portrait may properly be said to belong to the great wall +painting which Holbein finished in 1537 for the Royal Palace at Whitehall. +But before that date the painter's inner life had suffered one more +great wrench. At midnight of July 12th, 1536, Erasmus died in the home +that had been his own, except for the Freiburg interval, ever since John +Froben's death in 1526; a death that had probably had much to do with +Holbein's first departure from Basel. That event had uprooted the +scholar from the old house _zum Sessel_, in the Fischmarkt, and +transplanted him to the home of Froben's son, Hieronymus. The latter +house, then known as _zum Luft_, is now No. 18, Baeumleingasse. And it +was here that Erasmus passed away, his mind keeping to the last its +humour and its interests in all around him. But no one, remembering how +Fisher and More had died in the preceding year, can doubt but that the +good old man was very willing to be gone, away from changed faces and +changed ways--though Bonifacius Amerbach and young Froben were as sons +to him. + +Basel, for all her differences with him, buried Erasmus with great +honours. But no tablet could so commemorate him as the noble monument +which Holbein built to him in the title-page he designed for Hieronymus +Froben's edition of Erasmus's _Works_, published in 1540. It is a +woodcut of extraordinary beauty. The full-length figure of the scholar +stands in cap and gown, with one hand resting lightly on the bust of +the god Terminus (the god of immovable boundary lines, significantly +conjoined to Erasmus's chosen motto: _Concedo nulli_) and the other +calling attention to this significant emblem of fixed convictions. Not +even the Louvre oil painting expresses the whole Erasmus quite so +completely or so nobly as this little drawing of the man whom Holbein +had loved and revered for twenty years; and to whom he owed, in the +first place, the splendid opportunities of his career in England. + +And as he drew it, what ghosts of his own Past must have clustered +around the lean little figure! What echoes and visions! The Rhine, the +gardens, the clang of the press, the Fischmarkt, the friendly smiles at +Froben's and Meyer's firesides; his marriage; the stars and dews and +perfume of all his dreams in the years--those matchless years of a man's +young manhood--when he had walked with angels as well as peasants, had +seen the Way of the Cross, the Christ in the Grave, and the Risen Lord +even more clearly than the faces of flesh and blood. _Eheu fugaces!_ +"God help thee, Elia, how art thou sophisticated." + + * * * * * + +Ah, well! Those years, and the darker, sadder years that had led far +from them, were now like his oldest friends--dead and buried. The +Holbein of 1537 was painting the King of England on the wall of his +Privy Chamber. There was a place for honest pride as well as for honest +regret in his thoughts. + +This painting perished with the palace in the fire of 1698. Charles +II., however, had a small copy of it made by Leemput. And a portion of +Holbein's original cartoon (Plate 31) in chalk and Indian ink, is in +the possession of the Duke of Devonshire--the face much washed out by +cleaning, and the outline pricked for transferring to the wall. The +figures are life-size, but Walpole has already noticed how the massive +proportions and solidly-planted pose of the King heighten the illusion +of a Colossus. Behind him stands the admirably contrasted figure of +Henry VII. The whole composition consisted of four portraits; Queen +Jane Seymour opposite her husband, and the King's mother opposite to, +and on a level with, Henry VII., who stands on the elevation of the +background. + + Illustration: PLATE 31 + KING HENRY VIII AND HIS FATHER + (_Fragment of Cartoon used for the Whitehall Wall-Painting_) + _Duke of Devonshire's Collection_ + +The pose and costume of Henry VIII. in the cartoon were, as Leemput's +copy shows, faithfully carried out in the painting; but in the latter +the face was afterwards turned to the full front view familiar to us in +the many copies of the King's portrait which so long passed as works of +Holbein, on the strength of reproducing his own painting. There is no +evidence that he ever again painted Henry VIII. or that he executed +any replica of this portrait. The old copy at Windsor Castle serves, +however, to recall its details of costume; such as his brown doublet +stiff with gold brocade and scintillating with the gleams of splendid +jewels, his coat of royal red embroidered with gold thread and lined +with ermine to match the wide collar; his plumed and jewelled cap; as +also the huge gems on collar, pendant, rings, and the gold-hilted dagger +in its blue velvet sheath. + +But Holbein's own portrait of Henry VIII.--as shown by the original +chalk study from life now in the Munich Gallery (Plate 32)--may in +all sobriety of speech be called a stupendous work. Looking at this +marvellous drawing and picturing to one's self those cheeks informed +with pulsing blood, those lips with breath, those eyes with blue +gleams,--it is easy to understand that Van Mander was using no hyperbole +when he said that the painting on the wall of the Privy Chamber made the +stoutest knees to tremble. It was literally, as he said, "a terrible +painting," of which none of the stupidly-heavy copies that have for the +most part travestied Holbein's work give any true conception. Many a man +could paint cloth-of-gold and gems; but only once and again in the +centuries comes a man who can thus paint, not alone the mane and stride +of the lion, but the fires that light his glance, the roar rushing to +his lips. To look long into these eyes that Holbein had the genius to +read and the firmness to draw, is to feel one's self in the grip of an +insatiable, implacable, yet leonine soul; a being who, to borrow the +matchless description of Burke's political career, is "parted asunder in +his works like some vast continent severed by a convulsion of nature; +each portion peopled by its own giant race of opinions, differing +altogether in features and language, and committed in eternal hostility +with one another." And so long as the great drama of Tudor England +enthrals the minds of men, hard by Shakespeare's supreme name must be +read the name of the painter in whose pages the actors in that drama +have been compelled themselves to declare themselves. + + Illustration: PLATE 32 + KING HENRY VIII + (_Life-study; probably for the Whitehall Painting_) + _Chalks. Munich Collection_ + +To crown the King's pride, and to the no less intense delight of the +whole nation which saw in this event the rainbow of every promise, at +Hampton Court, on the 12th of October, 1537, Queen Jane Seymour gave +birth to the son who was to reign so briefly as Edward VI. And it was +doubtless in connection with this happy circumstance that the King +commissioned Holbein's design for a truly royal piece of goldsmith's +work. This drawing, generally known as "the Jane Seymour cup," is at +Oxford, in the Bodleian Library (Plate 33). + +No sketch of the artist's powers would be even barely complete without a +realising sense of their versatility. And in this design Holbein has more +than equalled the highest achievement of his great contemporary, Benvenuto +Cellini, at this time in the service of the French Court. The initials +of the King and Queen, H. and J., and the exceedingly judicious motto of +the latter--"Bound to obey and to serve"--are recurring devices. But it +is in the originality and unflawed beauty of the whole--the springing +grace of outline, the taste and cunning with which