HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER
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VOL. I., FRONTISPIECE
[Illustration:
HANS HOLBEIN
Self-Portrait
Drawing in Indian ink and coloured chalks, washed with water-colour
BASEL GALLERY
]
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HANS HOLBEIN
THE YOUNGER
BY
ARTHUR B. CHAMBERLAIN
ASSISTANT KEEPER OF THE CORPORATION ART GALLERY, BIRMINGHAM
WITH 252 ILLUSTRATIONS, INCLUDING 24 IN COLOUR
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1913
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Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
at the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh
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TO MY WIFE
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PREFACE
IN this book the writer has endeavoured to give as complete an account
as possible of the life and career of the younger Holbein, together with
a description of every known picture painted by him, and of the more
important of his drawings and designs. The earlier books devoted to the
subject—such as Wornum’s _Life and Works_, 1867, and Dr. Woltmann’s two
volumes—although they must always remain of the utmost help to the
student, are now in some respects out of date. The second edition of the
latter’s great work, in which he modified and corrected many passages in
the earlier issue, has never been fully translated into English; while
the latest book of importance on the subject published in this country,
_Hans Holbein the Younger_, by Mr. Gerald S. Davies, M.A., 1903, is
mainly devoted to the art of the painter, and does not profess to give
complete biographical details of his life. In recent years many new
facts as to Holbein’s career have been discovered, and fresh pictures by
him unearthed, while modern criticism has reversed some of the earlier
conclusions respecting the authorship of a certain number of works at
one time attributed to him. Much valuable information upon the subject
has been published at home and abroad, largely in periodicals devoted to
such matters and in the transactions of artistic and learned societies,
by various well-known students of the master in Germany and Switzerland,
chief among whom must be mentioned Dr. Paul Ganz, the director of the
Public Picture Collection in Basel, now recognised as the leading
authority on Holbein, together with Dr. Hans Koegler, Dr. Emil Major, H.
A. Schmid, and other writers too numerous to mention here; while in
England equally valuable contributions to our knowledge have been made
from time to time by such critics as Mr. Lionel Cust, M.V.O., Sir Sidney
Colvin, Mr. Campbell Dodgson, Sir Claude Phillips, Miss Mary F. S.
Hervey, and a number of others, in the pages of the _Burlington
Magazine_ and elsewhere. Much valuable information is also to be found
in two recently-published volumes—Dr. Curt Glaser’s _Hans Holbein der
Ältere_, 1908, and Dr. Willy Hes’ _Ambrosius Holbein_, 1911.
The writer has availed himself as fully as possible of the newer facts
and conclusions embodied in such papers and communications, the source
of information in all cases being fully acknowledged. A very careful
study of the Calendars of Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of
the Reign of Henry VIII, extending over a number of years, has enabled
him to add some fresh items of information about the painter and certain
of his sitters, and of several of the artists who were his
contemporaries in England. He has dealt at some length, though
necessarily in a condensed form, with the chief painters and craftsmen,
both English and foreign, who were at work in London under Henry VIII,
much of the information thus brought together having been hitherto
scattered about in a variety of publications not always conveniently
accessible to the student. He thus hopes that the book will to some
extent serve the purpose for which it is primarily intended—the
provision, in as concise a form as possible, of a complete biography of
the painter, embodying all the more recent discoveries; and he trusts
that it may be of some small service to those who are interested in
Holbein, but have neither the time nor the opportunity to avail
themselves of the many scattered sources of information which he has
attempted to bring together within the covers of a single book.
By the gracious permission of His Majesty the King, the writer has been
allowed to include among the illustrations, reproductions, in some
instances in colour, of a number of pictures and drawings by Holbein in
the royal collections; and he has to thank the Lord Chamberlain and Mr.
Lionel Cust, M.V.O., Surveyor of the King’s Pictures, for the kind
assistance they rendered him in obtaining such permission. He has also
to express his grateful acknowledgments to a number of owners and
collectors for similar permission to reproduce works by the master in
their possession, among them Her Majesty the Queen of Holland, who has
graciously allowed the inclusion of the beautiful miniature of an
Unknown Youth; the Duke of Devonshire, G.C.V.O.; Earl Spencer, G.C.V.O.;
the Earl of Radnor; Lord Leconfield; the Earl of Yarborough; Sir John
Ramsden, Bt.; Sir Hugh P. Lane; the late Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan; Major
Charles Palmer; and the Barber-Surgeons’ Company. Special thanks are due
to Lord St. Oswald for permitting the large “More Family Group” at
Nostell Priory to be photographed for the purposes of this book, and for
allowing the writer to take notes from a very interesting manuscript
containing a description of the various versions of the Family picture
compiled by his grandfather, Mr. Charles Winn. He has also to record his
great indebtedness to Mr. Ayerst H. Buttery for giving him the privilege
of reproducing the recently discovered portrait of an Unknown English
Lady, formerly in the possession of the Bodenham family at Rotherwas,
near Hereford. His thanks also are due to Senhor José de Figueiredo,
director of the National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon, for permission
to include the elder Holbein’s “Fountain of Life” among the
illustrations, as well as to the directors of a number of galleries and
museums, including the Public Picture Collection, Basel; the National
Gallery, British Museum, and Wallace Collection; the Kaiser Friedrich
Museum, Berlin; the Imperial Gallery, Vienna; the Louvre, Paris; the
Royal Picture Gallery, The Hague; the Metropolitan Museum of New York;
the Royal Hermitage Gallery, St. Petersburg; and the Galleries of
Dresden, Munich, Hanover, Rome, Florence, Solothurn, and elsewhere.
In addition, he has the pleasure of recording his great indebtedness to
Mr. Lionel Cust, M.V.O., for kind assistance and advice; to Mr. Maurice
W. Brockwell, for much valuable help in many directions; to Mr. Campbell
Dodgson, who was good enough to assist in the selection of woodcuts from
the British Museum Collection for the purposes of reproduction; to Dr.
