The Work here presented to the Reader is a Copy, with a small Variation
noticed hereafter, as to the Cuts, and a Translation, as to the Letter
Press, of one well known to the Curious by the Title of IMAGINES MORTIS,
or _The Images of Death_; which is reported to be in reality indebted for
its Existence to an Event that BOCCACE did but feign as the Occasion of
writing his _Decameron_; I mean the Calamity of a Plague: And its History
is as follows.
Pope EUGENIUS IV. having summoned a Council to meet at the City of Basle,
or, as it is more usually called, Basil, in Switzerland; it accordingly
met there in the Year 1431, and continued to sit for Seventeen Years,
Nine Months, and Twenty-Seven Days, or, according to Mr. WALPOLE[1], but
Fifteen Years in the whole; and at this Council the Pope himself, and
after his Death his Successor FELIX V. SIGISMOND Emperor of Germany,
ALBERT II. then King of the Romans, and many other Princes and Persons
of distinguished Rank were present. During the Sitting of this Council,
viz. in the Year 1439, the City of Basil was visited with a Plague,
which raged for some Time with extreme Violence, and carried off many
of the Nobility, and several Cardinals and Prelates who attended that
Council, some of whom were interred in the very Cemetery where the
Painting, of which we are about to speak, now is; and, on the Cessation
of the Distemper, the surviving Members of the Council, with a View
to perpetuate the Memory of this Event, and of their providential
Deliverance from its Effects, caused to be painted in Oil on the Walls
of the Cemetery, near the Convent of the Dominicans, a _Dance of Death_,
representing all Ranks of Persons, from the Pope to the Peasant, as
individually seized by Death; adding also to each Figure eight Lines in
German, four of them containing an Address from Death to them severally,
the other four their Reply. The Name of the Painter employed on this
Occasion has not been transmitted down to us with Certainty; but some
Persons have imagined that this Painting was the Work of HANS HOLBEIN:
Whether it were done by him or another, shall be hereafter considered;
but, in the mean Time, we shall here proceed to relate the subsequent
History of the Painting itself.
It is, however, to be observed, that MATTHEW MERIAN, who, in 1649,
published in German, at Franckfort, in small Quarto, a Book entitled
TODTEN TANZ, or _Death’s Dance_, containing Engravings from the
above-mentioned Painting[2], and from the Preface to whose Work, as
translated into French, in an Edition printed at Basil in 1744, most of
the foregoing Facts are extracted, does not speak in positive Terms as to
the precise Time when the original Figures were painted, but only says,
that they are believed, and with great Probability, to be of that Time
in which he had placed them; in further Confirmation of which he has
noticed, that SIGISMOND was himself a Lover and extraordinary Patron of
the Arts, and had always about him a Number of Artists; and that JOHN
AB EYCK, the Inventor of Oil Painting, flourished in his Reign; but Mr.
WARTON[3] has related (though it does not appear on what Authority) not
only that HOLBEIN was the Painter, but that the Subject in Question was
painted in 1543; in which I conceive him misinformed: For MERIAN was, as
he himself tells us, a Native of Basil, and possibly might have had his
Account by Tradition; and, had the Painting been of no earlier a Date
than 1543, it is hardly probable (considering too that it is in Oil)
that it should have been so much injured by Time as to stand in Need, as
we find it did, of an almost total Repair in 1568: To all which I add,
that MERIAN seems so well satisfied of the Truth of his Account, that he
tells us further that the Figures were drawn from Nature, and are dressed
each in the Habit of the Time; and that those of the Pope, Emperor, and
King, are respectively Portraits of FELIX V. who succeeded EUGENIUS IV.,
SIGISMOND Emperor of Germany, and ALBERT II., King of the Romans; all of
whom, as we have before remarked, were present at the Council.