flowers of gold +naturally bloom into gems and pearls, the combination of freest, richest +fancy with every restraint of a pure taste--that the perfection of this +little masterpiece consists. + + Illustration: PLATE 33 + DESIGN FOR "THE JANE SEYMOUR CUP" + _Bodleian Library_ + +In the midst of all the public rejoicings, the Te Deums, feasts, and +bonfires, came the thunderclap of the young mother's death. Some +negligence had permitted her to take cold, and on the twelfth day after +his coveted heir was born, Henry VIII. was once again a widower. The +Court went into deepest mourning until the 3rd of February. But Thomas +Cromwell was very shortly authorised to take secret steps to ascertain +what Princess might most suitably fill the late Queen's vacant place and +strengthen the assurance of an unbroken succession. + +Choice fell at first on a Roman Catholic--Christina, the sixteen-year-old +widow of Francis Sforza Duke of Milan, who had died in the autumn of +1535. The upshot of private inquiries was that Holbein was sent over to +Brussels in March, 1538, to bring back a portrait of this daughter of +Christian of Denmark and niece of Charles V. And although the painter +had but three hours in which to do it, he did make what Hutton described +as her "very perffight" image; besides which, said the envoy, the +portrait previously despatched, though painted in all her state finery, +"was but slobbered." + +From this "perffight" painting, which could not have been more than one +of his portrait studies, he afterwards completed that full-length oil +painting which is worthy to rank with his great Morett portrait. By the +kindness of the Duke of Norfolk, who has lent it, this beautiful work +is now in the National Gallery (Plate 34). But unhappily for its best +appreciation, to my thinking at least, it hangs at one side and in too +close proximity to the bold colouring of "The Ambassadors"; so that its +own subtle, yet reticent superiority is well-nigh shouted down by its +lusty neighbour. It is a picture to be seen by itself; as it must stand +by itself in the usual inane gallery of women's portraits. + +Hutton tells us that the painter who "slobbered" Christina's portrait +had painted her in full dress. But Holbein's eye was quick to recognise +the values of her everyday dress--the widow's costume of Italy--in +enhancing the distinction of her face and the stately slenderness of her +figure. And so he drew her as she stood, with a hint of bending +forward, her gloves being restlessly fingered in a shy yet proud +embarrassment, in the first moments when he saw her. + + Illustration: PLATE 34 + CHRISTINA OF DENMARK, DUCHESS OF MILAN + _Oils. National Gallery_ + [_Lent by the Duke of Norfolk_] + +The portrait is nearly life-size. Over a plain black satin dress she +wears a gown of the same material, lined with yellow sable. Her hair is +entirely concealed by a black hood. At her throat and wrists are plain +cambric frills. The ranging scale of tawny tones--in the floor, the +gloves, the fur, the golden glint in her brown eyes--and the one ruby, +on her hand, are the only colours, except those of her fresh young lips +and skin and the black and white of her costume. "She is not so white as +the late Queen," wrote Hutton, "but she hath a singular good countenance, +and when she chanceth to smile there appeareth two pits in her cheeks +and one in her chin, the which becometh her excellently well." + +It is easy to believe that they did, but her dimples did not chance for +Henry VIII. Whether she really sent him, along with her picture, the +witty refusal credited to her--that she had but one head; had she two, +one should be at His Majesty's service--or whether it was the Emperor's +doing entirely that his niece married the Duke of Lorraine instead of +the man whose first wife had been Charles V.'s aunt, there is, at all +events, a soft lurking devil in the demure little face which seems to +whisper that the answer was one which she could have made an' she would. + +Van Mander heard from Holbein's circle a story which modern pedantry +is inclined to flout. This is, that when an irate nobleman wanted the +painter punished for an affront, the King hotly exclaimed:--"Understand, +my lord, that I can make seven earls out of as many hinds, any day; but +out of seven earls I could not make one such painter as this Holbein." +An eminently ben-trovato story, at all events. And certain it is that +the painter stood sufficiently high in the royal favour to be despatched +on some special private mission for the King in the summer of 1538, of +which the secret was so well kept that nothing beyond the record of +payment for it has ever transpired. + +From this date Holbein's name is regularly down in the Royal Accounts. +The amounts drawn total, it has been computed, about L360 in present +value, and would make an agreeable annual addition to his other +earnings. So that it is little wonder he was not tempted by the small +sum offered by the Basel Council in 1532. But in 1538 the Council +greatly increased the old offer, and was so anxious to have him among +her citizens that the painter seized the opportunity of his secret +mission to Upper Burgundy, whatever it was, to pay a flying visit to +Basel in the interests of his family. + + * * * * * + +His old companions of the Guild of St. Johann Vorstadt made this +visit--when Holbein was back among them, as was noted, "in silk and +velvet"--the occasion of a grand banquet in his honour. But the real +motive for his visit was to arrange upon what terms he could meet the +Council's wishes. The terms were far from ungenerous, as is shown by the +contract which followed him back to London. + +In this the Council bound itself, in consideration of the great honour +of retaining in their city a painter "famous beyond all other painters +on account of the riches of his art," and in further consideration of +his promise to make no absence from Basel more prolonged than should be +really necessary to carry his foreign commissions to their destination +and receive his pay for them--to give him an annuity of fifty guldens, +equally whether Holbein should be ill or well, but only during his own +life. In addition to this, they granted him permission to make short +visits to specified art-centres, of which Milan was one, "once, twice, +or thrice, every year." And recognising the impossibility of his freeing +himself from his English engagements in less than two years, they also +granted him this interval before he need resume his residence at Basel; +and engaged to pay forty guldens yearly to his wife, on his behalf, for +each of these two years. + +There is every probability that Holbein himself took a goodly sum to +Basel to invest for his family's permanent benefit in one way and +another. For it could only have been as a part of this gleaning for +them that he drew--as the Account Books show that he did just at this +juncture--a whole year's salary in advance from the Royal Exchequer; +seeing that the same books prove that he was liberally paid for all his +own expenses on the King's service, in addition to his regular salary. + +Part of the sum he collected to take with him was doubtless used to +apprentice his son Philip, now sixteen, to the goldsmith's trade. And +that the father chose Paris for this purpose, where he left Philip on +his return journey, might well be due either to his own estimation +of Jerome David, to whom Philip was indentured, or to the fact that +Benvenuto Cellini's presence at Paris afforded some advantage; or that +his own promised return to Basel would make it