_Further examination of Holbein's title.--Borbonius.--Biographical
notice of Holbein.--Painting of a Dance of Death at Whitehall by him._
It may be necessary in the next place to make some further enquiry
respecting the connection that Holbein is supposed to have had _at any
time_ with the subject of the Dance of Death.
The numerous errors that have been fallen into in making Holbein a
participator in any manner whatever with the old Basle Macaber Dance, have
been already noticed, and are indeed not worth the trouble of refuting. It
is wholly improbable that he would interfere with so rude a piece of art;
nor has his name been recorded among the artists who are known to have
retouched or repaired it. The Macaber Dance at Basle, or any where else,
is, therefore, with respect to Holbein, to be altogether laid aside; and
if the argument before deduced from the important dedication to the
edition of the justly celebrated wood-cuts published at Lyons in 1538 be
of any value, his claim to their invention, at least to those in the first
edition, must also be rejected.[124] There is indeed but very slight
evidence, and none contemporary, that he painted any Dance of Death at
Basle. The indefinite statements of Bishop Burnet and M. Patin, together
with those of the numerous and careless travellers who have followed
blind leaders, and too often copied each other without the means or
inclination of obtaining correct information, are deserving of very little
attention. The circumstance of Holbein's having painted a Dance of
Peasants somewhere in the above city, in conjunction with the usual
mistake of ascribing to him the old Macaber Dance, seems to have
occasioned the above erroneous statements as to a Dance of Death by his
pencil. It is hardly possible that Zuinger, almost a contemporary, when
describing the Dance of Peasants and other paintings by Holbein at Basle
would have omitted the mention of any Dance of Death:[125] but even
admitting the former existence of such a painting, it would not constitute
him the inventor of the designs in the Lyons work. He might have imitated
or copied those designs, or the wood-cuts themselves, or perhaps have
painted subjects that were different from either.
We are now to take into consideration some very clear and important
evidence that Holbein actually _did paint a Dance of Death_. This is to be
found in the _Nugae_ of Borbonius in the following verses:
_De morte picta a Hanso pictore nobili._
Dum mortis Hansus pictor imaginum exprimit,
Tanta arte mortem retulit, ut mors vivere
Videatur ipsa: et ipse se immortalibus
Parem Diis fecerit, operis hujus gloria.[126]
It has been already demonstrated that these lines could not refer to the
old painting of the Macaber Dance at the Dominican convent, whilst, from
the important dedication to the edition of the wood-cuts first published
at Lyons in 1538, it is next to impossible that that work could then have
been in Borbonius's contemplation. It appears from several places in his
Nugae that he was in England in 1535, at which time Holbein drew his
portrait in such a manner as to excite his gratitude and admiration in
another copy of verses.[127] This was probably the chalk drawing still
preserved in the fine collection of portraits of the eminent persons in
the court of Henry VIII. formerly at Kensington, and thence removed to
Buckingham House, and which has been copied in an elegant wood-cut, that
first appeared in the edition of the Paidagogeion of Borbonius, Lyons,
1536, and afterward in two editions of his Nugae. It is inscribed NIC.
BORBONIVS VANDOP. ANNO AETATIS XXXII. 1535. He returned to Lyons in 1536,
and it is known that he was there in 1538, when he probably wrote the
complimentary lines in Holbein's Biblical designs a short time before
their publication, either out of friendship to the painter, or at the
instance of the Lyons publisher with whom he was certainly connected.
Now if Borbonius, during his residence at Lyons, had been assured that the
designs in the wood-cuts of the Dance of Death were the production of
Holbein, would not his before-mentioned lines on that subject have been
likewise introduced into the Lyons edition of it, or at least into some
subsequent editions, in none of which is any mention whatever made of
Holbein, although the work was continued even after the death of that
artist? The application, therefore, of Borbonius's lines must be sought
for elsewhere; but it is greatly to be regretted that he has not adverted
to the place where the painting, as he seems to call it, was made.
Very soon after the calamitous fire at Whitehall in 1697, which consumed
nearly the whole of that palace, a person calling himself T. Nieuhoff
Piccard, probably belonging to the household of William the Third, and a
man who appears to have been an amateur artist, made the etchings in the
article IX. already described in p. 130. Copies of them were presented to
some of his friends, with manuscript dedications to them. Three of these
copies have been seen by the author of this Dissertation, and as the
dedications differ from each other, and are of very considerable
importance on the present occasion, the following extracts from them are
here translated and transcribed:
"TO MYNHEER HEYMANS.
"Sir,--The costly palace of Whitehall, erected by Cardinal Wolsey, and
the residence of King Henry VIII. contains, among other performances
of art, a _Dance of Death_, painted by Holbein in its galleries,
which, through an unfortunate conflagration, has been reduced to
ashes; and even the little work which he has engraved with his own
hand, and which I have copied as near as possible, is so scarce, that
it is known only to a few lovers of art. And since the court has
thought proper, in consideration of your singular deserts, to cause a
dwelling to be built for you at Whitehall, I imagined it would not be
disagreeable to you to be made acquainted with the former decorations
of that palace. It will not appear strange that the artist should have
chosen the above subject for ornamenting the _royal_ walls, if we
consider that the founder of the Greek monarchy directed that he
should be daily reminded of the admonition, 'Remember, Philip, that
thou art a man.' In like manner did Holbein with his pencil give
tongues to these walls to impress not only the king and his court, but
every one who viewed them with the same reflection."
He then proceeds to describe each of the subjects, and concludes with some
moral observations.
In another copy of these etchings the dedication is to
"The high, noble, and wellborn Lord William Benting, Lord of Rhoon,
Pendreght, &c."
