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diff --git a/43410-0.txt b/43410-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..51b0b60 --- /dev/null +++ b/43410-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,947 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43410 *** + + MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR + EDITED BY T. LEMAN HARE + + + + + + +HOLBEIN + + +PLATE I.--GEORGE GISZE. Frontispiece + +(In the Royal Museum, Berlin) + + This picture of a leading merchant of the Steelyard was painted in + 1532, and constituted the artist's successful attempt to capture + the patronage of one of the wealthiest merchant communities in the + world. That the patronage was forthcoming quickly is suggested + by the picture of another merchant of the Steelyard dated the + same year, and now in the Windsor collection. + +[Illustration] + + + + +HOLBEIN + +BY S. L. BENSUSAN + +ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR + +[Illustration: IN SEMPITERNUM.] + + LONDON. T. C. & E. C. JACK + NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO. + + + + +CONTENTS + + Page + + I. Introduction 11 + II. The Artist's Life 29 + III. Holbein in England 51 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + Plate Page + + I. George Gisze Frontispiece + In the Royal Museum, Berlin + + + II. The Ambassadors 14 + In the National Gallery, London + + III. Portrait of a Man 24 + In the Imperial Gallery, Vienna + + IV. Jane Seymour 34 + In the Imperial Gallery, Vienna + + V. Anne of Cleves 40 + In the Louvre + + VI. Erasmus 50 + In the Louvre + + VII. Sir Richard Southwell 60 + In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence + + VIII. Sir Henry Wyatt 70 + In the Louvre + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +I + +INTRODUCTION + + +Hans Holbein the younger is perhaps the most outstanding figure in the +history of German art. In the eyes of some he may yield place to his +great contemporary Albert Dürer, but it is impossible to deny that for +all his indisputable genius Dürer stood for a time that was passing, +and Holbein for one that was to come. The younger man touched art at +every point, nowhere without mastery; and whether we consider him as a +draughtsman, a decorator, a painter of frescoes, a portrait painter, an +architect, a modeller, a designer of jewellery, a book illustrator, or a +miniaturist, we find ourselves face to face with such an extraordinary +measure of achievement, that the claim to remembrance and admiration +could be sustained if his art gift had been single instead of universal. + + +PLATE II.--THE AMBASSADORS + +(In the National Gallery, London) + + This picture, painted by Holbein when he was at the zenith of his + powers, is well known to visitors to our National Gallery. The + figures have been identified by some authorities as Jean de + Dinteville and George de Selve, one was the French Ambassador + to King Henry's Court, the other a great scholar who also served + diplomacy. Both died young. The picture has roused controversy, + as certain writers are of opinion that the subjects are Henry + and Philip, Counts Palatine of the Rhine. + +[Illustration] + + +Some men are echoes of their own time. Circumstance has made them what +they are; their work, however greatly it may please their generation, +does nothing to probe the future, to indicate the direction that thought +or taste will follow, nor does it set an example for those who are to +come. Hans Holbein the younger is of the smaller and more distinguished +class that accepts tradition just so far as it is useful or indispensable, +and can face the problems of changing seasons and new thought with perfect +confidence and unerring instinct, finding no terror in change. His father +was an artist, and this fact would seem to have marked out his path +in life. But, considering the work he did, in its extent and quality, +we have every reason to believe that the artist was born to succeed, +and that had he been an engineer, a general, or a statesman, he would +have left the same indelible mark upon his generation, and would have +been remembered with gratitude and admiration by those who came after +him. For he was the strong man armed at all points, who chose to be an +artist, though many another path before him would have led to fame. + +It is not difficult, if one has a certain measure of talent, to impose +upon one's contemporaries. Criticism is seldom exhaustive or final +until time has taken its stand between man and his labours, adjusting +the earlier perspective that is seldom correct and never exact, but with +Holbein the case was different. His generation recognised a genius to +which we pay tribute after 350 years have passed away. + +"I could make six peers out of six ploughmen," said Henry VIII., who +was no mean judge; "but out of six peers I could not make one Holbein." + +We who come to pay our tribute of admiration so long after opinion, +good or bad, has ceased to concern the artist, are at no small +disadvantage. We can learn little or nothing about the personal details +of his life; the year of his birth and even the place are in dispute, +while between the various authorities who deal with the date of his death +there is a difference of no less than twelve years, although the balance +of evidence is greatly in favour of the earlier date and shorter life. +Moreover, a great part of the artist's output is lost. In these days, +when the work of old masters is being discovered so frequently, and +many a forgotten _chef d'oeuvre_ is being rescued from oblivion, +there is every reason to hope that the future has something valuable +in store for us. But we know that, as far as this country is concerned, +much of the labour of Holbein's hands has passed beyond recall. During +the Commonwealth many of the artist's pictures were sent to the +Continent, the great fire in the Whitehall destroyed some priceless +works, and the drawings that attract so many artists to Windsor have had +a very chequered career. As far as we can learn, they were collected +in the first place by King Edward VI., and were then sold in France, +where their owner sold them back to Charles I., who, in his turn, +disposed of them to the Earl of Pembroke, from whom they passed to +the Earl of