preferable to have the +lad on the same side of the Channel as all his family. And that Holbein +fully intended to make the necessary and obvious sacrifice involved in +exchanging London for Basel is also proved by a contemporary account. +"His intention was," says his fellow-townsman, "had God lengthened his +life, to paint many of his pictures again at his own expense, as well as +the hall in the Rathaus. The paintings on the _Haus zum Tanz_ he +pronounced 'pretty good.'" But it was not to be. + +His New Year's offering to the King on the opening of 1539 was a +portrait, probably the oil painting in the Hague Gallery, of the infant +Prince of Wales. It was a spirited picture of the royal baby with his +gold rattle in his chubby little fist, such as might have delighted a +father less doting than Henry VIII., whose return gift is recorded: "To +Hans Holbyne, paynter, a gilte cruse with a cover, weighing x oz. 1 +quarter." The cruse was made by a friend of the painter; that Cornelius +Hayes, goldsmith, whom Bourbon's letter mentioned in connection with him +in 1536. + +All these months the negotiations for the hand of the Duchess of Milan +had fluctuated with the varying fortunes of the King's relations with +her uncle, Charles V. But at last they had altogether collapsed with +what seemed to Henry VIII. the threatening attitude assumed by the +Emperor and the Pope. Hereupon followed that historical chapter, so full +of fatal consequences to Cromwell, and no less big with shame for the +King's own story: the pitiful chapter of Anne of Cleves. + +Her brother, the Duke of Cleves, was at this time a troublesome foe to +the Emperor; while the fact that she was a Protestant was a "Roland" +for the Imperial and Papal "Oliver." So Holbein was again posted off to +bring back a counterfeit of Anne, and to carry to her a miniature of the +King. And by the 1st September he had acquitted himself of the new +mission. + +There is not an iota of historical or other evidence for that "Flanders +mare" anecdote, which seems to have had a gratuitous as well as +spontaneous origin in Bishop Burnet's seventeenth-century brain, to the +effect that the King was the victim of a flattering portrait by Holbein, +and cruelly undeceived by the actual looks of his bride. In the first +place his agents wrote to him frankly that the Princess was of no great +beauty, though not uncomely, and "never from the ellebowe of the Ladye +Duchesse her Mother," who was said to be most unwilling to part with her +(as a mother might well be, for the husband in question). The King was +also told that she was quite unskilled in languages or music, and +held, with her mother, that it was "for a rebuke and an occasion of +lightenesse that great Ladyes shuld be lernyd or have enye knowledge of +musike." And in the next place even a superficial knowledge of Holbein +would disprove any tradition of "flattery" from his unflinching, almost +brutally truthful brush. It was hardly likely that the painter who would +not stoop to flatter Bishop Stokesley, or Henry VIII. himself, would be +swerved from his good faith by Anne of Cleves. + + Illustration: PLATE 35 + ANNE OF CLEVES + _Oils. The Louvre_ + +On the contrary, the painting, in oils on vellum and mounted on a panel, +now in the Louvre (Plate 35), is the very embodiment of contemporary +accounts of this Princess. Her fair-skinned, commonplace, yet "not +uncomely" face looks out placidly at you from the quaint Flemish +head-dress of fine gauze and jewelled cloth-of-gold. Her inert hands +(Holbein's hands belong to his truth-telling revelations), jewelled +even on the thumb, are listlessly clasped upon each other; her +crimson-velvet dress is heavily banded with gold and pearl embroidery. + +No Venus certainly, and perhaps somewhat heavily handicapped by the +maternal "elbowe." But still perfectly in keeping with her descriptions +and making no denial to the French Ambassador's statement that she was +"the gentlest and kindest" of queens; or to an English eye-witness who +writes that at her coronation the people all applauded her for being "so +fayre a Ladye, of so goodly a stature and so womanly a countenance, and +in especial of so good qualities." + +The fact is that the King's very cruelty to this poor girl--torn from +her mother's side and her Protestant home in Duerren to be the pawn of an +unscrupulous diplomacy--was based on grounds, at least, less infamous +than that of a slave-buyer. After both Cromwell and Holbein had been +well rewarded for their services, the former lost his head and the Queen +her crown on considerations that took no more account of her looks than +her feelings. The Catholic glass had risen; the King himself was not +ashamed to avow it; and the Protestant alliance was therefore an +incubus. After some two months of a queen's and wife's estate, poor +Anne of Cleves was bid to pack her belongings and take up a separate +establishment as an unmarried woman. No wonder she fainted when first +informed of such an infamy. + +But there was no law in England save the _fiat_ of Henry VIII. The +marriage was pronounced "null and void," and Anne retired into private +life, on the rigid condition that she would make no attempt to ever quit +England, with an allowance of L3,000 a year, and the formal title of the +King's "sister." There was no help for her. Never again for her would +there be the austere joys of Duerren--her mother's side, her own timid +dreams of other companionship, and never the price at which she had lost +them. + +At the head of the triumphant anti-Protestant, anti-Cromwell party stood +Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk, whose portrait, in the Royal +Collection at Windsor, Holbein painted about this time (Plate 36). The +lean face and the figure clothed in red stand out strikingly from the +plain green background, although the painting has suffered not a little +injury. The robe is lined and trimmed with ermine, and over it is the +collar and badge of the Order of the Garter. In his right hand he holds +the gold baton of his office as Earl Marshal, and in his left the White +Staff of the Lord Chamberlain. + + Illustration: PLATE 36 + THOMAS HOWARD, THIRD DUKE OF NORFOLK + _Oils. Windsor Castle_ + +According to Roper, Norfolk, then Earl of Surrey, was a great friend of +Sir Thomas More. But it would be hard to imagine a greater contrast than +the records of the two men. The latter a pattern of personal purity and +lofty ideals; the former as venal as the King's Parliaments, and as +unscrupulous in pursuit of his passions as the King himself. + +Norfolk's star of influence had already waxed and waned with the evil +destinies of one niece, before it arose anew with the fortunes of +another only to plunge sharply after them into the gulf of ruin. For the +present he and Gardiner, restored to favour with him, were all-powerful. +Their calculations seemed to prosper, too, beyond their most ambitious +dreams, when, instead of ruling through a rival to Anne who should be +the King's mistress, they were to rule through a legal successor. For +the King was nothing if not technically correct; and from the moment +when the fatal royal glance flamed on Catherine Howard when Gardiner was +entertaining him, nothing would do but she should become his wife. And +thus once more the wild wheel of Fortune was to make Norfolk uncle to a +Queen of England. + +Anne was divorced on the 12th of July, 1540, and on the 28th of the +same month, on the very day when Thomas Cromwell was beheaded, the King +married Anne Boleyn's cousin, Catherine Howard. On the 8th of August she +was proclaimed