Holbein is the man who has been hitherto considered as the most
brilliant genius Switzerland has produced in the art of painting. He
is here universally believed to have been a native of Switzerland. His
earliest biographers, Mander and Patin, asserted that he was born at
Basel, and they have been copied by all our biographical dictionaries.
Another biographer, however, appears, himself a Swiss, and known as the
author of some other clever works, and proves, on the most satisfactory
evidence, that Holbein was born 1498, at Augsburg, in Germany; but that
his father, a painter too, came to Basel between 1504-8, probably at the
invitation of the magistrates of Basel, as they required a painter to
decorate their newly-built council-hall.
Holbein gave early proofs of his aspiring talent. When fifteen years
old, he exhibited an oil-painting, which, though defective in colouring,
raised high expectations by its clearness and softness of execution.
This painting is still to be seen in the public library at Basel, and
bears the date of 1513. Of the same year, a sketch, with the monogram
HH, is extant, representing three watchmen with halberds. His two
brothers were also painters; only a few paintings are left of the elder,
Ambrose, and none of the younger brother Bruno; both died prematurely.
In the year 1520, Holbein was presented with the freedom of the town of
Basel.
Switzerland held constant communications with Germany and the
Netherlands, but less with Italy. A number of painters lived at that
time in Germany, whose names have not been recorded by any German
Vasari, and their master works have been long neglected. In Holbein's
time Albrecht Durer enjoyed the primary reputation. Martin Schoen had
preceded him at Colmar, in Alsace; Manuel painted at Bern, Hans Asper at
Zurich, and at Basel itself there were other painters besides Holbein.
Half a century before him the _Dance of Death_ had been painted,
after the disaster of a plague, on the walls of a church-yard at Basel.
The council-hall at Basel gave occupation to architects from 1508 till
1520. It is believed that Holbein painted three of the walls, only one
of which (hid behind old tapestry, and discovered again in 1817) has
escaped the ravages of time. It represents M. Curius Dentatus cooking
his dinner, whilst the Samnites offer silver plates with money. "The
last Judgment," where a pope, with priests and monks, sink into the
flames of hell, is not the work of Holbein, but was done in 1610, during
good Protestant times.
A good number of stories are told of Holbein. Unable to pay his debts in
a tavern, he discharged the bill by decorating the walls with paintings
of flowers. Another time, for a similar purpose, he covered the walls
all over with "the merry dance of peasants;" and in order to deceive one
of his employers, he painted his own legs beneath the high scaffolding,
that the watchful citizen should not suspect his having abandoned his
work to carouse in wine-cellars. Here our biographer gravely says, "a
man of spirit could not be expected to sit quietly painting the whole
day long in the heat of the sun, or in the rain; if he saw a good friend
go to the tavern, he felt disposed to follow him." Holbein did not keep
the best company; but in this he resembled Rembrandt, who said, that
when he wished to amuse himself, he avoided the company of the great,
which put a restraint upon him; "for pleasure," he adds, "consists in
perfect liberty only." Holbein no doubt felt a contempt for the great
people of his time, as they did not understand much about his art, which
he valued above all things.
Holbein's wife, and he married early, was a perfect Xantippe, too shrewd
to be despised, and not handsome enough to be admired. In the library at
Basel is a family picture of Holbein, in which she is introduced, almost
unconscious of the two children about her; but Holbein very shrewdly
forgot to paint himself there. But he took care of the interests of his
family, and obtained them a pension from the magistrates of Basel,
during his stay in England. This pension was paid for past services, and
in order to induce him finally to fix his residence in Switzerland.
The absence of matrimonial felicity was probably an additional motive
for Holbein to seek employment as an itinerant painter. He visited
several Swiss towns, but certainly never saw Luther and Melancthon, so
that the portraits of Luther and Melancthon exhibited in Italy, Germany,
and England, as works of Holbein, cannot be genuine; and it is very
improbable that he should have copied the works of Lucas Cranach, who
several times painted the portraits of those lights of the reformation.
Erasmus was frequently painted by Holbein; and as those portraits were
sent as presents to the friends of Erasmus, Holbein's name became known
all over Europe.
Holbein came to England in the year 1526, and Sir Thomas More wrote to
Erasmus that he would take care of him. Sir Thomas received him into his
own house at Chelsea, and there Henry VIII. saw him one day, when paying
a visit to the former. He took him instantly into his service, gave him
apartments in the royal palace, and a salary of 30_l_. a-year.