Arundel, who disposed of them to King Charles II., who was +probably advised in the transaction by Sir Peter Lely. Then they were +taken to Kensington Palace, thrown into a drawer and forgotten until, +in the time of the Georges, Queen Caroline discovered some and King +George III. found the rest. When Queen Victoria ruled over us the Prince +Consort gave these masterpieces their present frames and places, and we +may presume that they will never be disturbed. It is not unreasonable +to suppose that the experience of this famous collection is typical +of that which has befallen many other works from the same hand. Our +interest in fine art is comparatively modern; only in the last hundred +years have the rank and file of cultured, wealthy, or leisured people +bethought them of the great treasures that lay neglected in the highways +and byways of big cities; and we must not forget that damp, neglect, +and indifference are troubles that have a very serious and unfavourable +effect upon works of art. The favour extended to a fine picture must be +enduring, nor will ten generations of careful attention atone for ten +years of bad housing and neglect. + +We owe a great deal to Holbein, because he was one of the few great +painters of the sixteenth century who pictured the commercial age that +others had held in contempt. He seems to have seen that Europe had +reached the parting of the ways, and that war was no longer to stand +as the greatest interest of national life. To realise how the temper +of the world has changed, we need do no more than remember that if the +sword is drawn in the twentieth century it is in the service of commerce. + +The Renaissance that worked so many wonders in Italy opened Holbein's +eyes and broadened his point of view, but after the first few years +he turned aside from the Italian influence and looked upon the life +around him with eyes that had been aided rather than blinded by the +bright light that shone over Milan, Florence, and Venice. He was a +realist with an exquisite sense of proportion, and a definite certainty +of intention and expression, that kept him from playing tricks with his +art. As great opportunities came to him, he took such complete advantage +of them that to-day we may turn to his work and read in it the history +of his own fascinating times. He has left us a gallery of the people who +ruled a considerable section of middle and western Europe in the first +half of the sixteenth century, when the near East was still untouched +by Christian civilisation, and few artists looked beyond the Adriatic +for sitters or for patronage. + +No small part of the Tudor period lives again under Holbein's hand. He +gives us the vivid and enduring impression of an age that had found +itself, and his subjects walk with fact, just as the creations of his +great contemporary Albert Dürer had walked with fancy. As he saw them so +he portrayed them, and history brings no charge of flattery against him +save in the case of Anne of Cleves, whose portrait he painted for King +Henry VIII. before that much married monarch had seen her. Here he is +said to have been guilty of flattery, but it was generally believed at +the time that Thomas Cromwell, who was his patron and had commissioned +the portrait, was responsible for it. The fact that King Henry himself +accepted this view, and that Cromwell suffered for it, suggests that +there must be no little foundation for the story, though the king +certainly understood the worth of a great artist too well to quarrel +with him. + + +PLATE III.--PORTRAIT OF A MAN + +(In the Imperial Gallery, Vienna) + + Research has not availed to identify this man, who sits at a table, + book in hand, though he has a commanding personality. Few artists + have left more portraits beyond the reach of identification + than has Holbein. Other remarkable but unnamed studies are to + be found in Basle and Darmstadt, at the Berlin Royal Museum, + at Windsor Castle, and elsewhere. + +[Illustration] + + +Apart from this work, we look to Holbein for a long roll of kings, +princes, churchmen, statesmen, doctors, lawyers, men of letters, +reformers, and social celebrities all in their habit as they lived, +and vested with the dignity that seems to have been an integral part of +the Tudor period. It would seem to have been a curiously practical and +business-like age, with rather less imagination than we associate with +Elizabethan times. In dealing with one and all of his varied sitters, +the painter seems to have preserved the essential characteristics, +and, if we must admit the Holbein touch, there is at least no Holbein +type. He started his work under the influence of the Renaissance, and +with an almost childish delight in decorative effects. As he progressed +he threw aside one by one the details that he had ceased to regard as +essential, until in the end he could express everything he saw in the +simplest possible manner, without any suggestion of superfluity or +redundancy, without concession to the merely superficial side of +picture-making that stood lesser men in good stead. The extraordinary +success of his portraiture is best understood when we learn that for +most of his work he did not trouble sitters after the modern fashion. +They sat to him for a sketch, and then he took the sketch away with +him and produced in due course the finished portrait. When we look at +the portraits in the great European galleries, at Windsor or Basle, +the Louvre or Munich, we may be astonished that such results should be +achieved from mere sketches. But the study of these sketches themselves +avails to explain much; and as there are more than eighty of them at +Windsor, and these have been reproduced very finely in several volumes, +the lover of Holbein has no occasion to leave this country in order to +understand the technique of this branch of the master's work. Naturally +an artist is judged very readily by his efforts in portraiture, for they +are the things that appeal most readily to the eye; but in the case of +Holbein, who would have been a great master if he had never painted a +portrait, it is well to look in other directions for evidences of his +many gifts. What manner of man he was, how and when he lived and died, +is, as we have hinted already, a matter of