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HANS HOLBEIN
Bell’s Miniature Series of Painters.
Edited by G. C. WILLIAMSON, Litt.D.
_Pott 8vo., with 8 Illustrations, issued in cloth or in limp leather._
VELAZQUEZ. By G. C. WILLIAMSON, Litt.D.
SIR E. BURNE-JONES. By MALCOLM BELL.
FRA ANGELICO. By G. C. WILLIAMSON, Litt.D.
G. F. WATTS, R.A. By C. T. BATEMAN.
WATTEAU. By EDGCUMBE STALEY, B.A.
GEORGE ROMNEY. By ROWLEY CLEEVE.
HOLMAN HUNT. By G. C. WILLIAMSON, Litt.D.
HOLBEIN. By ARTHUR B. CHAMBERLAIN.
PREPARING:
REYNOLDS. By ROWLEY CLEEVE.
LEIGHTON. By G. C. WILLIAMSON, Litt.D.
SIR L. ALMA-TADEMA. By H. ZIMMERN.
GAINSBOROUGH. By Mrs. A. G. BELL.
J. F. MILLET. By ARTHUR TOMSON.
SIR J. E. MILLAIS, P.R.A. By A. LYS BALDRY.
OTHERS TO FOLLOW.
LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS,
YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
[Illustration:
_Hanfstängl photo._] [_National Gallery._
CHRISTINA SFORZA, DUCHESS OF MILAN.]
Bell’s Miniature Series of Painters
HANS HOLBEIN
BY
ARTHUR B. CHAMBERLAIN
DEPUTY KEEPER OF THE BIRMINGHAM ART GALLERY
[Illustration]
LONDON
GEORGE BELL & SONS
1902
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
LIFE OF HANS HOLBEIN 1
EARLY DAYS IN AUGSBURG AND BASLE 1
FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND 9
RETURN TO BASLE 13
SECOND RESIDENCE IN ENGLAND 15
THE ART OF HOLBEIN 23
LARGE DECORATIVE WORKS AND WALL-PAINTINGS 25
RELIGIOUS PAINTINGS 29
BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS AND ORNAMENTAL WOODCUTS 32
DESIGNS FOR GOLDSMITHS AND OTHER CRAFTSMEN 34
PORTRAIT PAINTING 36
OUR ILLUSTRATIONS 44
LIST OF THE ARTIST’S CHIEF WORKS 61
CHRONOLOGY OF THE ARTIST’S LIFE 69
CHIEF BOOKS ON HOLBEIN 71
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
PORTRAIT OF THE DUCHESS OF MILAN
_Collection of the Duke of Norfolk, now
lent to the National Gallery_ _Frontispiece_
THE MEYER MADONNA _Darmstadt_ 32
THE AMBASSADORS _National Gallery_ 46
PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS _Collection of the
Earl of Radnor, Longford Castle_ 50
PORTRAIT OF GEORG GISZE _Berlin Gallery_ 52
PORTRAIT OF ROBERT CHESEMAN _The Hague Gallery_ 56
MARY MAGDALEN AT THE SEPULCHRE _Hampton Court_ 58
DRAWING OF SIR THOMAS MORE _Windsor Castle_ 60
LIFE OF HANS HOLBEIN
EARLY DAYS IN AUGSBURG AND BASLE.
Hans Holbein was born, in 1497, at Augsburg, in Swabia, Southern
Germany, to which town his grandfather, Michael Holbein, had moved, some
time before 1454, from the neighbouring village of Schönenfeld. His
father, known to-day as Holbein the elder, to distinguish him from his
more celebrated son, was one of the leading painters of Augsburg, and an
artist of importance in the history of German art.
The elder Holbein was one of the first of German painters strongly
influenced by the Italian Renaissance, and a chronological study of his
pictures shows very clearly how great a change was gradually taking
place north of the Alps both in artistic ideals and technical methods,
through an increasing knowledge of what the great painters of the
Southern peninsula had accomplished. In his early work he shows himself
to be a follower of Rogier van der Weyden and his school, but towards
the end of the first decade of the sixteenth century the Gothic
qualities of his painting, with its many hardnesses and angularities,
begin to disappear, and a closer observation and a more truthful
rendering of nature to take their place. He threw off one by one his
Rhenish traditions, and replaced them by the methods of the Van Eycks,
which reached him indirectly through the mellowing influence of the
earlier Venetian painters. He developed, too, a fondness for rich
architectural decoration of the Renaissance type for the backgrounds and
settings of his pictures, in the use of which his son, later on, became
so perfect a master.
As a result of certain forged documents and false inscriptions, a number
of interesting works, formerly ascribed rightly to the father, were
taken from him and given to the son, and hailed as signs of precocious
genius. Even the father’s masterpiece, _The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian_
at Munich, did not escape the enthusiasm of the younger artist’s
biographers. Modern criticism, however, has restored to the father a
series of works which place him among the leading painters of Germany at
the dawn of the new movement in art.