Queen, and on the 15th of that month she was publicly +prayed for as such in all the churches of the realm. Well might she be! +Dry your outraged tears, Anne of Cleves, and give thanks to God that you +are well out of it! + +There is a miniature in the Windsor Collection now believed to be +Holbein's portrait of Catherine Howard. Until recently it was held to be +the portrait of Catherine Parr. But there is a larger portrait of the +former among the Windsor drawings, a study evidently made for an oil +painting (Plate 37). By this it seems that she had auburn hair, hazel +eyes, a fair complexion, and a piquant smile. There is a painting which +accords with this drawing in the Duke of Buccleuch's collection, but it +is said to be by a French artist. + + Illustration: PLATE 37 + CATHERINE HOWARD + _Chalk Drawing. Windsor Castle_ + +In the autumn of this year, 1540, the two years of absence expired which +had been granted to Holbein by his contract with the Basel Council. But +he had now formed ties which were too powerful to yield to Basel's. +Those plans of painting again the walls by which coming generations +would judge him, the resolve to try again if he and Elsbeth might not +manage to live in peace under one roof where the children, who were +strangers to him, should come to know and be known by him in something +more than name, were all relinquished. They must certainly have +been relinquished on some definite mutual understanding, and at a +"compensation" agreed upon between him and Elsbeth and his step-son, +Franz Schmidt; because it must have been Holbein himself who enabled +Franz, acting on his mother's behalf, to take over as he did the entire +legacy--a snug little competency in itself--to which Holbein fell heir +in this autumn by the bequest of his uncle, Sigmund Holbein, citizen of +Berne. Philip having been launched by his father in the goldsmith's +craft, there only remained the second son and two daughters at home. +Thus so far as mere money went, Holbein might now think himself +discharged from the support of his family, and free to divert his future +earnings from them. And, as has been said, the Will and Inventory proved +at Elsbeth's death, six years after her husband's, that he had made no +bad provision for them in the matter of material comforts, however +remiss his conduct in its moral aspects. + +The Royal Accounts break off in 1541, but the Subsidy Roll for the City +of London has a very precious item for Holbein's biography in the +October of this year. This announces that "Hanns Holbene" is among the +"straungers" then residing in "the Parisshe of Saint Andrew Undershafte," +and that he is assessed as such. + +Not only the Windsor chalk drawings, but the paintings at Vienna, +Berlin, and other Continental galleries, show the pressure, as well as +the high level of quality, at which he was now working. These portraits +are among almost his very best, while the one shortly to be mentioned is +quite among them. + +By the summer of 1542 the tragedy of Catherine Howard was over. That +Royal Progress, like more than one of its forerunners, had become the +royal shame. This time it was a shame so black and so wide that within +two years, after madness and death had purged the complicity of many, +there still remained so many more involved in the sins and follies of +Norfolk's niece that the ordinary prisons were unable to contain all +that were arraigned; a shame so bitter that when the proofs of it were +first laid before Henry VIII. the Privy Council quaked to see him shed +tears. It was, they said with awe, "a strange thing in his courage!" +The guilty woman had her own tears to shed in expiation; but in the +dawn of February 12th, 1542, she walked to the block as full of wilful, +cheerful audacity, and as careful of her toilet, as she had ever gone to +meet her royal lover. And so the auburn head of the King's fifth wife +rolled from the axe that had severed her guilty cousin's. + +On July 12th, 1543, the "next" year as it then began, the King married +Catherine Parr. She had been twice widowed and was about to marry Sir +Thomas Seymour when the King interfered, and she became his wife +instead; though one can well credit the story that she tremblingly +told him, "It were better to be his mistress." She was a good woman, a +generous stepmother, and a good wife. But there is plenty of probability +for the assertion that her own death had been debated with the King when +her wit delayed it, and his death set her free to marry at last the man +from whom the King had snatched her. + +It was formerly believed, as has been said, that Holbein had painted +her miniature--the one at Windsor, now declared to be the portrait +of Catherine Howard. About this time he must have painted the great +portrait of which mention has been made. This is the oil portrait of +Dr. Chamber, the King's physician, now in the Vienna Gallery (Plate 38). +The sitter was, as the inscription shows, eighty-eight years old; and +the strong, stern face is full of that "inward" look which comes to +the faces of men whose meat and drink has been a lifetime of heavy +responsibilities. He had been associated with the Charter of the College +of Physicians in 1518, and was also instrumental in that of the Guild of +"Barbers and Surgeons," in 1541. And it was probably through him and Dr. +Butts, another physician to the King whom Holbein had painted and who +was likewise a Master of the new Guild, that he undertook to paint a +large work for their hall--Henry VIII. granting their Charter to the +Master-Surgeons kneeling before him. + + Illustration: PLATE 38 + DR. CHAMBER + _Oils. Vienna Gallery_ + +This work Holbein did not live to finish; and it is to-day exceedingly +doubtful as to how much of the smoke-blackened painting is by him. The +very drawing has a woodenness foreign to his compositions, and much of +the painting is by an evidently inferior hand. But good judges hold some +of the heads to be undoubtedly his work. + +However this may be, with the autumn of 1543 Holbein's life came to a +sudden close. Van Mander, wrong as to the date by eleven years which +have fathered a host of spurious _Holbeins_ on the Histories of Art, is +apparently right as to the cause of death--"the Plague." By the great +discovery of Hans Holbein's Will, found by Mr. Black in 1861 among the +archives of St. Paul's Cathedral, it is proved that the painter made his +Will on October 7th, and must have died between this and November 29th, +1543, when administration was granted to one of his executors (the other +would seem to have perished, meanwhile, from the same epidemic). This +surviving executor was an old friend of the artist, whose portrait, +in the Windsor Gallery, he had painted eleven years before--Hans of +Antwerp, a master-goldsmith of the Steelyard. + +The Will bears about it evident signs of having been made in great haste +and mental disturbance. But it accomplished all that Holbein probably +had at heart; that is, the ensuring that whatsoever moneys could be +collected from his accounts, or by the sale of "all my goodes and also +my horse," should first be applied to clear a couple of specified debts, +and the rest be managed for the sole benefit of "my two chylder which +be at nurse." From the very fact that nothing as to the identity or +whereabouts of these babies is mentioned, it is clear that Holbein +relied on the verbal instructions which he had given to his trusted +friends and to their complete understanding of all the circumstances as +well as of his wishes. He was only concerned, apparently, that such +small means as