George C. Williamson, through whose kindness the writer has been able to
make use of his Catalogue of the late Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan’s
Collection of Miniatures; to the Editors of the _Burlington Magazine of
Fine Arts_ for permission to include the writer’s paper on Holbein’s
visit to “High Burgony”; to Mr. James Melville for transcribing from the
Balcarres MSS. a long letter from the Duchess of Guise referring to that
visit; to Herr F. Engel-Gros for information about the interesting
roundel in his possession, which possibly represents the painter Lucas
Hornebolt; and to Dr. James H. W. Laing, of Dundee, to whom he is deeply
indebted for most generously undertaking the very onerous task of
reading the whole of the proofs. He wishes also to offer his grateful
thanks to his publishers, and in particular to Mr. Hugh Allen, for the
great care and trouble they have spent upon the book, and for their
hearty co-operation in attempting to make it as complete a record as
possible of the great master to whom it is devoted.
A. B. C.
BIRMINGHAM, _August 1913._
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CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. HANS HOLBEIN THE ELDER AND HIS FAMILY 1
II. YOUTHFUL DAYS IN AUGSBURG 23
III. FIRST YEARS IN SWITZERLAND 32
IV. WORK IN LUCERNE AND THE VISIT TO 57
LOMBARDY
V. CITIZEN OF BASEL 82
VI. THE HOUSE OF THE DANCE AND THE 116
WALL-PAINTINGS IN THE BASEL TOWN HALL
VII. DESIGNS FOR PAINTED GLASS AND OTHER 135
STUDIES
VIII. PORTRAITS OF ERASMUS AND HIS CIRCLE 162
IX. DESIGNS FOR BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS 187
X. THE “DANCE OF DEATH” AND OLD TESTAMENT 204
WOODCUTS
XI. THE MEYER MADONNA AND THE DEPARTURE FOR 232
ENGLAND
XII. NATIVE AND FOREIGN ARTISTS IN ENGLAND 256
DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII
XIII. THE FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND: PORTRAITS OF 288
THE MORE FAMILY
XIV. THE FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND: OTHER 311
PORTRAITS AND DECORATIVE WORK
XV. THE RETURN TO BASEL (1528-1532) 338
POSTSCRIPT TO CHAPTER XIV. A NEWLY-DISCOVERED 353
PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN ENGLISH LADY
FOOTNOTES FOR ALL CHAPTERS 359
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ILLUSTRATIONS
HANS HOLBEIN: SELF-PORTRAIT _Frontispiece_
Reproduced in colour.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
1. THE BAPTISM OF ST. PAUL 11
Left-hand panel of the “Basilica of St.
Paul” altar-piece. By HANS HOLBEIN THE
ELDER.
_Museum, Augsburg._
2. THE ST. SEBASTIAN ALTAR-PIECE 15
Central panel. By HANS HOLBEIN THE
ELDER.
_Alte Pinakothek, Munich._
3. (1) ST. BARBARA. (2) ST. ELIZABETH 16
Inner sides of the wings of the “St.
Sebastian” altar-piece. By HANS
HOLBEIN THE ELDER.
_Alte Pinakothek, Munich._
4. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE 17
By HANS HOLBEIN THE ELDER.
_National Museum of Ancient Art,
Lisbon._ Reproduced by kind permission
of the Director, Senhor José de
Figueiredo.
5. STUDY FOR THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY OF 21
AUGSBURG
Silver-point drawing. By HANS HOLBEIN
THE ELDER.
_British Museum._
6. AMBROSIUS AND HANS HOLBEIN 25
Silver-point drawing. By HANS HOLBEIN
THE ELDER (1511).
_Royal Print Room, Berlin._
7. VIRGIN AND CHILD (1514) 33
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
8. (1) HEAD OF THE VIRGIN MARY. (2) HEAD OF 37
ST. JOHN
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
9. THE LAST SUPPER 40
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
10. THE SCOURGING OF CHRIST 41
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
11. HOLBEIN’S EARLIEST TITLE-PAGE 45
First used in 1515.
_From a copy of More’s “Utopia” in the
British Museum._
12. MARGINAL DRAWINGS IN A COPY OF THE 48
“PRAISE OF FOLLY”
(1) FOLLY LEAVING THE PULPIT.
(2) PENELOPE AT HER LOOM.
(3) THE POPE.
(4) THE CARDINAL.
(5) THE BISHOP.
(6) NUNS KNEELING BEFORE AN ALTAR-PIECE.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
13. MARGINAL DRAWINGS IN A COPY OF THE 49
“PRAISE OF FOLLY”
(1) THE BASKET OF EGGS.
(2) NICOLAS DE LYRA.
(3) KING SOLOMON.
(4) YOUNG NOBLEMAN.
(5) FOLLY AND HIS PUPPET.
(6) ERASMUS AT HIS DESK.
(7) “A FAT AND SPLENDID PIG FROM THE
HERD OF EPICURUS.”
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
14. THE TWO SIDES OF A SCHOOLMASTER’S 51
SIGN-BOARD (1516)
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
15. DOUBLE PORTRAIT OF JAKOB MEYER AND HIS 52
WIFE, DOROTHEA KANNENGIESSER (1516)
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
16. (1) HEAD OF JAKOB MEYER. (2) HEAD OF 55
DOROTHEA KANNENGIESSER
Drawings in black and coloured chalks.
Studies for the double portrait of
1516.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
17. ADAM AND EVE (1517) 56
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
18. PORTRAITS OF TWO BOYS 60
By AMBROSIUS HOLBEIN.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
19. STUDY OF A YOUNG GIRL NAMED “ANNE” 61
(1518)
Silver-point and red chalk drawing. By
AMBROSIUS HOLBEIN.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
20. THE FOUNDING OF BASEL 61
Design for painted glass. By AMBROSIUS
HOLBEIN.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
21. PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN YOUNG MAN (1518) 61
By AMBROSIUS HOLBEIN.
_Royal Hermitage Gallery, St.
Petersburg._
22. ILLUSTRATION TO SIR THOMAS MORE’S 62
“UTOPIA”
By AMBROSIUS HOLBEIN.
_From a woodcut in the British Museum._
23. DESIGNS FOR THE WALL-PAINTINGS OF THE 68
HERTENSTEIN HOUSE, LUCERNE
(1) LEÆNA AND THE JUDGES.
(2) ARCHITECTURAL DECORATION OF THE
GROUND FLOOR.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
24. PORTRAIT OF BENEDIKT VON HERTENSTEIN 72
(1517)
_Metropolitan Museum, New York._
25. THE LAST SUPPER 75
Central panel of a Triptych.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
26. THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL AS WEIGHER OF 79
SOULS
Drawing.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
27. MINERS AT WORK 80
Drawing in Indian ink, pen, and bistre.