conjecture; and in setting +down the facts of his life that are generally accepted, it is necessary +to admit reservations at short intervals. Of course, we would give much +to know the full story of his progress, to learn the conditions under +which some of his most notable achievements were accomplished, to catch +some really reliable glimpses of his domestic life, but in all these +matters we have nothing but stray facts and countless conjectures. +Even the portrait in Basle that is said to stand for him is a doubtful +authority, because it is not clear from the original inscription +whether it is of Holbein or by Holbein. We know that he painted it, +but we do not know whether he was painting himself. Happily, perhaps, +the satisfaction of this curiosity, though it be human and reasonable +enough, is not of the first importance. It may suffice us amply that +the great artist left many and varied monuments of his achievements, +and that the most, or very many, of these are open to our inspection +to this day, that they have preserved their quality and their power to +teach as well as to charm succeeding generations. + + + + +II + +THE ARTIST'S LIFE + + +If we may accept the balance of evidence, Hans Holbein was born in the +last years of the fifteenth century in Augsburg, then a city of great +importance. The visitor to Bavaria to-day will find few traces of its +vanished prosperity, but in the years when Hans Holbein was a little boy +Augsburg held merchant princes by the dozen, and men of distinction by +the score, and enjoyed the favour of the Emperor Maximilian, himself no +mean patron of the arts. In such a city at the beginning of the sixteenth +century there would have been a certain community of interest between +the leaders of state, commerce, and religion, who, keenly conscious +of the honour that had come to Italy through the Revival of Learning +and the practice of the arts, would do all that in them lay to devote a +part of their wealth and leisure to placing their city in an honourable +position. Civic pride was rampant throughout the great cities of Europe +in the Middle Ages, and Augsburg was no exception to the rule. Holbein's +father, whose work may be studied to great advantage in Berlin, was an +artist of repute. He belonged to the Guild of Painters that had been +successfully established in the city, and enjoyed the patronage of the +leisured classes to an extent that brought a measure of prosperity to +all its members. The practice of the arts was comparatively new to +Augsburg, and doubtless the story of Italian prosperity had lost nothing +on its journey across the Tyrol. The Bavarian city would expect its +prosperous Guild to achieve distinction, and was ready and able to +respond to progress, so that the conditions were very favourable to +endeavour and to success. Every great city sought to achieve renown by +raising in its midst, or attracting to its circle, scholars and artists +of world-wide repute. Hans Holbein had a double advantage. Not only was +the time ripe for his achievements, but the family surroundings were +of the kind calculated to develop his powers early. His father, nephew, +and brothers were painters, and from his earliest years he would have +been brought into intimate touch with the life and work of artists. +He would have had access to the hall of the Painters' Guild, where as +much as could be secured of the world's fine work was to be seen. The +Guild was the centre of a great city's enthusiasms; the work was +criticised and studied. Great financiers of Augsburg brought artists +and craftsmen from other towns, and it is safe to assume that the best +of them would have been found in the hall of the Guild from time to time +exhibiting their own work, and telling an interested gathering of the +wonders of other cities in days when the journey across the frontiers of +one's own country was not to be safely or lightly undertaken. The elder +Holbein would have introduced his son into the best artistic circles +of his time and place; for although he does not seem to have been the +leading artist of his city, he received important commissions from the +religious houses, and the collection of sketches in the Berlin National +Gallery shows how much the son owed to the father, and what a clever +fellow the father was. + + +PLATE IV.--JANE SEYMOUR + +(In the Imperial Gallery, Vienna) + + This portrait is one of the masterpieces of the Vienna Gallery. + The queen is painted almost life size, and wears a dark red dress + over a petticoat of silver brocade. The marvellous complexion for + which she was noted and the fine jewels she wore are rendered + with rare skill by the painter. + +[Illustration] + + +Unfortunately history has nothing to tell us of the boyhood of young Hans, +though we may gather that his father was in straitened circumstances and +not on the best of terms with members of his family who were better off +than he. Perhaps we may assume that the _res angusta domi_ turned young +Han's steps from his father's house while he was yet little more than a +boy, for when he could have been no more than seventeen, and was perhaps +younger, he and his brother Ambrosius would seem to have left Augsburg +for Basle, where so much of his work is to be found to-day. Here in +his first youth he painted a rather poor Madonna and Christ, which was +discovered little more than thirty years ago after centuries of neglect, +and is remarkable chiefly for the tiny Renaissance cherubs on the frame, +figures painted with so much freshness, ease, and vigour that one is +inclined to overlook the poor quality of the picture they enshrine. It +would seem that at the time when this work was painted the elder Holbein +had taken his family from Augsburg to Lucerne, and that he was at once +admitted to the Painters' Guild there. + +It was well for Holbein that he selected Basle as a place of residence, +for the chances of his life threw him at a very impressionable age into +the company of men who found a fresh field for his talents, and widened +very considerably the scope of his achievement. He was not destined to +remain constant to painting. + +In 1515 Frobenius and Amerbach the great printers were at Basle, +Erasmus had been and gone, and Frobenius must have been attracted by +some of the