could thus be saved for them should not be permitted to +pass to his legal heirs. + +No other heirs are mentioned; no other legacy is made. From the Will +alone one who did not know otherwise would suppose that he had no +other family or relatives in existence. The Plague left no man in its +neighbourhood much leisure for explanations. Stowe records that the one +of that autumn was such "a great death" that the Law Courts had to be +transferred to St. Albans. But two things seem to speak in this curt +document. First, that by the transference of his uncle Sigmund's little +fortune to Franz Schmidt (as trustee for Elsbeth and the children of her +marriage with Holbein), which the archives prove took place three years +earlier, and by his other arrangements for his family at Basel and for +Philip at Paris, Holbein held himself free of any further responsibility +for their support, and, indeed, determined that they should not obtain +possession of the residue in London. + +Secondly, that if the mother of his two illegitimate children had lived +with him in London as his wife, she must have just died--perhaps in +childbed, perhaps of the Plague. She is not in any way referred to. +And there is something in the very signs of confusion and distress +throughout the wording of the Will which seems to exhale a far-away +anguish--sudden parting, sad apprehensions, keenest anxiety for "my two +chylder which be at nurse." There comes before the eye a picture of +the five grave men--Holbein, his two executors, the one a goldsmith, +the other an armourer, and his two witnesses, a "merchaunte" and a +"paynter"--hurrying along the plague-infected streets to get this +document legalised as some protection for two motherless babies, in the +event of their father's death. No man knew whose turn would come within +the hour. + +And by November 29th Holbein's had come, and one executor's also, +apparently. The Latin record of administration on this date is that it +has been consigned to John Anwarpe (Johann or Hans of Antwerp), and +accepted by him in accordance with "the last will of John, alias Hans +Holbein, recently deceased in the parish of Saint Andrew Undershaft." + +It would seem probable, then, that the painter was buried in this church +rather than in the closely adjoining church of Saint Catharine-Cree to +which tradition assigned his body. But the horrors of such an epidemic +as that in which the painter was swept suddenly away make it easy to +understand how even such a man as he had now become could die unnoticed +and be buried in an unrecorded grave. When the Earl of Arundel, a few +years later, sought to learn where he might set up a monument to one he +so greatly admired, there was only this vague and uncorroborated rumour +that the painter was buried in Saint Catharine-Cree. And so no monument +was built to mark the spot where Holbein's "measure of sliding sand" had +been spilled at last. + +But, as they ran, those sands had measured more than "_a great +portrait-painter_." They had measured Greatness; greatness which is not +to be delimited by the wanton outrages of man or the accidents of time. +Both have had their share in the judgments of generations that have lost +all his greatest and nearly all his imaginative creations. And what +the Spoiler has spared, the self-styled Restorer has too often ruined. +Self-love, on the other hand, and family pride have been engaged to +preserve those portraits by which it is now the fashion to mulct him of +his far larger dues. + +Of his mysticism, of the symbolism in which his "Journal Intime" is +written in his own firm cipher, this little book is not the place to +speak; though for those who have once come to know the true Holbein +these have a spell, a stern, inexhaustible enchantment all their own. + +But study the few fortunate survivals of his imaginative works, study +even more the wrecks and skeletons of his loftier conceptions, and ask +yourself if it could be by only a quick eye and a clever hand (and he +had both, assuredly) that Holbein caught up the dying ember of the Van +Eycks' torch and fanned it by his originality, his fancy, his winged +realism, until its light lit up the dim ways of Man with a clairvoyance +far beyond theirs. This eye, this mind, flung its gleaming penetration +into every covert of the soul and deep, deep, deep into the most +shrouded, the most shuddering secrets of Mortality. + +Was it by virtue of a mere portrait-painter's powers that the son of +the Augsburg Bohemian came to lay his finger upon the very core and +composition of perhaps the haughtiest, the subtlest, the most dread +despot since the Caesars? Henry VIII. and Fisher; the Lais Corinthiaca, +the Duchess of Milan, his brooding wife; dancing children, and dancing +Death; Christ on the Cross, Christ in the Grave, Christ Arisen; lambs in +the fields, woods and hills, gaping peasants, wild battle;--put them +side by side, the poor ghosts of them left to us, and compute the range +of art--"the majestic range" that framed them all. + +Let us be just. Let us forget for a moment the chirp of the family +housekeeper over her gods. Let us gather up the broken fragments that +are more than the meal, and humbly own the Miracle that created them. +It is idle to argue with the intelligence that can see "a want of +imagination" in Holbein. But we can find proof and to spare that it +is not so; that his so-called "limitations"--apart from method, which +is a matter of Epoch--are due to a creed we may or may not agree with, +but surely must respect. The creed that Beauty is the framework, the +ornament, rather than the substance of things; the pleasure, not the +purpose of "this mortal"; and that the sweetest flower that blows is but +an exquisite moment of transfigured clay. + +He smells the mould above the rose; yet how he draws the rose! The +brazen arrogance of pomp, the pearl on a woman's neck, the shimmer of a +breaking bubble, the wrinkles in a baby's foot, the beauty of life, the +pathos of life, the irony and the lust of life,--he has painted them +all, as he saw them all, in the phantasmagoric Procession of Being +betwixt garret and throne. + +He has painted each, too, with that genius for seizing the essential +quality which _is_ the thing, that never forsook him from Augsburg to +Saint Andrew's Undershaft; that singular, vivid, original genius which +can well afford to let his grave be forgotten, whose works build for +him, as Hans Holbein-- + + _One of the few, the immortal names + That were not born to die._ + + + + +FOOTNOTES. + + 1: The name used thus, without further identification, is to be taken + throughout these pages to mean Hans Holbein the _Younger_. + + 2: Variously written Meyer, Meier, Mejer, Meiger, or Megger. Baer is also + written _Ber_, or _Berin_. + + 3: I am deeply indebted to the personal kindness and trouble of Sir + Martin Gosselin, K.C.M.G., British Minister at the Court of Portugal, + for greatly facilitating my own study of this interesting picture. + + 4: I am indebted to the personal kindness of the discoverer's son, Herr + Direktor Zetter-Collin of the Solothurn Museum, for these details. But + the whole story, as well as Herr Zetter-Collin's contributions to the + history of the work, should be read in his own absorbingly interesting + monograph:--"_Die Zetter'sche Madonna von Solothurn. (...) Ihre + Geschichte, etc._" 1902. + + 5: + _"Die Liebe zu Gott Heist charite. + Wer Liebe hat der Tragt kein Hass."