_British Museum._
28. BONIFACIUS AMERBACH (1519) 85
Reproduced in colour.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
29. (1) ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS. (2) 88
ADORATION OF THE KINGS
Inner sides of the wings of the Oberried
altar-piece.
_University Chapel, Freiburg Minster._
30. THE PASSION OF CHRIST 91
Outer sides of the wings of an
altar-piece.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
31. (1) CHRIST BEARING THE CROSS. (2) THE 94
CRUCIFIXION
Details of the outer sides of the wings
of the “Passion” Altar-piece.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
32. “NOLI ME TANGERE” 95
Christ appearing to Mary Magdalen.
Reproduced by gracious permission of
H.M. the King.
_Hampton Court Palace._
33. (1) CHRIST, THE MAN OF SORROWS. (2) 98
MARY, MATER DOLOROSA
Diptych, painted in brown monochrome,
with blue sky.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
34. THE HOLY FAMILY 99
Washed drawing on a red ground.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
35. THE DEAD CHRIST IN THE TOMB (1521) 101
Predella of an altar-piece.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
36. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH ST. URSUS AND 103
A HOLY BISHOP (1522)
_Solothurn Gallery._
37. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN, POSSIBLY 106
HOLBEIN’S WIFE
Reproduced in colour.
_Royal Picture Gallery, Mauritshuis, The
Hague._
38. HEAD OF A YOUNG WOMAN, PROBABLY 108
HOLBEIN’S WIFE
Study for the Solothurn “Madonna.”
Silver-point drawing, touched with
red.
_Louvre, Paris._
39. DESIGN FOR THE ORGAN-CASE DOORS, BASEL 113
CATHEDRAL
Pen and wash drawing.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
40. (1) STUDY FOR A PAINTED HOUSE FRONT WITH 121
THE FIGURE OF A SEATED EMPEROR. (2)
THE AMBASSADORS OF THE SAMNITES BEFORE
CURIUS DENTATUS
The latter a fragment of the
wall-painting in the Basel Town Hall.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
41. SAPOR AND VALERIAN 131
Design for one of the wall-paintings in
the Basel Town Hall. Pen and
water-colour drawing.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
42. (1) TWO LANDSKNECHTE. (2) THE PRODIGAL 139
SON
Designs for painted glass.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
43. DESIGN FOR A PAINTED WINDOW WITH THE 144
COAT OF ARMS OF THE VON HEWEN FAMILY
(1520)
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
44. ST. ELIZABETH, WITH KNEELING KNIGHT AND 148
BEGGAR
Design for painted glass.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
45. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH A KNEELING 149
DONOR
Design for painted glass.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
46. (1) CHRIST BEFORE CAIAPHAS. (2) THE 151
SCOURGING OF CHRIST
The “Passion” series of designs for
painted glass.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
47. (1) THE MOCKING OF CHRIST. (2) CHRIST 152
CROWNED WITH THORNS
The “Passion” series of designs for
painted glass.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
48. (1) PILATE WASHING HIS HANDS. (2) ECCE 153
HOMO
The “Passion” series of designs for
painted glass.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
49. (1) CHRIST BEARING THE CROSS. (2) THE 154
STRIPPING OF CHRIST’S GARMENTS
The “Passion” series of designs for
painted glass.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
50. (1) CHRIST NAILED TO THE CROSS. (2) THE 155
CRUCIFIXION
The “Passion” series of designs for
painted glass.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
51. (1) COSTUME STUDY. (2) COSTUME STUDY 157
Two drawings from a set of designs of
ladies’ costumes.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
52. “THE EDELDAME” 157
Drawing from a set of designs of ladies’
costumes.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
53. A FIGHT BETWEEN LANDSKNECHTE 160
Drawing in Indian ink.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
54. ERASMUS (1523) 169
Reproduced by kind permission of the
Earl of Radnor.
_Longford Castle, Salisbury._
55. STUDY FOR THE HANDS OF ERASMUS 171
Drawing in silver-point and red and
black chalk.
_Louvre, Paris._
56. ERASMUS (1523) 172
Reproduced in colour.
_Louvre, Paris._
57. THE DUCHESS OF BERRY 176
Drawing in black and coloured chalks.
Reproduced in colour.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
58. (1) ERASMUS 180
Roundel.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
(2) PHILIP MELANCHTHON 180
Roundel.
_Provinzial Museum, Hanover._
59. ERASMUS 181
_From a woodcut in the British Museum._
60. MUCIUS SCÆVOLA AND LARS PORSENA 191
Woodcut first used in 1516.
_From a copy of More’s “Epigrams” in the
British Museum._
61. “THE TABLE OF CEBES” 193
Woodcut first used in 1521.
_From a copy of Perotto’s “Cornucopiæ”
in the British Museum._
62. TITLE-PAGE TO LUTHER’S “NEW TESTAMENT” 195
Woodcut first used in 1522.
_From a copy in the British Museum._
63. THE FOUR EVANGELISTS 195
Woodcuts and Initial Letters used on the
first page of each gospel in the 1523
edition of Luther’s “New Testament.”
_From a copy in the British Museum._
64. THE “CLEOPATRA” TITLE-PAGE 198
Woodcut first used in 1523.
_From a copy of Erasmus’ “Christiani
Matrimonii Institutio” in the British
Museum._
65. (1) CHRIST THE TRUE LIGHT. (2) THE SALE 198
OF INDULGENCES
Woodcuts.
_From proofs in the British Museum._
66. THE DANCE OF DEATH WOODCUTS 217
(1) THE EMPEROR.
(2) THE KING.
(3) THE CARDINAL.
(4) THE EMPRESS.
(5) THE ADVOCATE.
(6) THE COUNSELLOR.
(7) THE PREACHER.
(8) THE PRIEST.
_From proofs in the British Museum._
67. THE DANCE OF DEATH WOODCUTS 220
(1) THE OLD MAN.
(2) THE COUNTESS.
(3) THE NOBLE LADY.
(4) THE DUCHESS.
(5) THE PLOUGHMAN.
(6) THE YOUNG CHILD.