Mr. WALPOLE[4] mentions that this Painting was repaired in 1529; but
in this he seems to have been misled (accidentally taking one Date
instead of another) by a Passage in the Preface to MERIAN’s Book before
cited. MERIAN informs us, that the Painting in Question having been much
injured by Time, JOHN HUGH KLAUBER, a Painter, and Citizen of Basil,
was, in 1568, employed to repair it; and that, finding a Vacancy on the
Wall sufficient for his Purpose, he added at the Head of the Painting
a Portrait of JOHANNES OECOLOMPADIUS, in Memory of the Reformation in
1529, to which his preaching the Gospel to all Ranks, as he did, might
be supposed in some small Degree to contribute; and, at the End of the
Painting, on another Part of the Wall, he added the Portraits of himself,
his Wife, and his Children: And this Repair by KLAUBER, MERIAN tells us
further, was commemorated in a Latin Tablet, which in his Time hung near
the Painting. Some Time after, it was again repaired, and so, without
any further Repair, it continued till MERIAN’s Time; but KEYSLER, who
visited it in 1729, in his _Travels_, Vol. I. P. 171, Edit. 8vo. 1760,
relates, that the original Colours were then totally effaced, that only
the Outlines of the Figures were left, and that it had then been lately
repaired.
The Thought of this allegorical Representation of Death, though in the
present Instance immediately suggested by the Event above related, was
not in itself original, but borrowed in some Measure from a Kind of
Masquerade, which Mr. WARTON[5] observes was anciently celebrated in
the Churches abroad, particularly those of France (and, among others,
it seems to have been performed in St. Innocent’s Church at Paris)
and in which all Ranks and Degrees of Persons were personated by the
Ecclesiastics of those Churches, who all danced together, and then
disappeared; and it is certain that before the Calamity above-mentioned
happened at Basil, and consequently before this Painting there was begun,
Allusions to a _Dance of Death_ occurred in the Writings of the Authors
of the Time, in Reference, no Doubt, to that Kind of Masquerade. It were
needless to introduce a Number of Quotations to support this Assertion;
but as some Proof may, perhaps, be expected, I here insert from _The
Vision of_ PIERS PLOWMAN, written about 1350, the following Passage, with
which Mr. WARTON’s _Hist. of Poetry_, Vol. II. P. 54, has furnished me:
“Death came driving after, and all to Dust pash’d
Kings and Cæsars, Knights and Popes.”
And I further find that, several Years prior to the Breaking out of this
Plague at Basil, the Idea had even been carried into Execution; for that
in 1384, a _Death’s Dance_ had been painted at Minden, in Westphalia[6]:
But, no sooner had this Painting at Basil been finished, and become, as
it very soon after did, universally celebrated all over Europe, but the
_Dance of Death_ became a very favourite Subject, and was frequently
painted in public Buildings. The earliest Instance which has yet
occurred, subsequent to the Painting at Basil, is one which Mr. WARTON[7]
mentions at Lubec, in the Portico of St. Mary’s Church, painted in 1463;
and of which Dr. NUGENT, in his _Travels_, Vol. I. P. 102, speaking of
Lubec, gives the following Account:
“But the most noted Thing in St. Mary’s Church is the Painting called
_Death’s Dance_, so much talked of in all Parts of Germany. It was
originally drawn in 1463, but the Figures were repaired at different
Times, as in 1588, 1642, and last of all in 1701. Here you see the
Representation of Death leading an Emperor in his imperial Robes, who
with his other Hand takes hold of such another Figure, which leads up a
King; and so alternately a Figure of Death and a human Person through all
Conditions and Stages of Life. The Intention of the Artist was to shew
that Death pays no Regard to Age or Condition, which is more particularly
expressed in the Verses underneath. They were composed at first in Plat
Deutch, or Low Dutch; but at the last Repair, in 1701, it was thought
proper to change them for German Verses, which were written by NATHANIEL
SCHLOTT, of Dantzick.” Of these Verses Dr. NUGENT has inserted a
Translation from the original German, by a Lady of Dantzick, from which
it appears that the Originals consist of, first, an Apostrophe of Death
to all, and then an Address of Death to one Individual; then follows
his Reply; after that, Death’s Address to another; next, his Reply; and
so on. It further appears from the Translation, that the Characters
delineated in the Painting are the following: The Pope, Emperor,
Empress, Cardinal, King, Bishop, General, Abbé, Knight, Carthusian,
Burgomaster, Prebendary, Nobleman, Physician, Usurer, Chaplain, Steward,
Church-Warden, Tradesman, Recluse, Peasant, Young Man, Maiden, Infant,
Dancing-Master, and Fencing-Master.