clever sensational work with which Holbein made his artistic +debut, for when the third edition of the famous "Breve ad Erasmum" was +published by Frobenius, the title-page was designed by Holbein. He was +not turning his attention to this class of work to the detriment of +others, for we associate with the stay in Basle some half-dozen of the +second-rate efforts in paint of a man who is striving to find himself +and is at the stage in his life where he is little more than the echo +of greater men who have influenced him. Holbein was already a man of +all art work; he prepared the title-page of Sir Thomas More's "Utopia," +and painted religious pictures or table tops with equal assurance and +facility. He was never one of the young men with a mission who shun +delights and live laborious days working from dawn to dusk in pursuit +of an ideal, and wake one morning to find Fame has arrived overnight. +And yet on a sudden he found himself, as his sketches for the portrait +of Jacob Meier and Dorothea Kannegiesser testify. Darmstadt and Dresden +hold the ripe fruits of his friendship with Jacob Meier, and it would +seem that his earliest commission there served to bring him the measure +of inspiration that lifts uncertain talent to the height of a great +achievement, never to fall back to the ranks of those who struggle year +in year out, achieving nothing of permanent value. Certainly he was well +served by his sitters, for the man and the woman seem to have been born +to be painted. + + +PLATE V.--ANNE OF CLEVES + +(In the Louvre) + + This is the portrait that Holbein was said to have made too + flattering, at the instance of Thomas Cromwell. If the story be + true, this unfortunate consort of Henry VIII. must have been + singularly homely in appearance. This oil-painting on vellum + reproduced here gives the suggestion of a woman who could not + have roused interest in anybody, and the peculiar quality of + something akin to inspiration that Holbein brought to nearly + all portrait painting is conspicuous by its absence. + +[Illustration] + + +We do not know what followed when Holbein had found himself. It is stated +by some authorities that he left Basle for Lucerne, where he had some +trouble with the authorities, and did a certain amount of decorative +work. Altdorf is named as a city in which he resided for a time, and +it is suggested, not without justification, that he went into Northern +Italy and studied some of the master-works of the Renaissance. But by the +time he had reached man's estate he had returned to Basle, bringing with +him a reputation that he was destined to develop steadily for the rest +of his life, and hand down to posterity to be the glory of German art. + +His history after being lost for a time finds some record in 1519, +when he was admitted to the Art Guild of Basle, and a year later he +became a free man of the city and married a widow with two children. Her +portrait may be seen in Basle to-day, and there is one that is said to +stand for the painter himself, also a work of his hand. The drawing +depicts a strong man, who looks out upon the world with serene +consciousness that he can play a full and worthy part in it. + +When he was a married man and a citizen of Basle, Holbein developed +to a very considerable extent his earlier acquaintance with the +Humanists. His work was always at the service of the great printers, +and, not unnaturally, the authors who were in touch with them took an +interest in the young artist who added so much to the attractions of +their books. His religious feelings we do not know, but he associated +himself with the publication of certain Lutheran pamphlets of marked +scurrility, and would seem to have taken his full share in the contest +between the Reformers and their opponents. The history of the differences +that ultimately drove Erasmus from the city is full of interest and +instruction, but the limits of space forbid the disgression necessary +to deal with them. Erasmus lives for us in several portraits by Holbein, +and there can be no doubt but that association with the leading literary +men of the city must have done a great deal to develop in the painter +the measure of culture that was to serve him in good stead when he left +the city of Basle for places more important and the service of exalted +patrons. His designs for wood engravings in the years following his +marriage are of the first importance, and include the famous Dance of +Death series. He painted among many works of the first class a portrait +of his patron Boniface Amerbach, the famous "Dead Man," said by some +to be a picture of the dead Christ, a portrait of Erasmus and the +"Zetter Madonna." Of these the "Dead Man" is in Basle, one of Erasmus +is there, and another is in the Louvre, while the "Zetter Madonna" +is at Soluthurn. Of course he did a great deal of work that cannot +be enumerated here--work of the most varied description and almost +unvarying excellence, and it is clear that he owed not a little of his +achievement to the steadiness of his labours. We may reasonably suppose +that some of the output is lost, but what is left to this day in Basle +amazes us. The Museum is a monument of his talent and industry. Half +faded frescoes, panel paintings, subject pictures, portraits, drawings, +studies of costume, the eight scenes of the Passion--there is enough +in the Museum to console the stranger for all the season of his stay +in a singularly unattractive city. We owe the existing collection in +a very large extent to Boniface Amerbach, the artist's friend and early +patron, who, recognising the permanent value of his output, collected +all he could secure, and established the nucleus of a collection that +forms to-day Basle's chief claim to distinction. If others had been +equally far seeing, many a treasure now lost or destroyed would remain +to inspire and to teach; but we must be content with the thought that +the work lost through carelessness was probably not the best, and for +the rest fire and Puritans are jointly responsible, and it is impossible +to argue satisfactorily with either. + +Fame travelled slowly in the sixteenth century, but it had not so far to +go as it must to-day. The art centres were small and few, they belonged +exclusively to the western