Hans Holbein the younger seems to have received no artistic training
except that which he gained in his father’s studio or workshop, where
his elder brother Ambrosius was also engaged. His uncle Sigismund, too,
was an Augsburg painter, and may have helped in his instruction. His
father, though constantly in debt and difficulties, seems to have
received numerous orders for altar-pieces and other sacred pictures, so
that the workshop was a busy one, and no doubt young Hans began at an
early age to help in such minor details as the painting of draperies
and backgrounds. Much of his genius was inherited from his father,
particularly that remarkable power of portraying character with a few
vivid strokes of the pencil which is one of the crowning glories of his
art.
In those days a young painter generally finished his education by a year
or two of travel before settling down as a master painter in the guild
of his native town. Ambrose and Hans Holbein seem to have followed the
prevailing fashion, leaving Augsburg towards the end of 1514 or early in
1515. In the latter year the father went to Issenheim in High Alsace to
paint an altar-piece, and the two young men may have gone with him.
There is some probability, too, that the whole family settled in Lucerne
about this time. In any case, the two sons were residing in Basle before
the end of 1515, any plan of extended travel being cut short by the
prospect of plenty of work. At that time Basle was the northern centre
of the great revival of literature and learning, and several of its
printers were of European reputation. Many of the chief works of the
leading humanist writers were first published in Basle, and decorated
with woodcut illustrations and ornamental title-pages and borders. The
prospect of employment upon “black-and-white” work of this kind was, no
doubt, one of the chief attractions which brought the two young painters
to the town. Nor were they disappointed, for shortly after their arrival
a commission was given to them by Johann Froben, Erasmus’s publisher,
and the principal printer of the city.
It is not unlikely that the young men first of all entered the workshop
of some Basle painter, such as that of Hans Herbster, whose portrait was
painted in 1516 by one of the two brothers. Until recently this picture
was in the collection of the Earl of Northbrook, and ascribed to Hans,
but since its acquisition by the Basle Museum it has been attributed to
Ambrose. The latter, of whose work we know very little, seems to have
been an artist of only moderate capabilities. He joined the Painters’
Guild in Basle in 1517, and, as no record of him has been found later
than 1519, he is supposed to have died young.
During the next seven or eight years Holbein designed a number of book
illustrations for Froben, Adam Petri, Thomas Wolff, and other printers.
He was ready, however, to turn his hand to anything. He painted a table
with an amusing allegory of St. Nobody for the wedding of Hans Bär in
Basle on June 24, 1515, and in the same year supplied a schoolmaster
with a sign-board to hang outside his house.
It is uncertain when Holbein first became acquainted with the great
scholar of Antwerp, Desiderius Erasmus, who had come to Basle in 1513
for the purpose of superintending the publishing of his books, nor is it
easy to say to what degree of intimacy the artist was admitted by this
brilliant humanist. Erasmus had the greatest admiration for his powers
as an artist, and served him whenever he could, both by employing him
himself and recommending him to others. During Holbein’s first year in
Basle, Erasmus had published through Froben his famous and witty
satire, “The Praise of Folly,” and the artist made a number of drawings
on the margins of a copy of this book, illustrating passages in the
text. He seems to have done them at the suggestion of another
distinguished man of letters, Oswald Molitor, of Lucerne, at that time
employed by Froben, who selected the passages to be illustrated; and a
note in his handwriting says that they were finished on December 29,
1515, and that Erasmus was greatly entertained by them. The original
book is now in the Basle Museum.
Holbein soon began to give proof of his wonderful abilities as a
portrait painter. One of the first commissions he received was in 1516,
from Jacob Meyer, Burgomaster of Basle, whom he painted, together with
his young second wife, Dorothea Kannegiesser, a double portrait in one
frame (Basle Museum). The burgomaster was pleased with the result, and
remained the artist’s constant good friend, procuring important public
commissions for him, as well as making further private use of his
talents.
In 1517 he left Basle for Lucerne, where, according to Dr. von Liebenau,
his father was then residing. He was made a member of the
recently-founded Painters’ Guild of St. Luke, and also joined a local
company of archers. On December 10, 1517, he was in trouble with the
magistrates, being fined for taking part in some street brawl, after
which he appears to have left Lucerne for a time. He can be traced as
far south as Altdorf by the remains of a few pictures. If he ever
visited Italy it would be at this period. One or two writers hold that
he made some such journey, and point to several paintings in the Basle
Museum as proof that he must have had personal acquaintance with certain
achievements of Leonardo and his school, which he could only have seen
in Italy; but the influence of Mantegna and Da Vinci, which, though
plainly detected in his early work, is by no means a predominant one,
may be easily accounted for through the numerous Italian engravings then
circulating throughout Europe, without any actual visit to Lombardy on
the part of the artist. He was back in Lucerne in 1518, busily engaged
upon the decoration of the house of the magistrate, Jacob von
Hertenstein, which he covered with frescoes both inside and out. The
remains of this great work were destroyed in 1824, when the house was
demolished for street improvements, but not before the chief designs had
been hastily copied by Schwegher, Ulrich von Eschenbach, and other
Lucerne artists. This was by far the most important undertaking upon
which Holbein had as yet been engaged, and it was the first of a
splendid series of decorative works of which, unhappily, nothing remains
but their fame and a few slight preliminary sketches or indifferent
copies. No one north of the Alps came near to him in the fertility of
design and beauty of execution and of colour displayed by him in this
adaptation of a favourite method of Italian decoration which became
popular in the sixteenth century in certain parts of Germany and
Switzerland.