In Addition to this Instance we learn, that, in the Reign of Henry the
Sixth, one JENKEN CARPENTER caused to be painted at his Expence on the
Walls of the Cloister of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London[8], the _Dance of
MACHABRAY_, or _Dance of Death_[9]; and it is more than probable that
the celebrated Painting of the same Kind in St. Innocent’s Church, in
Paris, in like Manner owes its Original to the Painting at Basil.
Nor are these the only Instances in which this Subject has been chosen
for the Decoration of Buildings; for in 1525 it was painted at Annaberg,
and in 1534, in the Castle or Palace at Dresden; as it also was, though
when is unknown, at Leipsic and other Places[10].
The same Inclination in Favour of this Subject began also, very soon
after the Painting in Question was known, to discover itself in literary
Publications, and in the Decorations and Ornaments of Books. One MACABER,
a French or German Poet, but of what Æra is uncertain, wrote in German
a Poem on the Subject of _Death’s Dance_, which, in Consequence of this
Circumstance, is not seldom from him called _The Dance of MACABER_[11].
His Verses were translated into French, and written round the Cloister
of St. Innocent’s, at Paris, under, as I conceive, the before-mentioned
Painting; and from this French Translation, LYDGATE, at the Request
of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s[12], made a Version, which was
afterwards inscribed on the Walls of their Church, under the Painting of
the same Subject.
It would be an endless Task, and afford but little Entertainment to the
Reader, to reckon up here a long List of Books in which the Subject has
been reiterated: We shall therefore content ourselves with mentioning
that it appeared in the Chronicle of HARTMANNUS SCHEDELIUS, printed at
Nuremberg in 1493, Folio[13], usually called the Nuremberg Chronicle; in
the Quotidian Offices of the Church, printed at Paris, 1515, in 8vo[14];
in several Horæ, Missals, &c. and even so late as in _A Book of Christian
Prayers, collected out of the ancient Writers and best learned of our
Time_, first printed in 4to. 1569, and afterwards in the same Size in
1608; and that, in Addition to all these and others which might be
mentioned, the Painting at Basil was the Cause of the Publication of the
IMAGINES MORTIS, from which the present is copied and translated, and
of which therefore it will be necessary here to give an Account; first
observing, that the Excellence of the Cuts in the Original, which are
here also copied with sufficient Fidelity, has induced an Opinion that
they were the Work of HOLBEIN, a Fact which we mean hereafter to inquire
into.
PAPILLON, in his _Traité historique et pratique de la Gravure en Bois_,
8vo. 1766, Tom. I. P. 166, informs us, that HOLBEIN, having arrived to a
great Degree of Perfection in Painting, was employed by a Magistrate of
Basil to paint a _Dance of Death_ in the Fish-Market of that City, near a
Cemetery (by which he undoubtedly means the Painting at Basil, of which
we have so often had Occasion to speak); that this Work added much to his
Reputation; after which he employed his Skill in reducing the original
Figures into a small Size; and that he afterwards engraved them upon
Wood, with a Delicacy and Beauty not to be equalled. But unfortunately
PAPILLON here speaks without sufficient Attention; for the Painting at
Basil, as may be learnt from MERIAN’s Engravings before mentioned, and
on the Accuracy of which I am assured by an ingenious Friend, who lately
examined them with the Originals, I may rely, consists of single Figures,
each led by a Figure of Death, and following each other in order, so
as to form a long Procession: The same may be remarked of the Painting
at St. PAUL’s; and, for aught that appears to the contrary, of that at
Lubec, and of that at St. Innocent’s Church at Paris, and probably of all
the others which we have noticed above: Whereas the present Cuts consist
of separate Compartments, each containing Groupes of Figures, so that the
present Work is by no means merely a Reduction in Size of the Painting at
Basil, but is rather to be considered as founded on the same Idea, and
suggested by the Original, than as a Copy from it.
The earliest Edition of the IMAGINES MORTIS which I have as yet seen, is
one printed, as appears from the Colophon at the End, by MELCHIOR and
GASPAR TRECHSEL, in small 4to. at Lyons, in 1538: It is in French, and
its Title is as follows: “_Les Simulachres & Historiees faces de la Mort,
autant elegamment pourtraictes, que artificiellement imaginees: A Lyons,
soulz l’Escu de Cologne._” But PAPILLON, _in Loco supra cit_, tells us,
that the Cuts to the IMAGINES MORTIS must have been done about the Year
1530, for that the four first of them occur among HOLBEIN’s Cuts to the
Old Testament, printed in 1539; and that it is apparent from those among
the Scripture Cuts, that the Blocks had then already furnished many
Thousands of Impressions. That the four first Cuts of the IMAGINES MORTIS
are among the Scripture Cuts of HOLBEIN, is certainly true; but I think
I once saw, in the Hands of a Friend, a Copy of the vulgate Latin Bible,
in which those Scripture Cuts were inserted, and which, if my Memory does
not greatly deceive me, was printed so early as in or about 1518 or 1520.