(7) THE LAST JUDGMENT.
(8) THE ARMS OF DEATH.
_From proofs in the British Museum._
68. THE DANCE OF DEATH ALPHABET 224
_From a proof in the Royal Print
Cabinet, Dresden._
69. THE OLD TESTAMENT WOODCUTS 230
(1) JACOB BLESSING EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH.
(2) RUTH AND BOAZ.
(3) JUDITH WITH THE HEAD OF HOLOFERNES.
(4) AMOS PREACHING.
_From proofs in the British Museum._
70. THE OLD TESTAMENT WOODCUTS 230
(1) MOSES RECEIVING THE TABLES OF THE
LAW.
(2) THE RETURN FROM THE BABYLONIAN
CAPTIVITY.
_From proofs in the British Museum._
(3) THE ANGEL SHOWING ST. JOHN THE NEW
JERUSALEM (Revelation xxi.). Woodcut
from Adam Petri’s “New Testament,”
1523.
_From a copy in the British Museum._
71. THE MEYER MADONNA 233
_Darmstadt._
72. (1) JAKOB MEYER. (2) DOROTHEA 236
KANNENGIESSER
Studies for the Meyer Madonna. Drawings
in black and coloured chalks.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
73. (1) MAGDALENA OFFENBURG AS VENUS (1526). 246
(2) MAGDALENA OFFENBURG AS LAÏS (1526)
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
74. STUDY FOR THE MORE FAMILY GROUP 293
Drawing in Indian ink, with corrections
and inscriptions in brown.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
75. THE MORE FAMILY GROUP 295
Reproduced by kind permission of Lord
St. Oswald.
_Nostell Priory, Wakefield._
76. THE MORE FAMILY GROUP 301
The version formerly at Burford Priory,
now in the possession of Messrs.
Parkenthorpe, London. Reproduced by
kind permission of Sir Hugh P. Lane.
77. CECILIA HERON, DAUGHTER OF SIR THOMAS 303
MORE
Drawing in black and coloured chalks.
Reproduced by gracious permission of
H.M. the King.
_Windsor Castle._
78. SIR THOMAS MORE 303
Drawing in black and coloured chalks.
Reproduced by gracious permission of
H.M. the King.
_Windsor Castle._
79. PORTRAIT OF AN ENGLISH LADY 309
Drawing in black and red chalk and
Indian ink.
_Salting Bequest, British Museum._
80. SIR HENRY GULDEFORD (1527) 317
Reproduced in colour, by gracious
permission of H.M. the King.
_Windsor Castle._
81. (1) JOHN FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER 321
Drawing in black and coloured chalks.
Reproduced by gracious permission of
H.M. the King.
_Windsor Castle._
(2) PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN ENGLISH LADY, 321
POSSIBLY LADY GULDEFORD
Drawing in black and coloured chalks.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
82. (1) UNKNOWN ENGLISHMAN. (2) UNKNOWN 321
ENGLISH LADY
Drawings in black and coloured chalks.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
83. WILLIAM WARHAM, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 322
(1527)
Reproduced in colour.
_Louvre, Paris._
84. THOMAS AND JOHN GODSALVE (1528) 325
_Royal Picture Gallery, Dresden._
85. SIR JOHN GODSALVE 326
Drawing in black and coloured chalks and
water-colour. Reproduced by gracious
permission of H.M. the King.
_Windsor Castle._
86. NIKLAUS KRATZER (1528) 327
Reproduced in colour.
_Louvre, Paris._
87. SIR BRYAN TUKE 331
_Alte Pinakothek, Munich._
88. SIR HENRY WYAT 335
Reproduced in colour.
_Louvre, Paris._
89. SIR THOMAS ELYOT 336
Drawing in black and coloured chalks.
Reproduced by gracious permission of
H.M. the King.
_Windsor Castle._
90. HOLBEIN’S WIFE AND CHILDREN (1528-9) 343
Reproduced in colour.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
91. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN 346
Unfinished study in oils.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
92. KING REHOBOAM REBUKING THE ELDERS (1530) 348
Three fragments of the wall-painting
formerly in the Basel Town Hall.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
93. KING REHOBOAM REBUKING THE ELDERS 348
Study for the wall-painting formerly in
the Basel Town Hall.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
94. SAMUEL AND SAUL 350
Pen drawing in brown touched with
water-colour. Study for the
wall-painting formerly in the Basel
Town Hall.
_Public Picture Collection, Basel._
95. PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN ENGLISH LADY 354
Formerly in the possession of the
Bodenham family, Rotherwas Hall,
Hereford. Reproduced by kind
permission of Mr. Ayerst H. Buttery.
_Mr. Ayerst H. Buttery, London._
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE
The following abbreviations are used in the footnotes to this book:—
_C. L. P._, for Calendars of Letters and Papers, Foreign and
Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII.
Davies, for _Hans Holbein the Younger_ (Gerald S. Davies).
Ganz, _Holbein_, for _Holbein d. J., des Meisters Gemälde in 252
Abbildungen_ (Klassiker der Kunst).
Ganz, _Hdz. Schwz. Mstr._, for _Handzeichnungen Schweizerischer
Meister_, ed. Dr. Paul Ganz.
Ganz, _Hdz. von H. H. dem Jüng._, for _Handzeichnungen von Hans
Holbein dem Jüngeren._
Woltmann, for _Holbein und seine Zeit_ (A. Woltmann).
Wornum, for _Some Account of the Life and Works of Hans Holbein_ (R.
N. Wornum).
In order to obviate the constant use of a somewhat long official title,
the Public Picture Collection, Basel, is generally referred to in this
book as the Basel Gallery.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hans Holbein the Younger
CHAPTER I
HANS HOLBEIN THE ELDER AND HIS FAMILY
The Holbein family in Switzerland and South Germany—Michel Holbein, the
leather-dresser—Hans Holbein the Elder, citizen of Augsburg—His
brother Sigmund, and his two sons, Ambrosius and Hans—The art of Hans
Holbein the Elder and his position in the German School of
painting—His principal pictures—Work in Ulm and Frankfurt—Paintings
for the Convent of St. Catherine in Augsburg—Work for the Church of
St. Moritz—Monetary difficulties—The St. Sebastian altar-piece—the
“Fountain of Life” at Lisbon—His silver-point portrait drawings—His
death at Isenheim.