"Sir,--In the course of my constant love and pursuit of works of art,
it has been my good fortune to meet with that scarce little work of
Hans Holbein neatly engraved on wood, and which he himself had painted
as large as life in fresco on the walls of Whitehall. In the copy
which I presume to lay before you, as being born in the same palace, I
have followed the original as nearly as possible, and considering the
partiality which every one has for the place of his birth, a
description of what is remarkable and curious therein and now no
longer existing on account of its destruction by a fatal fire, must
needs prove acceptable, as no other remains whatever have been left of
that once so famous court of King Henry VIII. built by Cardinal
Wolsey, than your own dwelling."
He then repeats the story of Philip of Macedon, and the account of the
subjects of his etchings.
At the end of this dedication there is a fragment of another, the
beginning of which is lost. The following passages only in it are worthy
of notice. "The residence of King William." "I flatter myself with a
familiar acquaintance with Death, since I have already lived long enough
to seem to be buried alive, &c." In other respects, the same, in
substance, as the preceding.
It is almost needless to advert to M. Nieuhoff Piccard's mistake in
asserting that Holbein made the engravings which he copied; but it would
have been of some importance if, instead of his pious ejaculations, he had
described all the subjects that Holbein painted on the walls of the
galleries at Whitehall. He must have used some edition of the wood-cuts
posterior to that of 1545, which did not contain the subjects of the
German soldier, the fool, and the blind man, all of which he has
introduced. It is possible, however, that he has given us all the subjects
that were then remaining, the rest having become decayed or obliterated
from dampness and neglect, and even those which then existed would soon
afterwards perish when the remains of the old palace were removed. His
copies are by no means faithful, and seem to be rather the production of
an amateur than of a regular artist. For his greater convenience, he
appears to have preferred using the wood engravings instead of the
paintings; and it is greatly to be regretted that we have no better or
further account of them, especially of the time at which they were
executed. The lives of Holbein that we possess are uniformly defective in
chronological arrangement. There seems to be a doubt whether the Earl of
Arundel recommended him to visit England; but certain it is that in the
year 1526 he came to London with a letter of that date addressed by
Erasmus to Sir Thomas More, accompanied with his portrait, with which More
was so well satisfied that he retained him at his house at Chelsea upwards
of two years, until Henry VIII. from admiration of his works, appointed
him his painter, with apartments at Whitehall. In 1529 he visited Basle,
but returned to England in 1530. In 1535 he drew the portrait of his
friend Nicholas Bourbon or Borbonius at London, probably the
before-mentioned crayon drawing at Buckingham House, or some duplicate of
it. In 1538 he painted the portrait of Sir Richard Southwell, a privy
counsellor to Henry VIII. which was afterwards in the gallery of the Grand
Duke of Tuscany.[128] About this time the magistrates of the city of Basle
settled an annuity on him, but conditionally that he should return in two
years to his native place and family, with which terms he certainly did
not comply, preferring to remain in England. In the last-mentioned year he
was sent by the king into Burgundy to paint the portrait of the Duchess of
Milan, and in 1539 to Germany to paint that of Anne of Cleves. In some
household accounts of Henry VIII. there are payments to him in 1538, 1539,
1540, and 1541, on account of his salary, which appears to have been
thirty pounds per annum.[129] From this time little more is recorded of
him till 1553, when he painted Queen Mary's portrait, and shortly
afterwards died of the plague in London in 1554.
In the absence of positive evidence it may surely be allowed to substitute
probable conjecture; and as it cannot be clearly proved that Holbein
painted a Dance of Death at Basle, may not the before-mentioned verses of
Borbonius refer to his painting at Whitehall, and which the poet must
himself have seen? It is no objection that Borbonius remained a year only
in England, when his portrait was painted by his friend Holbein in 1535,
or that the verses did not make their appearance till 1538, for they seem
rather to fix the date of the painting, if really belonging to it, between
those years; and it is not unreasonable to suppose that Borbonius would
hold some intercourse with the painter, even after leaving England, as is
indeed apparent from other compliments bestowed on him in his Nugae, the
contents of which are by no means chronologically arranged, and many of
the poems known to have been written long before their publication. The
lines in question might have been written any where, and at any time, and
this may be very safely stated until the real time in which the Whitehall
painting was made shall be ascertained.
In one of Vanderdort's manuscript catalogues of the pictures and rarities
transported from St. James's to Whitehall, and placed there in the newly
erected cabinet room of Charles I. and in which several works by Holbein
are mentioned, there is the following article: "A little piece where Death
with a green garland about his head, stretching both his arms to apprehend
a Pilate in the habit of one of the spiritual Prince Electors of Germany.
Copied by Isaac Oliver from Holbein."[130] There cannot be a doubt that
this refers to the subject of the Elector, as painted by Holbein in the
Dance of Death at Whitehall, proving at the same time the identity of the
painting with the wood-cuts, whatever may be the inference.
Sandrart, after noticing a remarkable portrait of Henry VIII. at
Whitehall, states, that "there yet remains in that palace _another work_
by Holbein that constitutes him the Apelles of the time."[131] This is
certainly very like an allusion to a Dance of Death.
It is by no means improbable that Mathew Prior may have alluded to
Holbein's painting at Whitehall, as it is not likely that he would be
acquainted with any other.
Our term of life depends not on our deed,
Before our birth our funeral was decreed,
Nor aw'd by foresight, nor misled by chance,
Imperious death directs the ebon lance,
Peoples great Henry's tombs, and leads up Holbein's Dance.
_Ode to the Memory of George Villiers._