(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.