DURING the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the name of Holbein was
not uncommon in various parts of Southern Germany and Switzerland. At
Ravensburg, near Lake Constance, a family of that name had settled as
paper manufacturers, their trade-mark being a bull’s head, which was
also used by Hans Holbein in his coat of arms. The name is also found in
the records of the town of Grünstadt, in Rhenish Bavaria, during the
same centuries; while for a still longer period members of a Holbein
family were living in Basel, where they had a house called “Zum Papst”
in the Gerbergasse. It was from this branch that the painter was in all
probability descended,[1] and it is also possible that the Basel and
Ravensburg Holbeins were connected. This relationship between the three
branches may have been one of the reasons which induced the youthful
Hans to turn his face towards Switzerland when he finally left Augsburg,
the city of his birth.
In Augsburg itself the first reference to a burgher bearing the name of
Holbein occurs in the middle of the fifteenth century. In 1448 a certain
Michel Holbein, who had been living at Oberschönefeld, in the near
neighbourhood, moved into Augsburg, and settled there permanently. In
the first entry in the records in which his name occurs he is called
“Michel von Schönenfeld,” but in 1454 his surname is given as “Holbain,”
this being the common spelling of the name in Augsburg at that time, or,
less frequently, “Holpain.” This Michel Holbein, who came from
Oberschönefeld, and died in Augsburg about 1497, and at one time was
regarded as the father of Hans Holbein the Elder, is no longer
considered to be identical with the latter, who was also named Michel
and was a leather-dresser by trade. From 1464 to 1475 the last named was
living in a house of his own, No. 472A in the Vorderer Lech, which is
spoken of as “Michel Holbains Hus,” or “Domus Michel Holbains.” After
1475 he changed his dwelling more than once, and his several removals
can be traced from the rate-books, in which his addresses at various
dates are given as “Salta zum Schlechtenbad,” “Vom Bilgrimhaus,” “Vom
Nagengast,” “In der Prediger Garten,” and so on. All these places were
in the Vorderer and Mittlerer Lech, in that part of the city to the east
of the Maximilianstrasse known as the Diepold, in the neighbourhood of
the Lech canals and streams, by which Augsburg is watered, along the
banks of which most of the smaller trades of the city were carried on
and the workshops of the artificers and metal-workers were situated. In
the years 1479, 1481, and 1482 Michel Holbein was absent from Augsburg,
and appears to have left his wife behind him, for in 1481 it is noted
against her in the rate-book that her husband was not with her (“Ihr
Mann nicht bei ihr”). Michel Holbein died probably about the year
1484.[2] His widow, whose name first occurs in the town records in 1469,
continued to move from house to house, her addresses being given as “in
der Strasse Am Judenberg,” “Von Sant Anthonino,” “Vom Diepolt,” and
beyond the Sträfinger Gate.
[Sidenote: HANS HOLBEIN THE ELDER]
The name of “Hanns Holbain” first appears in the records in the year
1494. This was the painter usually known as Hans Holbein the Elder, to
distinguish him from his more celebrated son. Although there is no
actual proof of the relationship, there is every reason to believe that
Hans the Elder was one of the sons of Michel the currier. He lived in
the same quarter of the city as the latter, his address in 1494 being in
the “Strasse vom Diepolt,” and two years later in the “Salta zum
Schlechtenbad.” More than once Hans Holbein’s mother is mentioned as
living with him, thus evidently at that time a widow, which affords
further proof in favour of the connection.[3] In 1504 it is recorded
that Sigmund, his brother, was living in the same house with Hans, which
confirms the statement by J. von Sandrart, one of the earliest of
Holbein’s biographers, in his _Teutsche Akademie_ (1675), that the elder
Hans Holbein and Sigmund were brothers, a relationship of which absolute
proof is to be found in the latter’s will. Sigmund was born after 1477,
was of age in 1503, and died in Berne in 1540.[4] The two painter
brothers had several sisters. Between 1478 and 1480 the records speak of
a daughter, Barbara von Oberhausen, as living with her mother, Michel
Holbainin, and a few years later a second daughter, Anna Holbainin, who
is sometimes called by the diminutive name “Endlin.” There appear to
have been four sisters in all, but Sigmund Holbein mentions only three
of them in his will, Barbara being apparently dead—Ursel (Ursula)
Nepperschmid, of Augsburg; Anna Elchinger, living by St. Ursula am
Schwall, in the same city; and Margreth Herwart, at Esslingen. The name
of this last sister, Margaret, occurs in the town records from 1502 as
“Gret” or “Margreth Holbainin.” In 1493 there is a reference to an
“Ottilia Holbainlin,” but the use of the diminutive in this case
suggests that she was a small child, and, therefore, more probably a
daughter rather than a sister of Hans Holbein the Elder.
[Sidenote: HANS HOLBEIN THE ELDER]
At one time, before these authentic records of the Holbein family had
been unearthed from the Steuerbücher and Gerichtsbücher of Augsburg, it
was believed that a third painter named Hans Holbein had existed, the
father of Hans Holbein the Elder. Attention was first called to him by
Passavant in 1846, in connection with a painting then in the possession
of Herr Samm of Mergenthau, and now in the Augsburg Museum. This
picture, which represents the Virgin Mary seated on a grassy bank by a
wall, with the Infant Christ in her arms, is signed “Hans Holbein, C.A.
(_i.e._ Civis Augustanus) 1459,” a date too early for the picture to
have been painted by Hans Holbein the Elder; but the inscription has
been proved to be a forgery. Further proof of the existence of this
painter was thought to have been discovered in connection with a second
picture, forty years later in date, and in reality from the hand of Hans
Holbein the Elder. It is one of a series of six pictures representing
the principal basilicas of Rome, ordered by the nuns of St. Catherine in
Augsburg in 1496, on the occasion of the reconstruction of their
convent. The names of the several donors of these pictures, with the
prices and other details, are preserved in the annals of the convent,
compiled by the nun Dominica Erhardt from old records and documents.
Extracts from this work were supplied to Passavant, including one with
reference to the picture of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, now in
the Augsburg Gallery (Nos. 62-64), which is signed “Hans Holbain” on the
two bells in the tower, and bears the date 1499. The passage in question
is as follows:—
“Item Dorothea Rölingerin hat lassen machen unser lieben frauen Taffel,
die gestatt oder steht 45 gulden. Vom alten Hans Holbein hie.” (Item.