Holbein's long residence in the house of Sir Thomas More had a good
effect upon him; for although Erasmus describes the women of England as
"nymphae divinis vultibus, blandae, faciles," yet Holbein seems to have
resisted those temptations in London, which rendered his conduct at
Basel so reprehensible. Holbein twice revisited Switzerland, once in
1526, the second and last time in 1538: the zealots had just destroyed
all the images; and even some painters, infected with the spirit of the
age, had declared they would rather starve, than break the second
commandment. In England the same work of devastation took place; but
Henry VIII., notwithstanding, gave Holbein abundance of work, as he had
to paint all his royal consorts in succession, besides a number of
portraits for English noblemen.
His sketches of heads, now existing at Kensington, of various people who
lived at the court of Henry VIII., and among them one of that monarch,
are exquisite productions. Imitations of the original drawings have been
published by J. Chamberlaine, fol. Lond. 1792. One picture of Holbein is
supposed to be in Surgeons' Hall. Some wood-cuts to Cranmer's Catechism
(1548) were made by Holbein. Our biographer, who had never seen the work
himself, was led by Walpole [_Anecdotes of Painting_] to believe,
that all the wood-cuts were from Holbein.
With respect to the famous "Dance of Death," the biographer tells us,
what we have already stated, that the painting on the wall of the
church-yard at Basel is not the work of Holbein; the costumes are of a
time anterior to Holbein. There was also a "Dance of Death" painted on
the wall of a convent at Bern by Manuel, who lived a little before
Holbein. Only on the supposition that the "Dance of Death" at Basel was
Holbein's work, could that of Bern be said to be the first of its kind.
But, on comparing the costumes, it appears again, that the "Dance of
Death" at Bern must have been painted subsequently to that at Basel. No
"Dance of Death" of an earlier date was known, until another was
discovered on the wall of a convent of nuns at Klingenthal, on the right
bank of the Rhine, at Basel. This bears the date of 1312, and is
therefore a whole century prior to the other, which cannot have been
painted before the year 1439. It has been supposed, that the idea of the
"Dance of Death" was taken from certain processions very much in vogue
during the middle ages; and it is singular enough, that up to this day,
in funeral processions in Italy, long white robes are used, which wholly
cover the head, with only two holes for the eyes. But the coincidence of
another plague at Basel, which, about the year 1312, destroyed above
11,000 people, renders it more than probable that the artist availed
himself of the impression which such a dreadful mortality must have made
on the minds of all the surviving, to represent how inexorable death
drags to the grave, in terrible sport, rich and poor, high and low,
clergymen and laity.
On the authority of Nieuhoff, a Dutchman, who came over to England with
William III., Mr. Douce asserts, that Holbein had painted the "Dance of
Death" on the walls of Whitehall. Borbonius might then have had in mind
this painting, when he mentioned the "Mors picta" of Holbein; but three
biographers of Holbein, Mander, Sandrart, and Patin, were in England
before Whitehall was destroyed by fire, and make no mention of this
painting, although Mander speaks of other paintings of Holbein,
particularly the portrait of Henry VIII., that were preserved at
Whitehall. Mander states, that he also saw at Whitehall the portraits of
Edward, Maria, and Elizabeth, by Holbein, "die oock ter selver plaetse
te sien zyn."
Sandrart, whose work was published in 1675, also mentions the paintings
of Holbein at Whitehall. Is it credible, that three travellers, two of
whom were distinguished artists themselves, should have been at
Whitehall, and seen there the paintings of Holbein, without taking
notice of the "Dance of Death," if it had been in that place?
Holbein died of the plague in London, 1554.--_Westminster Review_.
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When I see the spirit of liberty in action, I see a strong principle at
work; and, this for awhile, is all I can possibly know of it. The wild
gas, the fixed air, is plainly broke loose; but we ought to suspend our
judgment until the first effervescence is a little subsided, till the
liquor is cleared, and until we see something deeper than the agitation
of a troubled and frothy surface. I must be tolerably sure, before I
venture publicly to congratulate men upon a blessing, that they have
really received one.--_Burke_.
* * * * *
If we must lash one another, let it be with the manly strokes of wit and
satire; for I am of the old philosopher's opinion, that if I must suffer
from one or the other, I would rather it should be from the paw of a
lion, than from the hoof of an ass.--_Addison_.
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[Illustration: The Central Market, Leeds.]