_ + + + + +A CATALOGUE OF THE PRINCIPAL +EXISTING WORKS OF +HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER + +ARRANGED, SO FAR AS CAN BE KNOWN, +IN CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE + + ** signifies--_Superlative qualities._ + + * signifies--_Of some particular importance._ + + ? signifies--_Authorities differ._ Held by some (and by the writer) + to have been, in its original condition, the work of + Holbein's own hand. + + +I. + +EARLIEST INDIVIDUAL WORKS (BEFORE GOING TO BASEL) + + ? St. Elizabeth of Hungary and St. Barbara. Oils. (Wings of the St. + Sebastian altar-piece.) Munich Gallery. + + Virgin and Child. Oils. Basel Museum. (Earliest signed work known. + Dated 1514.) + + +II. + + FIRST BASEL PERIOD + (1515, 1516, 1519-1526) + + Illustrations to Erasmus's _Praise of Folly_. + Eighty-two pen-and-ink sketches on the margins. + Original copy, Basel Museum. + + Portrait of an unknown young man. + Oils. Grand-Ducal Museum, Darmstadt. + + Jacob Meyer _zum Hasen_ and his second wife, Dorothea Kannegiesser. + [Plates 4 and 5.] Oils. Basel Museum. + + Bonifacius Amerbach. [Plate 6.] Oils. Basel Museum. + + Portrait of himself. [Frontispiece.] Coloured Chalks. Basel Museum. + + * Studies from Nature. (A bat outspread and a lamb.) + Drawings in water-colour and silver-point. Basel Museum. + + Designs for armorial windows. (More especially those + with _Landsknechte_ and one with three peasants gossiping.) + Washed Drawings. Basel Museum and Print Cabinet, Berlin. + + _Landsknechte_ in a hand-to-hand fight. [Plate 7.] + Washed Drawing. Basel Museum. Others in various collections. + + Design for the wings of an organ-case. + Washed Drawings. Basel Museum. + + Head of St. John the Evangelist. + Oils. Basel Museum. + + The Last Supper. (On wood; ruined fragment.) + Oils. Basel Museum. + + The Nativity [Plate 8.] and The Adoration. Oils. + Freiburg Cathedral. (Wings of a lost altar-piece.) + + Holy Family. Washed Drawing. Basel Museum. + (Also other drawings of the Virgin and Child.) + + The Passion. Eight-panelled altar-piece. [Plate 9.] + Oils. Basel Museum. (Utterly ruined by over-painting.) + + * The Passion. A series of ten designs for glass-painting. + Washed Drawings. Basel Museum. + (A set of seven reversed impressions in the British Museum.) + + The Man of Sorrows and the Mater Dolorosa. + Oils, in tones of brown. Basel Museum. + + Christ borne to the ground by the weight of the cross. + A Washed Drawing and a * Woodcut (unique impression). + Basel Museum. + + * Christ in the grave. [Plate 10.] + Oils. Basel Museum. + + ? The risen Christ and Mary Magdalen at the sepulchre. [Plate 11.] + Oils. Hampton Court Gallery. (Very much injured.) + + St. George. Oils. Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe. + + St. Ursula. Oils. Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe. + + ? Portrait of a young girl. [Plate 13.] + Drawing in chalk and silver-point. Jabach Collection. The Louvre. + +** The Solothurn Madonna. [Plate 12.] + Oils. Solothurn Museum. ("Die Zetter'sche Madonna von Solothurn," + of which the remarkable history is given in the text; together + with the evident relationship of Plate 13 and the hypothesis of + the present writer in that connection.) + +** Portrait of Erasmus. [Plate 14.] + Oils. The Louvre. + + A Citizen's Wife, and others, in the dress of the time. + Washed Drawings. Basel Museum. + + The Table of Cebes. Border for title-page. + Woodcut. Royal Print Cabinet, Berlin. + + St. Peter and St. Paul; on the title-page of Adam Petri's + reprint of Luther's translation of the New Testament. + + Alphabet of "The Dance of Death." Woodcuts. + Proof-impressions in the Basel Museum, the British Museum, + and the Dresden Royal Collection. + + Bible Pictures: illustrating Old Testament. Woodcuts. + +** "Images of Death." [Two shown at Plates 14 and 15.] + Proof-impressions, some sets incomplete, in the Basel Museum, + British Museum and the National Print Collections of Paris, + Vienna, Berlin, Dresden, Karlsruhe, and the Bodleian Library. + (This is the immortal series of Woodcuts, often called + "The Dance of Death," done for the Trechsel Brothers of Lyons, + but not published there until many years later.) + + Dorothea Offenburg as the Goddess of Love. [Plate 16.] + Oils. Basel Museum. + + The above as Lais Corinthiaca. + Oils. Basel Museum. + +** The Meyer Madonna. [Plates 18 and 19.] + Oils. Grand-Ducal Collection, Darmstadt (superbly restored); + and ?Dresden Gallery. (Notwithstanding the many and eminent + authorities who hold this to be a copy, there still remain + a sufficiency of no less eminent authorities to warrant the + present writer in her unshaken opinion that, at any rate in + its first estate and in the main, this Dresden version--revered + for more than one century as such by the highest authorities--was + the creation of Holbein's own hand.) + + +III. + +FIRST LONDON PERIOD +(1526-1528) + + Portrait of Sir Thomas More. + Oils. Mr. Huth's Collection. + Chalk Drawing at Windsor. [Plate 20.] + (Also a drawing of Sir John More, father of the above.) + +** John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. [Plate 21.] + Chalk Drawing. Windsor Castle. (Another in the British Museum.) + + Archbishop Warham. + Oils. The Louvre, and Lambeth Palace. + + ? John Stokesley, Bishop of London. + Oils. Windsor Castle. + + Sir Henry Guildford. [Plate 22.] + Oils. Windsor Castle. + + Lady Guildford. + Oils. Mr. Frewen's Collection. + + Sir Thomas Godsalve and his son John. + Oils. Dresden Gallery. + + Chalk Drawing of Sir John Godsalve. + Windsor Castle. + + Nicholas Kratzer, Astronomer Royal to King Henry VIII. [Plate 23.] + Oils. The Louvre. + + Sir Henry Wyat. Oils. The Louvre. + + Sir Bryan Tuke, Treasurer of the Household to King Henry VIII. + Oils. Munich Gallery. [Plate 24.] + Also at Grosvenor House. (As stated in the text, the writer holds + that the portraits of Sir Bryan Tuke should properly be classed + with those of a later period. But they are given here in accordance + with opinions which obtain at present.) + + +IV. + +LAST BASEL PERIOD +(1528-1531) + +** Portrait group of Holbein's wife, Elsbeth, and his two eldest children. + [Plate 25.] Oils, on paper. + Basel Museum. (Outline hard from having been cut out and mounted.) + + King Rehoboam replying to his people, and +** Samuel denouncing Saul. [Plate 26.] + Two Washed Drawings. Basel Museum. (These are the designs for "the + back wall" of the Basel Council Chamber.) + + "Portrait of an English Lady" (unknown). + Chalk Drawing. Basel Museum. + +** Portrait of an unknown young man in a broad-brimmed hat. + Chalk Drawing. Basel Museum. + (This is one of the most beautiful of Holbein's portrait studies. There + is a soft, yet virile, witchery about it which haunts the memory.) + + Round Portrait of Erasmus. (Bust, 3/4 view.) + Oils. Basel Museum. + + Designs for dagger-sheaths and other goldsmith's work. + Washed Drawings. Basel Museum, British Museum, etc. + (More especially the "Dance of Death"; a chef-d'oeuvre.) + + A ship making sail. + Washed Drawing. Staedel Institut. Frankfurt. + + +V. + +LAST PERIOD; LONDON +(1531-43) + +** Portrait of Joerg Gyze. [Plate 27.] + Oils. Berlin Gallery. + + Portrait of an unknown man. + Oils. Schoenborn Gallery, Vienna. + + Johann or Hans of Antwerp. + Oils. Windsor Castle. (Holbein's friend and executor.) + + Derich Tybis of Duisburg. + Oils. Imperial Gallery, Vienna. + + Derich Born. + Oils. Munich Gallery, and Windsor Castle. + + Derich Berck. + Oils. Petworth. + + Unknown Man. + Oils. Prado Gallery, Madrid. + + The Triumph of Riches. + Drawing. The Louvre. + (Copies of this and the pendant design, The Triumph of Poverty, + in the British Museum and in the Collection of Lady Eastlake.) + + The