world, and there were no swarms of influential +mediocrities to secure work that belonged of right to better men. Then +again, even in those days, when war was still considered in certain +quarters to be the only occupation for a gentleman, art knew no boundaries +in the civilised world, and the artist, as a valued contributor to the +beauty of life, could pass through countries in which his countrymen +of other pursuits would have received scant welcome. Of course there +were exceptions to this general rule, and curiously enough Basle, +in which the Lutherans were gaining ground so rapidly, had become an +impossible place for Holbein by the summer of 1526. Moreover, there was +trouble with the famous or notorious Dorothea Offenburg, who would +seem to have been a mistress of the painter. Apparently his marriage +was dictated more by convenience than affection, and the catholicity +of his taste was not limited to things of art. Holbein painted the +fair Dorothea twice, apparently in 1526, once as "Venus" and once as +"Lais of Corinth." Each portrait may be seen in the large salon of the +Museum, and the attractions of the lady must have been more apparent +to the painter than they are to us. Some say that it was his desire to +flee from before the face of his inamorata that turned Holbein's feet +towards London, others that it was the strength of the Lutheran movement +that made men look askance at the arts. Be that as it may he came to +town, and Basle's loss was England's gain. + +It may be remarked here, that while Holbein's long stay in Basle had +not been interrupted, there is evidence to suggest, if not to prove, +that he followed Amerbach to France. Doubtless his position enabled him +to gratify any reasonable desire to travel; and in houses long since +demolished, for families long fallen from their high estate if not +altogether lost, he may have painted portraits and decorated private +chapels or turned his rare gift as miniaturist to good account. No +_flâneur_ on the high-road of sixteenth-century life, no chronicler +of the times and changes of his generation, has anything to record, +because the world then took no count of the coming or going of the great +men who claimed fame through the arts. + + +PLATE VI.--ERASMUS + +(In the Louvre) + + This marvellous piece of portraiture dates from the year 1523. + Holbein painted many portraits of his friend and patron, and at + least three belong to this year, one being at Longford Castle. + A study for the one reproduced here may be seen in the Basle + Museum. The great scholar is treated with a master-hand. Pallid + skin, greying hair, dark clothes, and brown panelling go to the + making of wonderful colour harmony. + +[Illustration] + + + + +III + +HOLBEIN IN ENGLAND + + +If we cannot say with any certainty why Holbein came to England, we may +at least presume that Sir Thomas More was his earliest patron in these +islands, and his famous "Household of Sir Thomas More" would seem to +have been the first intimation to a considerable section of English art +lovers that a new light had arisen. It was of course most fortunate for +the painter that he could command the attention of the highest in the +land with his first serious effort, for the future was at once assured; +and if it was well for the painter, it is better still for us. How many +notable men has he rescued from the comparative oblivion of the printed +record? In how many cases has he helped us to correct or justify the +impressions of the historian? The human face tells its own story, and, +when it is set down by a master-hand, we know something at least of +the brain that worked behind it. Holbein was a realist. It was no part +of his artistic intention to make a portrait a mere beautiful picture, +to treat his subject pictorially in fashion that would flatter a sitter's +vanity. Perhaps he had not the dangerous quality of imagination that would +make such a procedure possible. He saw clearly, fully, dispassionately, +and set down on paper or canvas just what he had seen--neither more +nor less. Even the Renaissance decorations that had delighted him as a +boy were laid aside long before he came from Basle to London, and such +mere cleverness as he permitted himself was done obviously enough to +attract custom, and was to be seen in the skilful composition of his +portrait groups. He was a hard-headed, serious artist, and appealed to +a singularly level-headed generation, that had not been educated up +or down to the special genius of the Renaissance portrait painters of +Italy. For in spite of the exquisite and well-nigh inimitable quality +of the Italian masters, their work would have seemed rather exotic in +our colder clime. Moreover, the days of revolt against the spirit that +so many of them expressed were upon the land. + +We cannot say with any certainty when or why Holbein decided to try +his fortune in England. It is likely that one of the English noblemen +travelling on the Continent, the Earl of Surrey or the Earl of Arundel, +was the first to advise him to visit this island; and when the troubles +that beset art in Basle made a change imperative, the painter applied to +Erasmus for introductions and received one to Sir Thomas More, to whom he +was advised to take one of his portraits of Erasmus as a sample of his +talent. Apparently the good folks of Basle were a little startled, and +even vexed, to find that their premier artist was leaving them. They are +said to have put obstacles in the way of his departure, but he would not +be denied. Holbein travelled by way of Antwerp, attracted by the works +of Quentin Matsys, and in 1526 he reached London, presented himself +to the Chancellor, and made such a favourable impression that he was +received forthwith and installed in his home at Chelsea. His gratitude +was expressed quickly and significantly. Sir Thomas himself was the first +in the long roll of distinguished men who have perhaps obtained a larger +measure of immortality from Holbein's brush than from the work of their +own hands. + +But for Erasmus and Lord Surrey, the painter might have languished for +lack of opportunity to show his powers. He might even have returned to +the Continent, where his varied gifts commanded a certain market, and in +that case the long roll of