The same Author further relates, that the first Edition, which he thinks
for the above Reasons should be placed in the Year 1530, was printed
at Basil, or Zuric, with a Title to each Cut, and, as he believes, some
Verses under each, all in the German Language (but, that there was an
early Edition in Flemish); and adds, that the Book, having passed over
into France, was much sought after by the Curious there; so that a
Printer of Lyons was induced to purchase the Blocks, and that from them
he printed several Editions in Latin, French, and Italian.
Having thus accounted for the Existence of the Book, and for its Arrival
in France, it remains to speak of the several Impressions which it
there underwent. We have already mentioned one, the earliest which we
know of, printed in small Quarto, at Lyons, _soulz l’Escu de Cologne_,
by MELCHIOR and GASPAR TRECHSEL, in 1538: The Cuts in this Edition are
forty-three in Number, and no more; and over each is, in Latin, a Passage
from either the Old or New Testament or Apocrypha, which, in the present
Publication, is given in English, from the Translation of the Bible now
in use. Under the Cuts are four Lines in French Verse, the Substance of
which has been preserved in all the Editions, whether they were in Latin,
French, or Italian. This Edition, in order to make it of a tolerable Size
(for the Cuts alone would have been too few to constitute a Volume) is
accompanied with several Tracts in French, which, as not relating to,
or connected with, our present Subject, we here forbear to enumerate;
but it is necessary, before we close our Account of this Edition of
1538, to remark, that it is preceded by a Dedication in French, to the
very Reverend Abbess of the Religious Convent of St. PETER of Lyons,
Madam JEHANNE DE TOUSZELE; and in this Dedication the Author of it
notices, that the Name and Surname (or, as we term them, the Christian
and Surname) of the Abbess and himself are precisely the same in sound,
excepting only the Letter T, from which I conjecture (for his Name does
not any where appear) that his Name was JEAN, or, as it was anciently
written, JEHAN [_i. e._ JOHN] DE OUSZELL, or OZELL, as it is now usually
spelt. In this Dedication is also a Passage, a Translation of which will
be given hereafter, from which it appears that the Person by whom the
Cuts were designed, was then dead, leaving behind him several others of
the same Kind, which, though drawn, were unfinished, and particularly one
representing a Waggoner crushed under his overthrown Waggon; in which
Cut, a Figure of Death is represented secretly sucking through a Reed,
the Wine out of a Cask; and that to these unfinished Cuts no one had
dared to put the last Hand.
The next Edition, in Point of Time, which I have seen, I conceive
to have been the first that appeared in Latin, and it was printed in
Duodecimo, at Lyons, _sub scuto Coloniensi_, by JOHN and FRANCIS FRELLON,
in 1542. It contains the same Number of Cuts (and no more) as that of
1538, and is entitled, “_Imagines de Morte, et Epigrammata e Gallico
idiomate a Georgio Æmylio in Latinum translata_;” from whence it appears
that it is, in Fact, a Translation of the French Edition of 1538. This
also contains some additional Tracts, all differing from those in the
Edition of 1538, but not in the least relating to the present Inquiry,
and therefore not here particularized, though they have been continued
through almost all the subsequent Impressions, and have been given
respectively in French, Latin, and Italian, according as the Verses under
the Cuts to the IMAGINES MORTIS were in one or other of those Languages.
In 1547, another Edition was published of this Book, in French; it was
entitled, “_Les Images de la Mort_,” and printed at Lyons, _A l’Escu de
Cologne, Chez JEHAN FRELLON_; the Title-Page also informs us that twelve
Cuts are added to it, and on Examination we find that the Cuts inserted
in Page 40, and the seven subsequent Pages of this Work, and four Cuts of
Boys, which, as not relating to this Subject, are in the present Edition
omitted (none of which occur in either the French Edition of 1538, or
the Latin one of 1542, the only two prior Editions that I know of) are to
be found in this of 1547[15].