Holbein was back in Basle in 1519. He joined the Painters’ Guild on
September 25, and on July 3 in the following year paid his fees as a
burgher of the city. One of the first portraits he now undertook was
that of _Bonifacius Amerbach_, a brilliant young scholar and intimate
friend of Erasmus and other learned men. Amerbach had the greatest
admiration for Holbein’s genius, and missed no occasion of acquiring any
of his works, and it is owing to his taste and liberal purse that so
fine a collection of the painter’s productions can be studied to-day in
the Basle Museum.
The fame of Hertenstein’s painted house had spread to Basle, and Holbein
was soon busy over similar undertakings in the town of his adoption, of
which the most celebrated was _The House of the Dance_. He also produced
many designs for stained-glass windows, as well as a number of sketches
for costumes and patterns for goldsmiths and metal-workers. His most
important commission at this time, however, was the decoration of the
interior of the new Town Hall with wall-paintings, showing that,
although only twenty-four, he was already considered to be the chief
artist in Basle. He began this work in June, 1521, and by November,
1522, had covered three of the walls with subjects taken from ancient
history. These were probably selected for him, and were intended as
examples of that exercise of stern justice which should characterize the
actions and decisions of all rulers. These great decorative paintings
have long since perished through damp and neglect, and only a few
fragments remain in the Basle Museum. When he had finished three of the
walls, he was of opinion that he had earned the full amount voted by the
Town Council for the completion of the whole chamber. The Council saw
the justice of this, but, cautious of their expenditure of the public
funds, like many Councils of the present day, they resolved to “let the
back wall alone until further notice.”
In spite of these large decorative undertakings, Holbein found time to
paint a number of sacred pictures, among the earlier ones being a
_Passion_ series, coarsely and hastily painted on canvas; a _Last
Supper_, reminding one of more famous examples by Leonardo and Luini;
and others which are described later on (_see p. 29_). His two greatest
sacred pictures, which are worthy to stand by the side of the finest
canvases of the Italians, are the _Madonna and Saints_, at Solothurn,
painted in 1522, and the famous _Meyer Madonna_, at Darmstadt, (_see
illustration, and p. 44_). The latter was executed about 1526 for the
former burgomaster, Jacob Meyer.
Among other works of this period of the artist’s career are two small
portraits (Basle Museum), representing a certain Dorothea Offenburg, a
lady of no great repute in her day, as _Venus with Cupid_, and again as
_Lais Corinthiaca_. These are two of the pictures to which certain
critics point as showing so strongly the influence of the Milanese
school as to suggest a personal visit to Italy.
Holbein’s fame as an illustrator largely depends upon his celebrated
_Dance of Death_ woodcuts, and his illustrations to the New Testament.
Both series were commissioned by the brothers Trechsel, printers, of
Lyons, about 1523, the designs from the pen of Holbein, and the blocks
cut by Hans Lützelburger, the one engraver of the period who was fitted
to reproduce Holbein’s work in its full delicacy and beauty. Both artist
and woodcutter seem to have been occupied with the commission until
1526, in which year Lützelburger died, and although Holbein had
completed his part, the work stopped short for want of a competent
engraver. Neither series was published until 1538, when Holbein was at
his zenith as a portrait painter in England. _The Dance of Death_ has
been popularized by many reprints and reproductions; indeed, these
satires on the uncertainty of life, homilies in miniature, drawn with
the most surprising power and artistic beauty within the smallest
limits, soon became famous throughout Europe.
FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND.
The Reformation in Switzerland, with the violent passions it aroused,
made painting a precarious means of livelihood. Theological disputes
agitated Basle from end to end, and the lower classes of the community
were given over to disorder and discontent. Disturbances were of
continual occurrence, culminating in the so-called Peasants’ War.
Privilege after privilege was wrested from the nobility and the great
churchmen, and very many of the pictures, images, and decorations in the
churches were wrecked by the fury of the mob in the fight for religious
freedom. The Town Council was no longer in a position to encourage the
development of the fine arts, and the Basle painters had a very hard
struggle to live, and were glad of trivial employment, which in better
times they would have scorned. Holbein, too, had married, about 1520,
Elsbeth Schmidt, the widow of a tanner with one son, and had a young
family of his own, so that he found it increasingly difficult to make
both ends meet. He therefore thought seriously of visiting England in
quest of work, probably at the suggestion of Erasmus, who had many
friends and correspondents there. Holbein had painted his portrait more
than once. One of the finest of them, sent by the learned humanist to
Sir Thomas More, was probably the one now in Longford Castle (_see
illustration, and p. 50_), dated 1523. A second example is the fine
profile now in the Louvre. Erasmus wrote to Sir Thomas More about the
artist, and More, in his reply, promised to do what he could for him
when he came.
Holbein left Basle towards the end of August, 1526, and journeyed to
England by way of Antwerp, where in all probability he made a short
stay, reaching London about November. He was received with much kindness
by Sir Thomas More, then Speaker of the House of Commons, and holding
other high offices; and, according to tradition, remained as More’s
guest at his country house at Chelsea during the whole time of his first
English visit. He seems to have confined his practice as a portrait
painter entirely to Sir Thomas More’s family and his immediate circle
of friends, which was a large and learned one, embracing many of the
leading churchmen, statesmen, and scholars of the day. More does not
appear to have made him known to the King, although it is probable that
Henry, who frequently visited the Speaker at Chelsea, and was a great
patron of the fine arts, must have become acquainted, even as early as
this, with Holbein’s work.