Tudor worthies would not have been preserved +to us, and the bright light that he has thrown upon a fascinating period +of our history would have been lost. But the Chancellor himself, apparently +no mean judge of good work, moved in the centre of the most select +and refined circle in Christendom, and as soon as he had expressed +his satisfaction with the painter's work there was no lack of +sitters. Perhaps an artist would say that the quality of the sitter's +face does not matter, and that personality is of small account, but +from the layman's point of view this is not the case. The born ruler, the +administrator, scholar, soldier, poet, must be more interesting to most of +us than the person whose only qualification for an appearance on canvas +is the capacity to pay for it. Holbein's sitters were worthy of his +brush, and between 1526 and 1529 the artist made an enduring reputation +in London, where, according to some at least of his chroniclers, he +came under the notice of King Henry, although he does not appear to +have done any work for him on the occasion of his first visit. + +The sojourn of nearly three years completed, the painter returned to +his home in Basle, and occupied himself in that city until 1531. He +would seem to have made up his mind to try the Continent again before +yielding to the invitations he had received in England. Then again he +had domestic affairs to settle, and they were not of the easiest, for +his wife had certain good reasons to feel aggrieved, and Holbein did +not regard constancy as one of the indispensable conditions of married +life. In order that he might not be troubled overmuch on his return to +our shores, he decided to leave his wife and family in Basle, where he +left provision for all their wants. He never failed to look after his +children and do his best for them. In days when there was neither regular +postal service nor telegrams nor newspapers, he could live his own life +without fear of any remonstrances; and we know enough of his progress +in these islands to be satisfied that, had he brought his wife over, +she would have had sound and sufficient reason to complain. The +religious squabbles in Basle would seem to have made it hard for +any artist to earn a living, and between the dates of his return and +his second visit to this country he found little work for his brush. +Happily he was equipped in every branch, and as his work as a painter +was not in great demand, he went to the gold workers and the printers, +and did not go to them in vain. They were happy enough to employ him, +and work that he executed at this period of his career is one of the +prizes of the collector and the connoisseur. + + +PLATE VII.--SIR RICHARD SOUTHWELL + +(In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence) + + This striking portrait of one of Holbein's contemporaries is + one of the best examples of the master's work in Italy. A study + for the finished picture may be seen at Windsor, and there is + another copy in the Louvre. It was Sir Richard Southwell who + did much to bring about the fall of Sir Thomas More. + +[Illustration] + + +When in 1531 the painter returned to England he could stand alone, and +this was well for him, since Sir Thomas More was born to learn that +the favour of princes is not remarkable for a quality of permanence. +There would seem to have been no lack of work for Holbein as long as he +lived. Here we may remark that the date of his death is in dispute, +some authorities placing it as early as 1543, while others grant him +another eleven years--a very valuable concession to any poor mortal, +but one that the Fates do not appear to have granted, 1543 being the +probable date of his death, and the Plague the cause. + +He was not satisfied with portraits for long. The Steelyard, of which +we shall soon speak at length, gave him subject pictures to paint. +King Henry took him into his service with a retainer of £30 a year, +no inconsiderable sum in those days, and payment for all works done, +and he soon became a painter of the pictures that are produced to +commemorate state occasions. Happily he painted them better than some +more modern men have been able to. It is hardly a reproach to a man +that he cannot invest with special interest a picture that is to all +intent and purpose composed for him, a canvas on which the figures must +be handled less with regard to composition than precedence, and really +Holbein did very well. His education was certain to tell in his favour; +he began to enjoy the fruits of his association with the Humanists. Great +painters employed at European Courts enjoyed a certain ambassadorial +rank: the interest taken in art was so considerable, that the gift of +a picture by a great artist was as fine a present as could be given +or received, and when artists were sent to foreign courts they were +often entrusted with missions not associated directly or indirectly with +their profession. + +To be sure, Holbein did not hold the same high position that fell to +Peter Paul Rubens, but he was entrusted on two occasions with missions +of a very delicate character, being instructed to paint the portraits +of ladies whom the king had married or was prepared to marry. The +Dowager Duchess of Milan was one of the few who declined to become +Queen of England, and Anne of Cleves was one who was less discriminating. +There can be no doubt that Holbein's capacity for expressing strength +in the most delicate fashion imaginable appealed very strongly to his +sitters. The rugged character of one man's head, the delicate lines of +a woman's face, could be expressed without violence in the one case or +excess of sentiment in the other, and he does not seem to have done more +than present his sitters in their most attractive aspect, and with due +regard to their salient characteristics. He did not flatter and he did +not shock, but would seem to have found something at once pleasant and +true to express about all his sitters. + +Although it does not seem unreasonable to believe that Holbein would +have lacked work on his return to England, even if the social troubles +of the time had been even greater than they were, it must be admitted +that the painter was very fortunate in securing the patronage of the +Steelyard, the great