Dorothea Rölingerin has ordered of old Hans Holbein a panel painting of
our dear Lady for the sum of 45 gulden.)
The term “old Holbein,” Passavant thought, could only be applied to the
grandfather of the family, for in 1499 Hans Holbein the Younger was
still a little child, and his father too young a man to be termed “the
old.” Later researches, however, proved that the extracts supplied to
Passavant were incorrect, containing numerous amplifications and
spurious additions not to be found in the original document, which,
after considerable search, was discovered by Dr. Woltmann in the
Episcopal Library in Augsburg. In the original record the price paid for
the picture is given as 60 gulden, and neither the name of “old Holbein”
nor of any other painter occurs, so that the myth of the grandfather
Hans was finally demolished.
[Sidenote: THE MYTHICAL BRUNO HOLBEIN]
There is no record of the birth of Hans Holbein the Elder; but as the
earliest dated picture by him so far discovered was painted in 1493, it
is supposed to have taken place about 1473-4.[5] There is equal lack of
information as to the date of his marriage or the name of his wife. It
was believed at one time, on the authority of Paul von Stetten, that she
was the daughter of Thomas Burgkmair, and sister of the more famous Hans
Burgkmair, and that the young couple lived with their father-in-law; but
no confirmation of this legend has been discovered. The two families
dwelt in the same street, “Vom Diepolt,” but Burgkmair’s house was No.
7, while Holbein’s was No. 17. His family, as far as is known, consisted
only of his two sons, Ambrosius and Hans. A third son, Bruno, is
mentioned by Remigius Faesch (1651) in his manuscript notes preserved in
the Basel Library, compiled from information supplied to him from the
Amerbach papers; but beyond this short notice, and a repetition of it by
Patin, there is no trace of a Bruno Holbein to be found. There are two
silver-point drawings, one of the head of a child in the Bernburg
Library,[6] and the other of a mitred bishop in the Albertina,
Vienna,[7] both dated 1515 and signed with the letters B. H. in
monogram, which it has been suggested are the work of the supposed
Bruno. Dr. Woltmann, however, considered them to be by Ambrosius
Holbein. The latter, he says, was known by the diminutive name of
“Prosy” in the family circle, and as at that time in Germany the letters
_p_ and _b_ were often used indifferently—as can be seen in the spelling
of Holbein’s own name in the Augsburg records, where it is sometimes
given as “Holbain,” and sometimes as “Holpain”—it may well be that the
monogram on these two drawings is that of “Prosy” or “Brosy” Holbein.[8]
Modern criticism, however, has shown that the attribution of these two
drawings to Ambrosius is a wrong one.[9]
[Sidenote: THE “BASILICA OF S. MARIA MAGGIORE”]
Hans Holbein the Elder, whose exceptional ability as an artist has
always been overshadowed by the greater genius of his celebrated son,
was one of the most representative painters of the Swabian School at the
close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. His
art, more particularly, but not only, in its earlier manifestations,
shows the influence of Martin Schongauer, and, through Schongauer, that
of Rogier van der Weyden and the Flemish School. The influence of
Schongauer upon him is at times so marked that it has been suggested
that he may have studied under him at Colmar during his younger days.
Whether this be true or not, it is evident that Holbein was still under
the spell of Schongauer’s painting during his stay in Isenheim towards
the end of his life. The “Fountain of Life,” painted there in 1519, owed
much of its inspiration to Schongauer’s “Madonna in the Rose Garden,”
which Holbein must have seen in the not far-distant city of Colmar. Both
in the types of his figures and the management of his draperies, as well
as in the arrangement of his compositions, there is an echo of
Schongauer’s art, which, however, may not have been derived through
personal contact with that painter, but largely from the study of his
numerous engravings, which were widely popular throughout Southern
Germany. Schongauer himself, whose father, Kasper Schongauer, was an
Augsburg painter, had studied, or, at least, had come much under the
influence of, Rogier van der Weyden at Tournai, and had caught from him
something of the sweetness and grace which characterised the finest
Flemish art of that day. These characteristics, and others
representative of the school, he handed on in his turn to the Swabian
painters, the elder Holbein among them. Hans Burgkmair was one of
Schongauer’s pupils, and was afterwards a near neighbour of Holbein, so
that he also may have been an inspiring force in the moulding of the art
of both the older and the younger Hans. Another of Schongauer’s
followers, Bartolomaeus Zeitblom of Ulm, is also considered to have had
some influence upon the elder Holbein’s painting. The latter, at one
period of his career, became a citizen of Ulm, where he must have
encountered Zeitblom, the leading painter of that city. Thus his earlier
works show a gradual fusion of the methods of the old German or Rhenish
School with those of the Flemings. He began to paint in the days when
German art was almost uninfluenced by the great Italian Renaissance,
which was gradually but surely spreading over Europe, but before the
close of his career he had succumbed to its spell. A chronological
examination of his later works shows what a vitalising force his study
of Italian models had upon his style, though he did not accept these
changes as easily or as rapidly as some of his contemporaries, such as
Burgkmair. Unlike the latter, however, he never paid a visit to Italy,
but he nevertheless found it impossible in the end to resist the new
artistic impulses with which that country was then flooding the rest of
Europe. It was not necessary for him, however, to cross the Alps in
order to experience the magic spell of the new teaching, for Augsburg
was one of the first of the South German towns to feel the effects of
the Renaissance. The two chief routes from Italy, the western one from
Milan, and the eastern road from Venice, met at its gates. The greater
part of the trade between the Venetian States and Germany passed through
the city, and its leading merchants had business branches in Venice and
other North Italian towns. Many members of the Fugger and other
patrician families of Augsburg spent long periods in the districts
immediately south of the Alps, for the purpose of extending their trade
connections; and the active commercial intercourse with Italy which
resulted brought not only riches to the Augsburgers, but knowledge and
love of the new culture as well, and thus through the old free city of
Swabia the intellectual and artistic wealth of the Renaissance made its
way into Germany. The elder Holbein was among those who reaped advantage
from this intercourse between the two countries. Without entirely
abandoning the solid German groundwork of his art, he stripped it, more
particularly in his management of draperies, of many of its hardnesses.