Queen of Sheba before Solomon. + Washed Drawing, heightened with gold and colours. Windsor Castle. + + Robert Cheseman, with falcon. + Oils. Hague Gallery. + + * "The Ambassadors." [Plate 28.] + Oils. National Gallery. + (A double portrait, life size. Formerly supposed to be Sir Thomas + Wyatt and a scholar; now officially held to be Jean de Dinteville, + Bailli de Troyes, and George de Selve, Bishop of Lavaur. As stated + in the text, the present writer differs from any identification of + either figure yet published, but is not prepared to put forward her + own views for the present.) + + Nicholas Bourbon de Vandoeuvre, scholar and poet. + Chalk Drawing. Windsor Castle. + (An intimate friend of Holbein, Kratzer, and their circle. Recently + identified as the man in the scholar's gown, in "The Ambassadors," + and so given by Mr. Lionel Cust, in the _Dictionary of National + Biography_, in his article upon Holbein.) + +**The Morett Portrait. [Plate 29.] + Oils. Dresden Gallery. + (Long believed to be a triumph of Leonardo da Vinci's art, and the + portrait of Ludovico Sforza, "Il Moro." At one time held to be Henry + Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. Afterwards "established" and catalogued as + Hubert Morett, goldsmith to King Henry VIII. Following M. Larpent's + suggestion, however, it is now supposed to be the portrait of Charles + Solier, Sieur de Morette. But as to this the last word may yet remain + to be said. The drawing which the majority of authorities hold to be + the study for this painting now hangs near it.) + + Thomas Cromwell. + Oils. Tittenhanger. + +** Miniature portrait of Henry Brandon, son of the Duke of Suffolk. + Windsor Castle. + + Title-page used in Coverdale's Bible. Woodcut. + + Q. Jane Seymour. [Plate 30.] + Oils. Imperial Gallery, Vienna. + +** Portrait of Erasmus, full length, in scholar's robes, with his hand + on the head of the god Terminus. Woodcut. + Frontispiece to Hieronymus Froben's edition of Erasmus's + Works, published in 1540. + (Commonly known as "Erasmus in a surround," or niche.) + + Fragment of the Cartoon [Plate 31] used for the four royal portraits + in the wall-painting at Whitehall. The fragment shows only the figures + of King Henry VIII. and his father. Hardwick Hall. + (Remigius van Leemput's copy of the wall-painting shows that the + position of the King's head was changed, in the completed work, to the + full-face view so familiar in the oil-painting at Windsor Castle. The + latter is one of the many copies of Holbein's original portrait of + Henry VIII. which long passed muster as genuine _Holbeins_.) + +** Portrait study of the face of King Henry VIII. [Plate 32.] + Chalk Drawing. Royal Print Cabinet, Munich. + (Probably the Life-study for the Whitehall painting. If nothing + else remained, this mask alone would incontestably rank Holbein + among the Masters of all time. To the writer's thinking, at any + rate, it stands among the very few works of art which it would be + difficult to match, and impossible to surpass in its own colossal + qualities.) + +** Design for "the Jane Seymour Cup." [Plate 33.] + Bodleian Library. + +** Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan. [Plate 34.] + Oils. National Gallery; lent from Arundel Castle. + + Edward VI., when infant Prince of Wales. + Oils. Hanover Gallery, and Lord Yarborough's Collection. + + Anne of Cleves. [Plate 35.] + Oils on Vellum. The Louvre. + + Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk. [Plate 36.] + Oils. Windsor Castle, and Arundel Castle. + + Catherine Howard. [Plate 37.] + Chalk Drawing. Windsor Castle. + (The Miniature at Windsor Castle, formerly said to be Holbein's + portrait of Catherine Parr, is now said to be Catherine Howard. If + so, it is somewhat difficult to reconcile it with the drawing, + which latter seems much more in keeping with the descriptions of + her traits.) + + Title-page used in Cranmer's Bible. Woodcut. + (This is the title-page from which Cromwell's Arms are erased in + the second edition.) + + Sir Nicholas Carew. + Oils. Dalkeith Palace. Chalk Drawing. Basel Museum. + + Simon George of Cornwall. + Oils. Staedel Institut, Frankfurt. + + Miniature portrait of Charles Brandon, son of the Duke of Suffolk. + Windsor Castle. + + Lady; unknown. + Oils. Imperial Gallery, Vienna. + Also a fine portrait of an unknown man. + Oils. Same Gallery. + + Sir Richard Southwell. + Oils. Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Chalk Drawing. Windsor Castle. + + John Reskymeer. + Oils. Hampton Court Gallery. + + Nicholas Poyntz. + Oils. De la Rosiere Collection, Paris. Chalk Drawing. Windsor Castle. + + Sir John Russell. + Oils. Woburn Abbey. Chalk Drawing. Windsor Castle. + + Three portraits; men unknown. + Oils. Berlin Gallery. + + Designs for jewelry, ornamental panels, clocks, chimney-piece, + etc., etc. Washed Drawings. British Museum, Basel Museum, etc. + + Many fine portraits of which no versions in oils are known. + Chalk Drawings. Windsor Castle. + Among these one of Edward VI. as boy Prince of Wales, the Duchess of + Suffolk, Sir Thomas Wyatt, etc., etc. + + Dr. John Chamber, or Chambers. + Oils. Imperial Gallery, Vienna. + + Also many other oil-portraits, more or less genuine, in various + Collections. + + + + +REFERENCES + + + The Literature of Holbein's Life, much more of his Works, is far too + extensive to admit of a Bibliography in a volume of this sort. But the + following List will be found to contain (or themselves refer the reader + to) all that is of essential importance to even the most complete study + of this Master. + + Carel van Mander, _Het Schilder-Boeck_, etc., 1604. + The above translated into French, and admirably edited by + M. Henri Hyman. 2 tom., 1884. + + Alfred Woltmann, _Holbein und seine Zeit. Zweite umgearbeitete + Auflage_, 1874. 2 Bde. + There is an English translation of the First Edition of 1871, by + F. E. Bunnett; but unfortunately its views on many vital points are + reversed by Woltmann himself in his latest edition. + + R. N. Wornum, _Some Account of the Life and Works of Hans Holbein_, 1867. + Corrected in many respects by the author in a monograph on + "The Meier Madonna," 1891. + + Paul Mantz, _Hans Holbein_. Paris, 1879. + + H. Knackfuss, _Holbein_. Leipzig, 1899. + English translation of the above by Mr. Campbell Dodgson. + + Eduard His, _Die Basler Archive ueber Hans Holbein den + Jungern_. In Zahn's _Jahrbuecher fuer Kunstwissenschaft_, + 1870. + + Francis Douce, _The Dance of Death_, 1833. + + J. R. Smith, _Holbein's Dance of Death_, 1849. + (Especially fine reproductions.) + + H. N. Humphreys, _Holbein's Dance of Death_, 1868. + + G. Th. Fechner, _Ueber die Deutungsfrage der Holbein'schen Madonna._ + _Die aelteste historische Quelle ueber die Holbein'sche Madonna_. + Both in _Archiv fuer die zeichnenden Kuenste_, 1866, I., 4. + These give all the known facts of the history of the Meyer Madonnas + of Darmstadt and Dresden. + + S. Larpent, _Sur le portrait de Morett_. Christiania, 1881. + + Mary F. S. Hervey, _Holbein's "Ambassadors,"_ 1900. + This volume also embodies, and gives the references to, the original + identifications of Professor Sidney Colvin, and the suggested + identifications of Mr. C. L. Eastlake; as well as to the contribution + concerning the hymn-book by Mr. Barclay Squire. + + W. F. Dickes, _Holbein's "Ambassadors" Unriddled_, 1903. + + F. A. Zetter-Collin, _Die Zetter'sche Madonna von Solothurn. + Ihre Geschichte aus Originalquellen_, etc. + In _Festschrift des Kunst-Vereins der Stadt Solothurn_, 1902. + + Artur Seeman, _Der Brunnen des Lebens, von H. Holbein_. + In _Zeitschrift fuer bildende Kunst_. Mai, 1903. + With a superb illustration in colour. + + + + +INDEX + + "Adoration," painting, 71 + "Ambassadors, The," painting, 145-9, 193 + Amerbach, Basilius, 66 + Bonifacius, 25, 46-50, 99, 125 + Johann, 48, 61 + Anne, of Cleves, Queen, 171-4 + Antwerp, Johann or Hans of, 183 + Arundel, Henry Fitzalan, Earl of, 184 + Thomas Howard, Earl of, 151 + William Fitzalan, Earl of, 115 + Augsburg, 10, 11, 16 + + Baer, Hans, 24, 25 + Magdalena, first wife of Meyer zum Hasen, 31 + Barber-Surgeons, Guild of, 180 + Basel, description of, 58-64 + decoration of the Rathhaus by Holbein, 83-5, 132, 135, 170 + decoration of the Laellenkoenig by Holbein, 135 + offers of an annuity to Holbein, 145, 168, 169, 176, 177 + Basel, banquet to Holbein, 168 + Beatus Rhenanus, 68 + Berne, 12 + Bible, translations before the Reformation, 23, 24 + Boleyn, Anne, Queen, 150, 151 + Bourbon, Nicholas, 156, 157, 193 + Bourges, 99 + Burgkmair, Hans, 11 + Butts, Sir William, 180 + + Cellini, Benvenuto, 169-70 + Chamber, John, 180 + Cheseman, Robert, 150 + "Christ in the Grave," painting, 78-80 + Christ in Holbein's Art, 77-83 + Christina, Duchess of Milan, 144, 164-7 + Colet, John, Dean of St. Paul's, 22, 137 + Cromwell, Thomas, Earl of Essex, 152 + + "Dance of Death," 100-103 + Darmstadt, "Meyer-Madonna" at, 108-13 + David, Gerard, 53 + David, Jerome, 169 + Diesbach, Nicholas von, 89, 90 + Dinteville, Jean de, 149 + Dresden, "Meyer-Madonna" at, 108-13 + Duerer, Albrecht, 22 + + Edward VI., King, 163, 170 + Elizabeth of York, Queen, 161 + Erasmus, Desiderius, 17-21, 125, 137, 158 + Portraits of, 98, 99, 159 + Eyck, H. and J. van, 15, 185 + + Faesch, Remigius, 111 + Fisher, John, Bishop of Rochester, 118 + "Fountain of Life," painting, 53, 54 + Froben, Hieronymus, 158 + Froben, Johann, 15, 34, 35, 63, 64, 68, 98 + + Gardiner, Stephen, Bishop of Winchester, 175 + Gerster, Hans, 89, 90 + Glass-painting, designs for, 54, 55 + "Goddess of Love," painting, 104 + Gold-work, designs for, 163 + Graf, Urs, 65, 66 + Guildford, Sir Henry, 119-21 + Lady, 121 + Gyze, Georg, 142-43 + + Hayes, Cornelius, 170 + Henry VII., King, portrait, 161 + Henry VIII., King, portrait, 160-63, 195 + New Year present to Holbein, 170 + Henry, Prince of Wales, 151 + Hertenstein, Jacob von, 43 + Holbein, Ambrose, 10, 12, 13, 17 + Bruno, 12 + Elsbeth, 58, 94-7, 104, 105, 107, 126-9, 177-82 + Hans, the Elder, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 91 + the Younger, birth (1497), 16 + at Basel (1515-17), 24 + at Lucerne (1517-18), 41, 42 + a citizen of Basel (1519-26), 58-113 + marriage, 58 + wife and children, 104-7, 124, 129-31, 169, 170, 182 + first visit to England (1526-8), 115-25 + last years in Basel (1528-31), 125-36 + purchase of Basel House (1528), 125, 126 + final return to London (1531), 136 + mention of, by Nicholas Bourbon, 157 + official income, 167 + will and death, 180-83 + place of interment, 184 + illegitimate children, 183 + as a designer and engraver, 35-7 + greatness of, 184-7 + religious ideals and sympathies, 21-4, 77-83 + Jacob, 128-30 + Katharina, 128-31 + Kuenegoldt, wife of Andreas Syff, 129-31 + Michael, 11 + Philip, son of Hans the Younger, 86, 94, 129, 169, 170 + Philip, grandson of Hans the Younger, 130 + Sigmund, 12, 177 + Howard, Catherine, Queen, 175 + Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, 175 + Hutten, Ulrich von, 71 + Hyss, Cornelius, 157 + + "Jane Seymour Cup," 163 + + Kratzer, Nicholas, 121, 122, 157 + + Lais Corinthiaca, painting, 105, 106 + Landsknechte, drawings, 57, 58 + "Last Supper," paintings, 50-52 + Leemput, Remi von, 160 + Leonardo da Vinci, 40, 50 + Lisbon, painting, the "Fountain of Life" at, 53, 54 + Lucerne, 41, 42 + Luetzelburger, Hans, 36, 98 + Lystrius, Gerard, 68 + + Mantegna, Andrea, 40, 41, 50 + "Mary Magdalen at the Sepulchre," painting, 80-83 + Merian, family of, at Frankfurt, 131 + Meyer, Anna, 110, 111 + Dorothea, nee Kannegiesser, 31-4, 109 + Jacob zum Hasen, 31-4, 75, 89, 107 + Jacob zum Hirten, 132, 133 + Magdalena, nee Baer, 31 + "Meyer-Madonna" (Darmstadt and Dresden), 108-13 + Milan, 40 + Monasticism and Art, 5-8 + More, Sir Thomas, 112, 114-17, 137 + Morett, Hubert, or Morette, Charles de Solier, portrait, 144, 154, 194 + + "Nativity," paintings, 71-4 + + Oberriedt, Hans, 72, 75 + Oporinus, Joannes, 67, 68 + + Paracelsus, 67 + Parr, Catherine, 176, 179 + Passion, eight-panelled altar-piece, 75-77 + drawings, 77, 78 + Plague (in 1543), 182 + + Saint Andrew Undershaft, London, 178, 183, 184 + Saint Catharine Cree, London, 184 + Schmidt, Franz, 177, 182 + Schoolmaster's Sign-board, paintings, 25, 26 + Selve, Georges de, Bishop of Lavaur, 149 + Seymour, Jane, Queen, 157, 158, 161, 163, 164 + "Sheba, Queen of, visiting Solomon," drawing, 155 + Solier, Charles de, Seigneur de Morette, 154 + Solothurn Madonna, painting and its history, 86-97 + Steelyard, the, London, 138-42 + Stokesley, John, Bishop of London, 119 + Sultz, Dorothea von, nee Offenburg, 104-6 + + Title-pages, woodcuts, 65, 98, 115, 159 + "Triumph of Riches and of Poverty," drawings, 150 + Tuke, Sir Bryan, 122, 123 + + Ulm, 11 + Utopia, woodcut title-page, 115 + + "Virgin and Child," drawings, 55 + paintings by Holbein, 86-97, 108-13 + + Warham, William, Archbishop of Canterbury, 118, 119, 137 + Wilhelm Meister, School of, 8 + Windsor, portrait, drawings at, 117 + + Zetter, "Madonna" at Solothurn, 86-97 + + + + +LITTLE BOOKS ON ART + +_Demy 16mo. 2s. 6d. net._ + + +=SUBJECTS= + +MINIATURES. Alice Corkran +BOOKPLATES. Edward Almack +GREEK ART. H. B. Walters +ROMAN ART. H. B. Walters +THE ARTS OF JAPAN. Mrs. C. M. Salwey +JEWELLERY. C. Davenport +CHRIST IN ART. Mrs. H. Jenner +OUR LADY IN ART. Mrs. H. Jenner +CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM. H. Jenner +ILLUMINATED MSS. J. W. Bradley +ENAMELS. Mrs. Nelson Dawson +FURNITURE. Egan Mew + + +=ARTISTS= + +ROMNEY. George Paston +DUeRER. L. Jessie Allen +REYNOLDS. J. Sime +WATTS. Miss R. E. D. Sketchley +HOPPNER. H. P. K. Skipton +TURNER. Frances Tyrrell-Gill +HOGARTH. Egan Mew +BURNE-JONES. Fortunee De Lisle +LEIGHTON. Alice Corkran +REMBRANDT. Mrs. E. A. Sharp +VELASQUEZ. Wilfrid Wilberforce and A. R. Gilbert +VANDYCK. M. G. Smallwood +DAVID COX. Arthur Tomson +HOLBEIN. Beatrice Fortescue +COROT. Ethel Birnstingl and Mrs. A. Pollard +MILLET. Netta Peacock +CLAUDE. E. Dillon +GREUZE AND BOUCHER. Eliza F. Pollard +RAPHAEL. A. R. Dryhurst + + +PLYMOUTH +WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON +PRINTERS + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE + + +Contemporary spellings have generally been retained even when +inconsistent. A small number of obvious typographical errors have been +corrected and some names regularised; missing punctuation has been +silently added. Advertising material has been moved to the end. + + +The following additional changes have been made: + + to away with him to _do_ away with him + + and in Pope Leo's hands for a and _would remain_ in Pope Leo's + year yet for a year yet + + Die zetter'schen Madonna Die _Zetter'sche_ Madonna + vow Solothurn _von_ Solothurn + + that I imagine it to have that I imagine to have + + Mecaenas Maecenas + + at Basel (1515-77) at Basel (1515-_17_) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Holbein, by Beatrice Fortescue + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOLBEIN *** + +***** This file should be named 29150.txt or 29150.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/1/5/29150/ + +Produced by Delphine Lettau, Janine Lettau, Paul Dring, +Clive Pickton, Joseph E. 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