German or Anglo-German trading company established +on the banks of the Thames. It was associated with the Hanseatic +League; its buildings extended over a large part of the city in the +neighbourhood of Thames Street and Cannon Street; its members had a +Guildhall with beautiful garden in a place where London is almost at +its ugliest to-day, and the Steelyard Tavern was a very noted house. To +the Steelyard came all the traffic of the Orient, all the spices of the +merchant. As much of Europe as had the desire to trade with England--then +only a second-rate power--relied largely upon the agency of the Steelyard. +The Corporation that governed the undertaking would seem to have been a +very capable body, and in return for the privileges granted to it by +successive rulers, every member was sworn to play a man's part in the +defence of London. We have nothing like the Steelyard in Great Britain +to-day, but the East India Company probably had much in common with it; +and had Rhodesia proved worthy of the highest hopes entertained by its +founder, the Chartered Company might have been conducted on similar +lines. Such associations are apt to spring up when an old country +discovers a new one. German trading associations were as pushful in +Renaissance times as they are to-day, and more artistic. It should +be remembered that Bellini, Titian, and Tintoretto worked for German +merchants in Venice. + +When Holbein came back to London to find Warham and Colet dead, and Sir +Thomas More, with but a little space of life left, retiring from the +high office of Chancellor, he seems to have found new friends in the +Steelyard; and perhaps because he was anxious to establish a position +among the members of the richest trading guild of his time, he seems to +have devoted a great deal of care and time to his world-famous portrait +of George Gisze, one of the merchants of the Steelyard. The picture, +in an admirable condition of preservation, is to be seen in the Berlin +Gallery, and is one of the richest, most decorative portraits ever +painted by the artist. It will be found reproduced in these pages, and +perhaps there will be some who will wonder whether the artist did not +work deliberately to interest and astonish his new clients, and whether, +for that purpose, he did not depart from his usual reticence and good +taste. The portrait of Gisze himself, a handsome man, wearing a bright +scarlet doublet under a black cloak, is admirable, it arrests and holds +the attention. But the heterogeneous mass of accessories startles and +tires the spectator. Vase and flowers, scissors, book, scales, letters, +golden balls, inscription, keys, watches, seals--there seems to be no +limit to the material with which Holbein has loaded his canvas, and the +accessories are all so well painted that they seem to be wasted. There +is no reason to doubt that Holbein was deliberately painting a picture +for purpose of advertisement, and that he intended to make his appeal +to a class that, for all its business acumen and commercial intelligence, +was not on the same intellectual plane as the men of Sir Thomas More's +world. + + +PLATE VIII.--SIR HENRY WYATT + +(In the Louvre) + + This portrait of Sir Henry Wyatt, a bust on panel with green + background, was long thought to stand for the painter's friend + and patron Sir Thomas More, and it has been left for modern + research to discover the mistake. Holbein painted this portrait + twice. There is a replica in the National Gallery of Ireland. + +[Illustration] + + +If this was his intention, he can at least plead that it was entirely +successful. Not only did it delight the magnates of the Steelyard, +who showered commissions upon him as long as he could execute them, it +carried the story of his fame to the last corner of the earth where the +story of a man's achievement can obtain a generous hearing, that is to +his own city. Burgomaster Meier zum Hirten, not to be confused with that +other Meier who married Dorothea Kannegiesser and looks at us to-day from +the walls of the Basle Museum, wrote to Holbein in London inviting him +to return, with the promise of a retainer of thirty gulden annually. But +the painter had learned that the tender mercies of the inartistic are +cruel, and he was now beyond the need for any of the service that Basle +could offer. + +Of Holbein's work for the Steelyard, the greater part has been lost. It +will be remembered that the Guild fell on troublous times in the reign +of Queen Elizabeth, and its Hall suffered a long period of neglect. +We may say that we should not have a very complete knowledge of the +artist's output had his sketches been no better preserved than his +finished work. We know, too, that the Council of the Steelyard recognised +in the painter of George Gisze a man whose attainments covered every +field of art; and a year after he had distinguished himself in their +service for the first time, he was put in charge of the pageant arranged +by the Steelyard in honour of the Coronation of the unfortunate Anne +Boleyn. He painted the "Triumph of Riches" and "Triumph of Poverty" +for the Steelyard, but nothing remains of these pictures save a sketch +for the former that may be studied to-day in Paris. + +Whether Holbein's work outside the circle of the merchants was +the result of his earlier association, or came to him through the +intimate connection between the great guild and a certain section of the +aristocracy, is a disputed point; but we incline to the belief that the +painter's position was fully recognised, and that if work was rather slow +in reaching him from the ranks of the men he had known on the occasion +of his first visit, the times were to blame. Statesmen and churchmen +had been his patrons, now they were fighting for their lives. But very +soon after he had painted the portrait of George Gisze, Holbein gave to +the world the famous picture known as "The Ambassadors," now hanging +in our National Gallery, and reproduced here. The man on the left is +generally held to be Sieur Jean de Dinteville, French Ambassador to the +Court of Henry VIII., and his companion is said to be George de Selve, +who was French Ambassador to the Court of the great Emperor Charles V. + +When Anne Boleyn had suffered the fullest possible penalty for