His colour grew more harmonious, and his handling broader and more free.
His figures became less attenuated, and his heads, treated with greater
realism, displayed more character, while the general composition of his
pictures showed a greater dignity of conception and a deeper sense of
beauty. In addition to these gradual changes in his art, the new
influence wrought a complete alteration in his methods of dealing with
all accessories and with the architectural backgrounds against which his
subjects were placed, Renaissance forms and ornamentation taking the
place of the earlier Gothic settings.
The earliest dated pictures which can be ascribed to him with any
certainty are four altar-panels in the Cathedral of Augsburg, of the
year 1493, which at one time formed the two wings of an altar-piece in
the Abbey of Weingarten, representing Joachim’s Sacrifice, the Birth and
the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, and the Presentation of
Christ.[10] They display a strong Flemish influence, with a warm,
luminous colour, and considerable dignity and sense of beauty in the
figures.
His next pictures of which the date is certain are of the year 1499,[11]
and include the picture of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore,[12] the
work already mentioned as ordered by Dorothea Rölingerin[13] for the
Convent of St. Catherine in Augsburg, and at one time attributed to the
mythical grandfather Hans. It is a panel in the form of a broad pointed
arch, corresponding, like the five other pictures of the series, with
the vaulting of the chamber for which it was painted. It contains four
scenes in three sections, divided from one another by gilded Gothic
ornamentation. The lower half of the central compartment contains a view
of the church, with a pilgrim kneeling at the altar. On the two bells is
inscribed “Hans Holba—in 1499,” while an “H” is on one of the
tombstones, and the date is repeated on the outer wall of the church.
The upper part of the arch is filled with the Crowning of the Virgin.
The division on the left contains St. Joseph and the Virgin adoring the
Child in the stable, that on the right the Martyrdom of St. Dorothea, in
honour of the donor of the picture, who is represented, a small figure,
kneeling in prayer behind the saint. This picture is now in the Augsburg
Museum (Nos. 62-64).
A second work in the same gallery (No. 61), of the same date, is,
however, far inferior to the foregoing, the execution being careless and
perfunctory. It was a commission from the nun Walburg Vetter, also for
the Convent of St. Catherine, as an offering from herself, and in memory
of her two sisters, Veronica and Christina, all three of whom lived,
died, and were buried in the convent; and the indifference of the
workmanship has been attributed to the fact that Holbein received
extremely poor payment for it, only 26 gulden in all. It has an arched
top, and is divided into a number of small compartments, with the
Crowning of the Virgin above, and six roughly-painted scenes from
Christ’s Passion below, in which the figures, more particularly of the
executioners, are extremely repulsive. It is dated, and contains a long
inscription.[14]
Shortly after he had sent out this very inferior example of his art from
his workshop, Holbein appears to have left Augsburg for a year or two,
and to have settled in Ulm. His name is found in the Augsburg rate-books
every year from 1494 to 1499, but is missing in 1500 and 1501, while
there is a document in the Augsburg archives, dated Wednesday, November
6, 1499, which proves that in that year he had become for the time being
a citizen of Ulm (“Hannsen Holbain dem Maller, jetzo Bürger zu
Ulm”),[15] though no traces remain of any work undertaken by him in that
city. This entry is in connection with the contract for the purchase of
a house in Augsburg from which Holbein received interest.
[Sidenote: THE KAISHEIM ALTAR-PIECE]
In 1501 he was in Frankfurt, engaged upon an altar-piece for the
Dominican convent church. Two large panels, which once formed the back
of the centre portion of this work, represent the genealogy of Christ
and that of the Dominicans,[16] each in two divisions. On the first
there is a Latin inscription stating that the work was executed in 1501
to the order of the Superior, one “I. W.,” and concluding with the
words, “HANS HOILBAYN DE AVGVSTA ME PINXIT.” These panels are now in the
Städtisches Museum in Frankfurt, together with seven out of eight scenes
of “Christ’s Passion,” which originally covered the outer and inner
sides of the wings of the same altar-piece.[17]
In 1502 he was back again in Augsburg, at work upon a large altar-piece
for the monastery of Kaisheim at Donauwörth. Sixteen portions of it,
which formed the inner and outer panels of the folding doors, are now in
the Munich Gallery (Nos. 193-208).[18] Between the years 1490 and 1509
the Abbot Georg Kastner spent much money on the adornment of the fine
Gothic church of this famous imperial monastery, and in an old
manuscript chronicle which has survived, there is a passage referring to
this particular altar-piece, from which it is to be gathered that two
other artificers of Augsburg, the sculptor Gregorius and the joiner
Adolph Kastner, were associated with Holbein in the work. It speaks of
them as three masters of Augsburg, who were the best masters far and
near. The panels from the outer sides of the shutters represent scenes
from the Passion, those from the inner ones incidents in the life of the
Virgin and the childhood of Christ. The former are of inferior
workmanship to the latter, and were no doubt produced wholly or in great
part by an apprentice or assistant, for they display many exaggerated
and grotesque types and a general lack of taste in composition. The
inner panels show a far higher standard, and are from the hand of the
elder Holbein himself, whose signature occurs no less than three times
as “J. H.,” “Hans Holbon,” and finally the inscription, “Depictum per
Johannem Holbain Augustensem 1502.” Studies for some of the heads are to
be found in his sketch-book in the Basel Gallery. Several panels
representing the martyrdom of the Apostles, at Nuremberg, Schleissheim,
and elsewhere, have much in common with the Kaisheim altar-piece.
In the same year (1502) Holbein was engaged for a second time upon work
for the Convent of St. Catherine in Augsburg. This was a panel, in three
compartments, representing the Transfiguration of Christ,[19] a
commission from a leading Augsburg citizen, Ulrich Walther, whose
daughters, Anna and Maria, were inmates of the convent, the former being
the prioress. It is now in the Augsburg Gallery (Nos. 65-67). It was
ordered to be made “to the praise of God and in honour of his two
daughters,” and the price paid was 54 gulden 30 kreuzers. Walther, who,
dying at the age of eighty-six in 1505, left behind him one hundred and
thirty-three living descendants, is represented kneeling in the lower
part of the left-hand compartment, with eight sons behind him; and in
the corresponding part of the opposite compartment are his wife, the two
nuns, and twelve others, daughters and daughters-in-law, also kneeling
in prayer. These portraits, of which those of the younger children in
particular are of considerable charm, form the happiest part of the
painting. In the central subject, the movements by which the Apostles
express their surprise at the transfiguration of their Master are
exaggerated almost to the point of caricature. The side panels represent
the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, and the Healing of the Possessed
Youth.