In the same Year, viz. 1547, but whether prior or subsequent to the
last above mentioned, cannot be known, another Latin Edition appeared,
printed at Lyons by the same JOHN FRELLON, and containing the same
increased Number of Cuts as the French one of the same Year, that
is to say, fifty-three in all; and the same JOHN FRELLON, in 1549,
printed an Edition of this Work in Italian and Latin, the Passages from
Scripture over the Cuts being in Latin, and the Verses under the Cuts
in Italian; and this also contains the same Number of Cuts with the two
last-mentioned Editions: But PAPILLON, P. 169, remarks that the Blocks,
when this Edition of 1549 was printed, had already furnished more than an
hundred-thousand Impressions, for that in some Places they appear to be
worn.
In 1562, the same JOHN FRELLON published another French Edition, which
appears, by the Printer’s Colophon at the End, to have been printed at
Lyons by SYMPHORIEN BARBIER, and which professes in the Title to be
augmented with seventeen Plates. PAPILLON, P. 182, mentions both this
Edition and Peculiarity, but denies the Truth of the Assertion, because
he tells us, that in this French Edition he finds but five more Cuts than
in the Italian One of 1549; notwithstanding which, it is certainly true,
as will be presently proved. PAPILLON admits that the Edition of 1562
contains five Cuts more than that of 1549, and, if he had gone farther
back in his Research, would have found that that of 1549 (and so do the
French and Latin Editions of 1547) comprizes twelve more than that of
1538, and that those twelve were first added to the French and Latin
Editions of 1547. The Edition of 1562 does not assert that that contains
seventeen Cuts more than any preceding Edition, but, reckoning the five
which it has more than the Impression of 1549, and the twelve which that
has more than the Edition of 1538, and which are also inserted in that
of 1562, they make together seventeen Cuts more than were in the Edition
of 1538, and consequently justify the Assertion in the Title, that the
Edition of 1562 contains seventeen additional Cuts.
The Success which such a Number of Editions seems to imply, induced a
Bookseller of Cologne to counterfeit the Book; and, instead of making use
of the original Cuts, which, in all Probability he could not procure,
he got Copies, and not very exact ones, engraven from them for his
intended Edition. When the first counterfeited Edition appeared, I am not
informed; but am induced to think that this Person, whom I have above
described as a Bookseller of Cologne, was ARNOLD BIRCKMAN, as I find an
Edition, printed in 1555, at Cologne, _Apud hœredes_ ARNOLDI BIRCKMANNI.
In this Edition, and also in one printed by the same Persons in 1573, the
Cuts are reversed, the Passages from Scripture over the Cuts, and also
the Verses under the Cuts, are in Latin; and both these Editions contain
the Number of Cuts in the Latin and French ones of 1547, and no more: In
the Cut inserted P. 17, of the present Edition, is the following Mark
[Illustration: SA] (intended, no doubt, for that of the Engraver) and
which was that of SILVIUS ANTONIANUS, an Artist of considerable Merit.
Having thus given the History of this celebrated Work, we are now to
inquire, in the first Place, whether the original Painting at Basil were,
or not, painted by HOLBEIN; and, in the second, whether the IMAGINES
MORTIS were either designed or engraven by him.
As to the first of these Questions it is to be observed, that MERIAN,
whom we have above mentioned, has related that this Picture at Basil was
painted during the sitting of the Council before mentioned, which met
in 1431, and sat either fifteen, according to some, or something more
than seventeen Years, according to other Authors; so that the Painting
now under Consideration must have been done between the Years 1439, when
the Plague broke out, and 1446, or 1448, when the Council broke up; now
it is certain that HOLBEIN was not born till 1498[16]: nor do we find
that he was ever employed on the Painting at Basil, even so much as to
retouch it. HUGH KLAUBER, who repaired it in 1568, is recorded, and it is
not probable that, if it ever had been touched upon by HOLBEIN, that Fact
should, in his own native City, have been passed over in Silence: On the
contrary, it is more likely that an Opportunity should have been rather
sought to reveal it[17].