marrying +Henry VIII., Holbein painted her successor. He prepared a chalk drawing +of the unfortunate Jane Seymour and painted two portraits from it, +one being in Vienna and the other at Woburn Abbey; and he painted Henry +himself for the Privy Chamber, which was burnt out in the closing years +of the seventeenth century. The usual study in chalks was made for this +picture, and is now in Munich. In the Bodleian Library there is a drawing +by Holbein of his exquisite design for the gold cup that was made when +Edward VI. was born; and as soon as Jane Seymour was dead the painter +went to Milan to paint his striking portrait of the young Christina +of Denmark, who was Duchess of Milan, and a widow at the early age of +sixteen. She it is who is said to have declined the offer of King Henry's +hand, on the ground that she had but one head and wished to keep it on +her shoulders. So she became the Duchess of Lorraine instead--small blame +to her. We have referred already to the portrait of Anne of Cleves, now +in the Louvre; before that was painted Holbein had given the world what +is often regarded as his greatest effort in portraiture, the portrait +of the goldsmith Hubert Morett, now to be seen in the Dresden Gallery. +For many years this picture was supposed to be the work of Leonardo da +Vinci. It is one of the special functions of art criticism to give the +credit of unknown pictures to Da Vinci or Giorgione--apparently to allow +the next generation of criticism to take that credit away again. One may +remark in passing that Leonardo da Vinci has fared very badly of late, +but doubtless he will soon be restored to critical favour. + +Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, and twice uncle to the king by marriage, +was painted when Anne of Cleves had been retired on a pension, and the +star of Catherine Howard was in its brief ascendant. Holbein is said +to have painted the new queen. There is a miniature as well as a chalk +drawing in Windsor that is said to stand for her. And doubtless the king +would have continued to find new wives, and Holbein would have continued +to paint them, but for the fact that both king and painter were +nearing their end. The portraits of the doctors of the royal household, +Dr. Butt and Dr. Chambers, are among the last of the great works he +accomplished. In the month of October 1843, at the time when the Plague +was in London, the artist made a will which was found some years ago +in the City of London. By this document Hans Holbein sought to protect +two of his illegitimate children of tender age, directing that all his +goods should be sold, and the proceeds applied for their benefit as soon +as certain debts had been paid. Curiously enough, we have no means of +finding out who the children were, we do not know the mother's name, +all is obscure. But we know that Holbein had settled an earlier legacy +upon his wife and legitimate issue, that he had apprenticed his eldest son +to a jeweller in Paris, and that he had never been unmindful of his legal +obligations to his family. For the rest, he had made a hasty marriage +that was not founded upon affection so much as upon convenience--and it +is not for us to judge him save as an artist, and then modestly and with +due thought of our own limitations. He was buried either in the Church +of St. Andrew Undershaft or St. Catherine Cree; in the hour of his death +there was no anxiety to do more than get the dead underground as soon +as possible. It will be remembered that another of the world's great +painters, Titian Vecelli, died of the Plague too, but Titian had reached +a very great age, while Holbein was in the prime of life, capable, had +he been spared, of much more work in every branch of art. + +He worked for about thirty years in the light of history for the "Virgin +and Child," the picture with panels in the Renaissance mood is dated +1514, and the picture of Dr. Chambers belongs to the early forties. To +sum up his known achievements with no more than a brief description would +exhaust all the pages of this little sketch. His work retains much of +its freshness, although time and the restorer have combined to do it +wrong; and there are pictures that pass for the work of Holbein's hand, +though it is more than likely that he never saw them. He must have been +a man of infinite capacity, untiring industry, and considerable strength +of character; he owed little to outside help, for when he left Augsburg +for Basle he was almost without friends and influence, while, when he +left London for the bourn from which no traveller returns, he had made +a reputation that has lasted to this hour, and will never be destroyed +while western civilisation endures. + + * * * * * + +The plates are printed by BEMROSE & SONS, LTD., Derby and London + +The text at the BALLANTYNE PRESS, Edinburgh + + +In The Same Series + + Artist. Author. + + VELAZQUEZ. S. L. Bensusan. + REYNOLDS. S. L. Bensusan. + TURNER. C. Lewis Hind. + ROMNEY. C. Lewis Hind. + GREUZE. Alys Eyre Macklin. + BOTTICELLI. Henry B. Binns. + ROSSETTI. Lucien Pissarro. + BELLINI. George Hay. + FRA ANGELICO. James Mason. + REMBRANDT. Josef Israels. + LEIGHTON. A. Lys Baldry. + RAPHAEL. Paul G. Konody. + HOLMAN HUNT. Mary E. Coleridge. + TITIAN. S. L. Bensusan. + MILLAIS. A. Lys Baldry. + CARLO DOLCI. George Hay. + GAINSBOROUGH. Max Rothschild. + TINTORETTO. S. L. Bensusan. + LUINI. James Mason. + FRANZ HALS. Edgcumbe Staley. + VAN DYCK. Percy M. Turner. + LEONARDO DA VINCI. M. W. Brockwell. + RUBENS. S. L. Bensusan. + WHISTLER. T. Martin Wood. + HOLBEIN. S. L. Bensusan. + + +_In Preparation_ + + BURNE-JONES. A. Lys Baldry. + VIGÉE LE BRUN. C. Haldane MacFall. + CHARDIN. Paul G. Konody. + J. F. MILLET. Percy M. Turner. + MEMLINC. W. H. James Weale. + ALBERT DÜRER. Herbert Furst. + FRAGONARD. C. Haldane MacFall. + CONSTABLE. C. Lewis Hind. + RAEBURN. James L. Caw. + BOUCHER. C. Haldane MacFall. + WATTEAU. C. Lewis Hind. + MURILLO. S. L. Bensusan. + + +And Others. + + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Note: The booklist advertisement above has been moved +from physical page ii to the end of the text. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Holbein, by Samuel Levy Bensusan + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43410 *** |