In 1527 he painted Sir Thomas’s portrait, the picture now in the
possession of Mr. Edward Huth. In the same year he painted _William
Wareham_, Archbishop of Canterbury. Two examples of this portrait exist,
both by Holbein, at Lambeth Palace and in the Louvre, and two fine
drawings, in the British Museum and at Windsor. Other portraits of 1527
are those of _Sir Henry Guildford_, the Lord Chamberlain (Windsor); his
wife, _Lady Guildford_ (Mr. Frewen’s collection); _Sir Brian Tuke_
(Munich and the Duke of Westminster); _John Fisher_, Bishop of
Rochester, whose finished portrait is lost, but for which two fine
sketches still exist (Windsor and the British Museum); and several
undated works, such as the portrait of _Sir Henry Wyatt_ (Louvre), were
probably painted in this year. In 1528 he produced the fine portrait of
_Nicholas Kratzer_, the King’s Astronomer (Louvre), and _Thomas and John
Godsalve_, of Norwich, on one panel (Dresden).
The most important work which he undertook at this time has,
unfortunately, disappeared. This was the large portrait group of _Sir
Thomas More and His Family_. Several versions of it still exist, of
which the one at Nostell Priory is the most important, but not one of
them is a genuine work of Holbein’s. Happily, the very beautiful sketch
for the whole composition is to-day one of the chief treasures of the
Basle Museum. It was taken to Switzerland by the artist as a present
from Sir Thomas to Erasmus. Several fine studies for the heads of the
sitters have also been preserved (Windsor collection).
Mention must be made of another important undertaking with which there
is good reason to believe that Holbein had much to do. Early in 1527
French Ambassadors were in London negotiating for an alliance between
England and France. The signing of this treaty was celebrated at
Greenwich on May 5, with much ceremonious festivity, concluding with a
supper in a specially built banqueting-house. One of the chief painters
engaged in the internal decoration of this building was a certain
“Master Hans,” a title by which Holbein was well known; and, common as
this Christian name was in Germany, no trace has ever yet been found of
any other artist named Hans then working in England except Holbein. The
official direction of the building and decorating of this temporary hall
was in the hands of Sir Henry Guildford, and it would be natural for him
to turn to the craftsman of whose artistic powers he had full knowledge.
It was the kind of work, too, for which Holbein was already celebrated
in Switzerland. He appears to have been appointed to supervise the
numerous painters employed, and frequent mention is made of “Master
Hans and his company” (Calendar of State Papers, 1526-1528). By March 2
“Master Hans” had left Greenwich, and was busily engaged in London upon
a large “plat,” or picture, of _The Battle of Spurs_. He had finished
this in a month, and was paid £4 10s. for it. This picture was fixed on
the back of an arch which divided the banqueting-hall from the gallery
leading to the ball-room. Considering the occasion for which it was
painted, the subject was rather a cruel one, representing as it did the
putting to rout of a large body of mounted Frenchmen by a handful of
English cavalry; but it greatly tickled King Henry’s fancy, and he made
a point of drawing the attention of the Ambassadors to it. This picture
has disappeared.
RETURN TO BASLE.
Holbein was back in Basle in the summer of 1528. Possibly he was
recalled by the Town Council, under penalty of losing his rights of
citizenship if he disobeyed. On August 29 he purchased for 300 florins a
house overlooking the Rhine, and on March 30, 1531, he also bought the
adjoining house for 70 florins, thus proving that his English visit had
been far from fruitless. He remained in Basle for four years, but the
only important work upon which he was engaged was the completion of his
Town Hall decorations. The Town Council requested him to finish the
“back wall,” and he covered it with two fine compositions, _The Meeting
of Samuel and Saul_, and _Rehoboam_, the preliminary sketches for which
are now in the Basle Museum. He was engaged upon this work during the
latter half of 1530.
Basle was still torn by religious dissensions, but the party of the
Reformation now held the upper hand. A furious outbreak in 1529 led to
the further destruction of religious paintings and sculpture. Even
Holbein did not escape at least minor persecution for his religious
principles. On June 18, 1530, he was, in conjunction with a number of
his fellow-citizens, called upon to explain why he had not taken part in
the communion service instituted by the Basle Church after the abolition
of the Catholic creed in the previous year. He cautiously replied that
before approaching the Lord’s Table he desired the signification of the
holy mystery to be more clearly explained to him; and this seems to have
been done, as he did not persist in his refusal. Beyond the Town Hall
decorations he does not seem to have found much profitable work to do.
He painted a portrait of his wife and two children (Basle Museum) and a
new portrait of _Erasmus_ in 1530, the small round one now at Basle, the
original source of a number of copies at Parma, Turin, and elsewhere.
There was little opportunity, however, for him to follow his art with
adequate success, and his thoughts naturally turned once more towards
England. He came back to this country in 1532, probably without
informing the Basle authorities of his intention. They sent a very
flattering letter after him, offering him a fixed salary if he would
return, but he does not appear to have taken any immediate notice of
this suggestion.