From these Considerations it appears pretty evidently, that HOLBEIN has
no Claim to the Painting at Basil: We now proceed, therefore, to the
second Inquiry, viz. Whether he either designed or engraved the original
Cuts to the IMAGINES MORTIS, and here it may first be necessary to state
what Reasons there may be for supposing them his.
NICOLAS BORBONIUS, a Poet contemporary with HOLBEIN, has addressed to him
an Epigram “_De Morte picta, a Hanso Pictore nobili_[18],” from which
it is inferred that he painted a _Dance of Death_; and SANDRART relates
that in the Year 1627, in a Conversation with RUBENS, at which he was
present, the IMAGINES MORTIS was stiled HOLBEIN’s, as will appear from
the following Passage, translated by Mr. WARTON from JOACH. SANDRART,
_Academ. Pict._ Part II. Lib. iii. Cap. 7. P. 241, “I also well remember
that in the Year 1627, when PAUL RUBENS came to Utrecht to visit
HANDORST, being escorted both coming from, and returning to Amsterdam,
by several Artists; as we were in the Boat, the Conversation fell upon
HOLBEIN’s Book of Cuts representing the _Dance of Death_, that RUBENS
gave them the highest Encomiums, advising me, who was then a young Man,
to set the highest Value upon them; informing me, at the same Time, that
he, in his Youth, had copied them.” WARTON’s _Observations on SPENSER_,
first Edit. P. 231, in a Note, where is also inserted a Translation from
the same Work, P. 238, in the following Words, “But, in the Fish-Market
there” [at Basil] “may be seen his” [HOLBEIN’s] “admirable _Dance of
Peasants_, where also, in the same public Manner, is shewn his _Dance of
Death_; where, by a Variety of Figures, it is demonstrated that Death
spares neither Popes, Emperors, Princes, &c. as may be seen in his most
elegant wooden Cuts of the same Work.”
In BULLART’s _Academie des Sciences_, Tom. II. P. 412, is a Passage, of
which the following is a Translation: “Nevertheless, he” [HOLBEIN] “has
not sent any Thing into the World which is not painted with the last
Degree of Perfection. The Inhabitants of Basil have an excellent Witness
of this in their Town-House: It is his Piece of the _Dance of Death_,
which he has reduced into Colours, after having engraven them very
neatly on Wood; and which appeared so excellent to the learned ERASMUS,
that, after having published his Praises, he invited HOLBEIN to draw his
Picture, in order that he might have the Happiness of being represented
by so skilful a Hand.”
Mons. PATIN, in the Catalogue of HOLBEIN’s Works, prefixed to his Edition
of ERASMUS’s _Praise of Folly_, in Latin, closes his List with Words to
the following Effect, “He also engraved several Things upon Wood, among
which are his _Scripture Cuts_, and _Dance of Death_, vulgarly called
_Toden Tans_; from which that Picture is not very different, which was
painted from the Life by the Hand, as some think, of HOLBEIN himself, and
is enclosed by wooden Pallisadoes from Strangers in the Cemetery of the
Predicants, in the Suburbs of St. JOHN, at Basil:” And PRIOR takes it
for so acknowledged a Fact that HOLBEIN painted the well-known _Dance of
Death_, that, in his _Ode to the Memory of Colonel GEORGE VILLIERS_, he
thus alludes to it:
“In vain we think that free-will’d Man has Pow’r
To hasten or protract th’ appointed Hour.
Our Term of Life depends not on our Deed;
Before our Birth, our Fun’ral 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.”
By “great HENRY’s Tombs,” HENRY the Seventh’s Chapel in Westminster-Abbey
is meant.
To refute by minute Examination the several Errors in the above
Citations, would be an almost endless Task; it is sufficient here to
remark, that the Passage from BORBONIUS is too general to ascertain,
whether he means a _Dance of Death_, or a single Figure; that SANDRART or
RUBENS’s Declaration is too far distant from the Time, to be of any great
Weight; as is also PATIN’s Assertion, that HOLBEIN actually engraved the
IMAGINES MORTIS: And surely, if it had been either designed or engraven
by him, FRELLON, for whom so many Editions were printed, would not have
failed to have mentioned it in some of them, when we find, that in the
Editions of the _Scripture Cuts_, which he printed, he has inserted a
Latin Poem of some Length, and also a Greek Epigram, both by BORBONIUS,
with a Translation of this latter into Latin, all to prove, that the Cuts
were the Work of HOLBEIN. It is further to be observed (as one Reason for
ascribing these Cuts to HOLBEIN) that a Cut of the IMAGINES MORTIS, which
occurs P. 36 of this Edition, but the Mark is there purposely omitted,
has to it in the original the Letters H L thus conjoined [Illustration:
HL] which PAPILLON asserts, is one of the Marks of HOLBEIN; and CHRISTIAN
DE MECHEL, Engraver to the Elector Palatine, seems so well convinced of
their being really at least designed by HOLBEIN, that he has inserted the
_Dance of Death_, as represented in the IMAGINES MORTIS, among the rest
of his Works, which he is now publishing; but the Number of Cuts there
given, is no more than Forty-Six.