SECOND RESIDENCE IN ENGLAND.
During Holbein’s absence Sir Thomas More had become Lord Chancellor, but
this office he relinquished in May, 1532, and was gradually falling out
of favour with the King. Holbein did not take up his residence in
Chelsea again, but settled in London, near the large colony of German
and Netherlandish merchants then forming an important part of the
commercial life of the capital. These merchants of the Hanseatic League
formed a close corporation among themselves, and in their midst Holbein
now made his home. Their place of meeting was called the Steelyard, and
here their warehouses and residences were grouped round the hall of the
guild, with its trim garden and special wineshop. Among them the artist
found not only the language and habits of his own country, but also
plenty of well-paid employment.
During 1532 and 1533, and occasionally later, he painted a number of his
compatriots seated in their offices and engaged in the ordinary routine
of business life, including the superb picture of _Georg Gisze_ (Berlin,
_see illustration, and p. 51_), _Hans of Antwerp_, the goldsmith, later
on one of Holbein’s executors (Windsor), _Derich Born_ (Windsor and
Munich), _Derich Berck_ (Petworth), _Geryck Tybis_ (Vienna), _Ambrose
Fallen_ (Brunswick), and several others whose names have not been
discovered. He was also employed by the members of the Steelyard as a
corporate body. At the coronation of Anne Boleyn, in May, 1533, the
streets of London were gaily decorated by the various city companies and
guilds, and the triumphal arch erected by the Hanseatic League was
designed by Holbein. Still more important were the two large allegorical
paintings in monochrome, _The Triumph of Riches_ and _The Triumph of
Poverty_, with which he decorated their banqueting-hall. These fine
works have disappeared. Fortunately, they were copied by Zucchero in
1574, and by Jan de Bisschop (British Museum), while the original sketch
for _The Triumph of Riches_ is in the Louvre.
Holbein had now reached the highest point of his career, and the series
of brilliant portraits he produced during the last ten years of his life
is unrivalled. It was probably owing to his connection with the
Steelyard that he was employed by several foreign Ambassadors, who were
accredited to England during his second residence here. Many of these
German merchants were more than mere traders. Owing to their knowledge
of foreign languages, and their business relations with all parts of the
world, they were often employed by the Government, and occasionally sent
on important missions abroad. In this way they were personally known to
many of the Ambassadors to England.
In 1533 Holbein produced his most important work still in this country,
the picture familiarly known as _The Ambassadors_ (_see illustration,
and p. 47_), representing Jean de Dinteville, French Ambassador at the
English Court, and his friend George de Selve, Bishop of Lavaur. Another
magnificent portrait of an Ambassador was painted about this time,
probably in 1534, the famous one in the Dresden Gallery, for many years
said to be a masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci, and a portrait of
Ludovico Sforza, and still called in the Dresden catalogue _Hubert
Morett, Goldsmith to Henry VIII_. It really represents _Charles de
Solier, Comte de Morette_, who was in England more than once, and
succeeded Dinteville as resident Ambassador in 1534. His clients,
however, were not only foreigners; he constantly painted Englishmen of
all ranks and classes. In 1533 he produced the fine portrait of _Robert
Cheseman, of Dormanswell_ (Hague), with his hawk on his wrist,
erroneously called _The King’s Falconer_ (_see illustration, and p.
56_), and the equally fine one of a man in black (Berlin), supposed to
be a member of the Trelawney family. The latter’s brother he had painted
in the previous year (Count Schönborn’s Collection, Vienna). In 1534 we
have the portrait of that “hammer of the monks,” Thomas Cromwell, when
only Master of the Jewel House.
It is not until 1536 that we get any actual proof that Holbein was in
the King’s service. In that year he painted the new Queen, Jane Seymour
(Vienna and Woburn Abbey). It seems certain, however, that Henry must
have been well aware of his artistic capacity before this date. A
number of artists, both foreign and native, all greatly inferior to
Holbein, were then employed by the King, and professional jealousy may
have had some share in retarding his entry into the royal service.
During Holbein’s first visit to England John Browne was sergeant-painter
to the King, holding the office for more than twenty years. He was
succeeded by another Englishman, Andrew Wright, who in his turn was
followed by an Italian, Antonio Toto; but, next to Holbein, the leading
painter in England, and a man of real ability, was Lucas Horembault, or
Hornebolt, of Ghent, who had settled here with his father Gerard and his
sister Susannah, both of them artists. The salary that Hornebolt
received from the King was always larger than that paid to Holbein.
In 1537 Holbein painted a great picture on the wall of the Privy Chamber
at Whitehall, representing the two Kings, Henry VII. and Henry VIII.,
and their Queens, Elizabeth of York and Jane Seymour. When the art
historian, Van Mander, saw it in 1604, it was still in perfect
preservation, and he speaks with the utmost enthusiasm about it. It was
destroyed in the fire which burned down that palace in 1698. Happily,
there still exists a small copy of it (Hampton Court), which was made in
1667 by Remigius van Leemput by order of Charles II., and Mr. Ernest Law
has recently discovered a replica by the same painter; while a still
better judgment can be formed of its size, composition, and general
effect from Holbein’s cartoon for the left half, showing the King and
his father, which belongs to the Duke of Devonshire. It is a black chalk
drawing, heightened with Indian ink, and was used for tracing the design
upon the wall.
Almost every other portrait of Henry painted after 1537--and there are
many of them scattered about England and on the Continent--was based
upon the Whitehall likeness. It is very doubtful if even one of them is
the genuine work of Holbein’s brush. Such portraits were multiplied to
give away to foreign Princes and faithful subjects. The best of them is
the well-known full-face representation of the King in Warwick Castle--a
life-size work, very admirably painted, most probably by Hornebolt.
There is really no authentic portrait of him by Holbein in existence,
with the exception of the rough chalk drawing at Munich and the
exquisite square portrait at Althorp, which, in the opinion of Mr.
Lionel Cust, F.S.A., is a genuine example.
After the death of Jane Seymour, the Privy Council lost no moment in
urging the King to marry again. The choice fell upon Christina, daughter
of the King of Denmark, and niece of the Emperor Charles V. She was
Duchess of Milan, and the young widow of Francesco Sforza, the last Duke
of his race. Holbein went over to Brussels in March, 1538, to paint the
lady’s portrait, and an account of this expedition will be found on p.
54. The very lovely full-length portrait of this Princess belongs to the
Duke of Norfolk, who has generously lent it to the National Gallery for
a number of years (_see illustration, and p. 55_). This is, perhaps, the
most perfect piece of portraiture Holbein ever accomplished, and one of
the great pictures of the world.
At this time the artist was receiving a salary of £30 a year from the
King in the form of a retaining fee, and he must have obtained further
payment for whatever work he did. His money was paid quarterly, but he
was occasionally granted a whole year’s salary in advance. In the autumn
of the same year, 1538, he made a second journey abroad, to Upper
Burgundy, for which he received £10 from the King’s purse, probably to
obtain a second sitting from the Duchess. He took this opportunity of
paying a flying visit to Basle, no doubt to talk over with the Town
Council an offer they had just made him of a pension of fifty gulden,
with leave of absence in England for two years longer, if he would then
return to his native city and settle there. He remained in Basle for
only a few days during December, and was received with enthusiasm by his
fellow-citizens. He most probably returned to England by way of Paris,
where he stopped to apprentice his eldest son Philip to the goldsmith
Jerome David. Whatever agreement he may have made with the Swiss
authorities, he did not visit Basle again during the five remaining
years of his life. He was back in London on New Year’s Day, 1539, and
presented a portrait of the young Prince Edward to the King.
In August, 1539, he was again sent abroad upon a similar mission. He
went to Düren, in the Duchy of Cleves, to paint the daughters of the
Duke, a Protestant Prince, with whom, since the negotiations with the
Emperor for Christina’s hand had come to nothing, Cromwell thought an
alliance would be politic. The likeness Holbein made of _Anne of
Cleves_, probably the fine one now in the Louvre, is said by tradition
to have so flattered the lady that Henry consented to marry her, with
the well-known disastrous results.
With the exception of a miniature at Windsor, there is no authentic
portrait of _Catherine Howard_, whom the King married as soon as he had
divorced the unfortunate Anne; but her uncle, _Thomas Howard, third Duke
of Norfolk_, the Lord High Admiral, was painted by him more than once.
Holbein had now become the most popular portrait painter of the day, and
his commissions were very numerous. It is impossible to give a complete
list of them here, but the principal ones will be found in the Appendix.
At Windsor Castle is the magnificent collection of chalk drawings of
heads, over eighty in number, which includes portraits of many of the
most illustrious people of the day. These were preliminary studies for
portraits, and are the finest record we possess of the celebrities of
the Tudor period, invaluable both historically and artistically. In them
Holbein is seen at his finest as a delineator of character.
In 1542 he began the large painting which was ordered to commemorate the
granting of a charter by Henry VIII. to the newly-incorporated Company
of Barber Surgeons, which still hangs in the Company’s Hall in London.
He did not live to complete it. Some of the heads of the principal
physicians he had finished, but the greater part of the picture,
including the huge and ugly figure of the King, out of all proportion to
the other persons represented, was put in by some other and far inferior
hand. At least two of the doctors represented in this work were also
painted by him separately, _Dr. John Chambers_ (Vienna) and _Sir William
Butts_, as well as the latter’s wife.
Holbein died in the following year, 1543, carried off by the plague,
which then raged in London. The exact date of his death is not known,
but he made a hasty will on October 7, and on November 29 administration
was granted to his old friend Hans of Antwerp, the goldsmith. He was
living at the time in the parish of St. Andrew Undershaft, where he was
rated as a foreigner. He is supposed to have been buried in the Church
of St. Katherine Cree, but no record of this has been discovered. His
wife died in 1549. His eldest son Philip, “a good, well-behaved lad,”
served his apprenticeship in Paris, and finally settled in Augsburg,
founding that branch of the family upon which the Emperor Matthias
conferred a patent of nobility as the Holbeins of Holbeinsberg. His
second son James died as a goldsmith in London, while his daughters
married respectable citizens of Basle.