It were much to be wished that MECHEL had informed us, from what he had
copied the _Dance of Death_; whether, as he probably did, from Drawings;
and, if so, where those Drawings were to be found, and on what further
Evidence he had ventured to ascribe them to HOLBEIN; for, as will
presently appear, there is very great Reason, at least, for doubting the
Fact, notwithstanding that the four first Cuts of the IMAGINES MORTIS
occur among the Cuts to the Old Testament, printed in 1539, and which
we are told expressly in a Poem, and also in an Epigram, of BORBONIUS,
prefixed to them, are of the Hand of HOLBEIN; but whether by this we are
to understand, that he designed or engraved them, or both, we are left to
seek. After having thus ventured to question in general Terms, HOLBEIN’s
Title to the Merit of this Work, it is incumbent on me to shew on what my
Doubts are founded, and this I am prepared to do; for, in the Dedication
to the Edition of the IMAGINES MORTIS, in 1538, is a Passage, of which I
here insert a faithful Translation:
“To return then to our _Cuts of Death_, we now very justly
regret the Death of him who has here designed such elegant
Figures, exceeding as much all the Examples hitherto, as the
Paintings of APELLES, or of ZEUXIS, exceed the Moderns. For his
sorrowful Histories, with their Descriptions severely verified,
excite such Admiration in the Beholders, that they think the
Figures of Death appear as if quite alive, and the Living as
if dead. Which makes me think that Death, fearing that this
excellent Painter would paint him so much alive, that he should
no longer be feared as Death, and that, for this Reason, he
himself would become immortal; for this very Cause hastened
so much his Days, that he could not finish several other Cuts
already by him traced, and among others that of the Waggoner
overthrown and bruised under his overturned Waggon; the Wheels
and Horses of which are there represented so frightfully, that
as much Horror is occasioned to view their Downfall, as Delight
to contemplate the Liquorishness of one Figure of Death, who is
secretly sucking through a Reed the Wine from the emptied Cask:
To which imperfect Histories, as well as to the inimitable
Rainbow, no one has dared to put the last Hand.”
This Dedication is prefixed to the Edition of 1538, and speaks of the
Designer (by which, I conceive, we must understand both Painter and
Engraver, for it speaks of the Drawings of the unfinished ones as
having been then already traced or drawn; and, if so, they might surely
have been finished by the Engraver of the former ones) as then lately
dead; now it is well known that HOLBEIN did not die till 1554[19], and
therefore it could not be he: And I would further observe, that the
Mark [Illustration: HL] is not peculiar to HOLBEIN. STRUTT, in his
_Biographical Dictionary of Engravers_, Vol. II. P. 86, attributes it to
one HANS LEDERER, of whom he gives no Particulars; and the _Catalogue
of Marks and Cyphers of Engravers_, P. 21. Edit. 1730, mentions one
LAMBRECHT HOPFER, a German, but the Age in which he lived is not noticed,
who used, as his Mark, sometimes a Vase of Flowers in the Midst of the
Letters L H, and sometimes the perpendicular Stroke of the L in the
second Stroke of the H, which is exactly as it appears in the Cut before
referred to.
I have only to add, that the Cuts in the present Edition, excepting only
the first (which, representing in the Original the Deity in the Habit of
the Pope, to avoid giving Offence, it was thought proper to omit, and
to substitute in its Room one designed for the Purpose) are engraven,
and the Verses under them translated, from the Latin Edition of 1547;
and that the additional Cuts, which appeared in the French Edition of
1562 (with the Omission only of four of Boys, as being foreign to this
Subject) are here also inserted, and the Verses under them translated
from the French.