THE ART OF HOLBEIN
Holbein’s art was many-sided, although, during the latter half of his
life, he was occupied chiefly with portraiture. This was not owing to
the artist’s preference for this mode of expression, but to the fact
that there was very little demand for any other form of painting in
England. The painter of _The Meyer Madonna_ was not the man to have
abandoned the production of large religious compositions if there had
been any adequate demand for them. His few works of this nature which
remain place him in the front rank of sixteenth-century artists, and, if
he had been born on the south side of the Alps, he would have painted
sacred pictures as fine as those of any Italian cinquecentist; even
Raphael would have found in him a worthy rival.
It is an immense loss to art that all his large decorative undertakings,
and many of his most important pictures, have perished or have been
lost, so that to-day we can only judge of them by a few preliminary
studies, certain fragments of the originals which have been preserved in
museums, and, in a few cases, some early and careful copies of a reduced
size. The decorations with which he covered a number of houses in
Lucerne and Basle have all disappeared. What the weather did not ruin
the clumsy hand of the restorer and street-improver has destroyed. A
number of his sacred pictures must have perished during the artist’s
lifetime through the fury of iconoclastic mobs. Damp, dirt, and neglect
were the cause of the gradual fading away of his wall-paintings in the
interior of the Basle Town Hall. His two great allegorical works for the
decoration of the dining-hall of the Steelyard--_The Triumph of Riches_
and _The Triumph of Poverty_--have vanished, either destroyed in the
Whitehall fire of 1698 or dispersed at the sale of Charles I.’s
pictures. Some such fate seems also to have befallen the great portrait
group of _Sir Thomas More’s Family_. The great wall-painting in the
Privy Chamber in Whitehall was also destroyed by fire. Gone, too, is
_The Battle of Spurs_, which, if Mr. Nicholls is right, was painted by
our artist. Finally, death cut short the painting of the picture in the
Barber Surgeons’ Hall. Such a list of lost or ruined masterpieces is,
unhappily, not uncommon in the history of art, but Holbein has suffered
more than most men; yet enough remains from his brush to allow us to
place him among the greatest men of genius of his own or any succeeding
age.
As already stated, he owed little to any other master than his father.
It is impossible to say to what extent he assisted the elder painter in
the series of sacred pictures now preserved in Augsburg and elsewhere in
Germany, although certain critics hold that he took a large share in the
production of _The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian_ in Munich. This picture
is the elder Holbein’s masterpiece, and in it, more than in any other of
his works, he has thrown off the German mediævalism in which he was
trained, and has emulated the newer style of the Renaissance, with its
fine flowing lines and rounded forms and its exact imitation of Nature.
It was to this German painter of repute that Holbein was indebted for
almost all the artistic training he received. His painting was not
affected to any extent by other artists except, indirectly, by the
Italians of the North; but what was talent in the father became genius
of the rarest quality in the son.
LARGE DECORATIVE WORKS AND WALL-PAINTINGS.
The practice of decorating both the exterior and the interior of houses
with large wall-paintings, so universal throughout Italy in the
sixteenth century, was by no means uncommon north of the Alps; but in
Germany this class of work was badly paid, and the painter employed made
use of much mechanical assistance, and did not lavish too much personal
care upon it. No other Northern artist carried out work of this nature
with such brilliancy and such success as Holbein. It is probable that
the subjects of his wall-paintings were chosen for him by his patrons to
suit their own tastes; but his fertility of imagination was so great
that his renderings of the selected themes were stamped with his
original genius. The designs were not carried out by him in a slipshod
manner, without understanding, but were masterpieces of dramatic power
and composition, and, no doubt, equally artistic in their colour
schemes.
In his decorations for the house of Jacob von Hertenstein, in Lucerne,
many of the subjects were taken from ancient times. The façade was
covered with scenes from secular history, pageants, and combats of
children, in a setting of florid Renaissance architecture, an important
feature being a great triumphal procession of Cæsar, in its main lines
copied from Mantegna. In the interior the walls of the chapel were
covered with religious paintings, and the largest chamber was given up
to hunting scenes with landscape backgrounds and a representation of
_The Fountain of Youth_, with many humorous details.
There is no doubt that he decorated a number of houses in Basle in a
similar manner, though we have records of only one of them; but drawings
of several elaborately ornamented façades are preserved in various
collections, which show that he was often occupied with this kind of
work in his younger days. The most famous of these decorated buildings
was, as already stated, known as _The House of the Dance_, from a broad
frieze running across the second story, which represented a number of
peasants boisterously dancing to the music of the bagpipes. The whole
front was embellished with painted Renaissance architecture. The great
variety of subjects he included, and the elaborate details, may be
studied in a sketch preserved in the Basle Museum.
The subjects chosen for the interior decoration of the Basle Town Hall
were also from classical antiquity. Richly ornamented columns divided
the walls into a number of spaces, which were filled with paintings
representing the vital importance to a community of impartial justice.
Holbein’s subjects were _Charondas, the Lawgiver, plunging the Sword
into his own Heart_; _Zaleucus ordering his own Right Eye to be torn out
instead of his Son’s_; _Curius Dentatus sending back the Ambassadors of
the Samnites_; and _Sapor, King of Persia, using the Body of the
captured Emperor Valerian as a step from which to mount his Horse_. The
smaller panels were single figures, such as _Christ_, _David_,
_Justice_, _Wisdom_, and _Moderation_. The remaining wall in the Hall,
painted in 1530, was covered with two large Biblical subjects--_Rehoboam
dismissing the Messengers of the Israelites with fierce threats_, and
_The meeting of Samuel and Saul_, when the Prophet angrily reproves the
King for having disobeyed the command of God in sparing the Amalekites.
The original sketches for both these compositions still exist, and are
sufficient to prove how fine the completed pictures must have been. The
vehement gesture of Rehoboam is well conceived, and the composition of
the Samuel and Saul is masterly.
The two large allegorical friezes for the banquet-room of the Steelyard
merchants in London must have been equally fine. The original sketch for
_The Triumph of Riches_ (Louvre) shows how easily the genius of the
artist adapted itself to this kind of work. The figures in these two
compositions, which were done in _tempera_ on canvas, were life-size.
They soon became famous, and in 1574 were copied by Zucchero, who,
according to Carl van Mander, declared they were as fine as anything
accomplished by Raphael. Such triumphal processions as these were, of
course, a favourite method of decoration in his day, of which Mantegna’s
_Triumph of Cæsar_ was the most famous. In _The Triumph of Riches_ he
depicted Plutus, God of Wealth, seated in a car drawn by four horses,
with Fortune in front, her veil flying behind her, scattering gold among
the accompanying crowd, which is made up of many men of antiquity famous
for their wealth, luxury, or avarice. In _The Triumph of Poverty_
Poverty herself, an ancient and miserable hag, and her comrade,
Misfortune, are drawn in a poor barrow by two asses, Stupidity and
Inactivity, and two oxen, Negligence and Sloth. The vehicle is driven by
Hope, who is accompanied by Industry, Memory, and Experience, who
distribute axe or hammer, spade or flail, symbols of work, among the
poverty-stricken people who crowd round.
In all these large decorative works Holbein displayed the greatest
fertility of invention, and a power of composition of a very high order.
The sense of life and movement in all the figures, and the
appropriateness of the gestures, are alike admirable. In some of his
wall-paintings he showed a keen sense of humour; and that joy of life,
as felt by the Teuton of his day in his moments of relaxation and
merriment, is admirably expressed. There is, too, an exuberance of
invention in the architectural and ornamental details which is one of
the most striking features of this side of his art, showing how quickly
and completely he had made the new ideas of the Renaissance his own.
RELIGIOUS PAINTINGS.
Holbein’s religious pictures almost all date from the earlier part of
his career, and few remain which are works of his maturity. More than
one of them perished, there is little doubt, during the stormy days of
the Reformation in Basle. His earliest known picture is a small panel of
_The Virgin and Child_, dated 1514, a work of great promise for a youth
of seventeen. It displays a real, though naïve, charm, and the tender
attitude with which the Virgin holds the Child is very attractive. She
is dressed in white, with a black cloak, and her long, fair hair falls
over her shoulders, and Holbein seems to have taken an especial delight
in the careful painting of it. This little work, tentative as it is in
many ways, gives signs that the hand which painted it was soon to become
that of a master. Other early works of a similar character are _The
Virgin Mary_ and _St. John the Evangelist_, quarter lengths, seen
against a blue background, which remained the artist’s favourite setting
for his heads throughout his life. The series of five pictures on
canvas, taken from _The Passion of Christ_, need not detain us. It is
probable that they were hastily painted for some church decoration or
religious celebration. Among the numerous designs for glass-painting
which he made in Basle, the most important is a series of ten designs
illustrating _The Passion of Christ_, each one set in a background of
elaborate architectural structure. The scenes are simply treated, but
with great dramatic power, if not with great depth of feeling. The
action in most of them is finely conceived, and many of the figures have
both dignity and beauty.
Holbein took the same subject, _The Passion of Christ_, for an
altar-piece consisting of eight small panels (Basle Museum). For more
than 200 years this work was considered to be the artist’s finest
achievement, and it was preserved in the Basle Town Hall until 1777,
when the Town Council presented it to the Museum, and had it thoroughly
restored before handing it over, with most disastrous results. The
abominably gaudy colours which were then daubed upon it have taken away
most of the charm which graced it when it first left the master’s hands.
It is still possible, however, to form some judgment of its composition,
and to see how skilfully the artist has managed the light and shade. The
eight scenes are combined in one frame in a very effective and
harmonious manner, forming one picturesque whole. Each little picture,
taken by itself, is a work of art and of real beauty. Two other panels
in the Minster of Freiburg, somewhat similar to the above in the
exceptionally successful and picturesque arrangement of the lighting,
form the wings of an altar-piece, of which the centre panel has
disappeared. They were painted for Hans Oberreidt, one of the Basle Town
Councillors, and represent _The Nativity_ and _The Adoration of the
Magi_, with the donor and the numerous members of his family kneeling
below. All the figures are small, while the backgrounds are large and
imposing. Another little work of great beauty, and important as being
the only sacred painting by Holbein now in England, is the _Noli Me
Tangere_ at Hampton Court (_see_ p. 58).
A very remarkable picture of _The Dead Christ_ (Basle) was painted in
1521. The nude body lies in a narrow tomb of marble, open at the side.
Except for the stigmata, there is very little religious signification in
it. The painful subject has been in no way idealized; it is, on the
contrary, one of the most vividly realistic paintings of a dead man ever
produced by a great painter.