[Sidenote: THE “BAPTISM OF ST. PAUL”]
A much finer work, painted for the same convent, is the “Basilica of St.
Paul,”[20] like the “Transfiguration,” now in the Augsburg Gallery (Nos.
68-70). Although undated, it is usually ascribed to the year 1504. It
was ordered by Veronica Weiser, daughter of the Burgomaster Bartholomäus
Welser. She was one of the wealthiest of the sisters, and was at that
time secretary to the convent, and afterwards succeeded Anna Walther as
prioress. It follows the shape of the other pictures in the cloisters,
that of a broad pointed arch, and is divided into a central and two side
panels, separated by late Gothic gilded ornamentation. It depicts scenes
from the life of St. Paul. In the upper arched portion is the Mocking of
Christ, while the lower compartments contain the Conversion, Baptism,
Martyrdom, and Burial of St. Paul, with other events in his life in the
background. In the central division Holbein has shown the donor seated
in a chair in front of the basilica with her back to the spectator, an
evident portrait, although the face is not visible. The name “Thecla” is
written on the chair-back. The division on the left hand is of much
greater interest, for it contains portraits of the Holbein family,
including the earliest but one known of Hans Holbein the Younger. The
subject is the Baptism of St. Paul (Pl. 1), who is represented, a nude
figure, standing in a stone font in the foreground. In the right-hand
foreground the artist has placed a group of three spectators, a
middle-aged man and two small boys, representing, according to old
tradition, the painter himself and his two sons, Ambrosius and Hans. The
truth of this tradition is confirmed by three drawings by the elder
Holbein which still exist—one, a head of himself, a study for the St.
Sebastian altar-piece, inscribed “Hanns Holbain maler—Der alt,” now in
the Aumale Collection at Chantilly;[21] and the others, in the Berlin
Print Room, representing the two boys in the years 1502 and 1511.[22] In
the picture the painter himself, with long hair and a flowing beard, but
the upper lip shaved, and dressed in a fur-lined coat, stands with his
right hand resting upon the head of the younger boy, and with the first
finger of his left points towards him as though wishing to draw
particular attention to him. Ambrosius, with his hair curling upon his
shoulders, stands with his right hand placed affectionately upon his
younger brother’s shoulder, and with his left clasps the other’s hand.
Both boys are dressed in grey cloth gowns, with gaiters and thick shoes,
the elder having a pen-case and ink-bottle suspended from his girdle.
Hans, a big-headed, round-faced, chubby little lad, six or seven years
old, has shorter hair. One hand is raised to his chest, and the other
grasps a stick. The father’s face is not a highly intellectual one, but
is sensitive and amiable; that of the boy Hans is stronger in character,
with a fine forehead and good mouth. On the opposite side of the picture
there stands a lady, seen in profile, with plaited golden hair and a
white head-dress. Her costume is a rich one, with brocaded sleeves, and
the lower part of her skirts edged with pearls. Tradition, which is
possibly correct, declares this lady to be the mother of the two boys.
There is considerable likeness between her and Ambrosius, and it is
evident that she is taking no part in the incident of the Baptism beyond
that of a very passive spectator. The costume she wears precludes her
from being the donor of the picture, who, indeed, is already represented
in the central compartment. Holbein apparently introduced his whole
family into the work. The only reason for throwing doubt on the
tradition lies in the elaborate dress she is wearing, which seems too
sumptuous for a poor painter’s wife; for the elder Holbein at this
period of his life was in frequent difficulties over money. Mr. Gerald
Davies draws attention to a drawing by him in coloured chalks in the
Munich Print Room, which, he thinks, represents the wife some years
earlier, perhaps before her marriage.[23] “It is,” he says, “a very
charming drawing of a young woman, not of any special beauty beyond that
which belongs to every young face which has the sparkle of happy
pleasure in the lips and eyes; the hair is partly covered with a white
cap, into which some delicate yellow is touched, and she wears yellow
sleeves and bands of the same colour across the white chest front.
Allowing for some years’ difference in age, this may well, I think, be
the same person as she who appears in the Augsburg picture. But, whether
it be the mother of the great painter or no, it is certainly a study
which shows Hans Holbein the Elder to have been possessed in some degree
of those very qualities in which his son afterwards stood supreme. There
is something of the same sympathetic power of seeing, and the same
completeness of recording what has been seen, without pedantries and
without makeshifts, all that gives to any given human face its charm and
its interest.... There is in it something of inspiration which neither
care nor industry nor strength—and there are certainly artists stronger
than he—can give. There is in this drawing the germ, and something more
than the germ, of the spirit of his great son.”[24]
This altar-piece, in which the figures are represented at about
one-third the size of life, marks a considerable advance in Holbein’s
art, both in technical qualities, the harmony of colouring, and in the
drawing of the figures and natural arrangement of the draperies. When
ordering the picture, Veronica Welser at the same time commissioned Hans
Burgkmair to paint one of the Basilica of Santa Croce and the legend of
St. Ursula. Only one payment, 187 gulden, is recorded for the two. As
Burgkmair’s picture is dated 1504, it is natural to suppose that
Holbein’s altar-piece was painted at about the same time.
VOL. I., PLATE 1.
[Illustration:
THE BAPTISM OF ST. PAUL
Left-hand panel of the “St. Paul” Altar-piece, with portraits of the
Holbein Family
HANS HOLBEIN THE ELDER
AUGSBURG GALLERY
]
[Sidenote: THE ELDER HOLBEIN’S TROUBLES]
Between the years 1504 and 1508 Holbein found frequent employment in
connection with the Church of St. Moritz in Augsburg. Various payments
are recorded in the church account books, but the pictures he painted
cannot now be traced. Among them appear to have been two large
altar-pieces, for which he frequently received small sums in advance at
his own request. On the 28th October 1506, he agreed to supply four
altar-panels for 100 gulden, receiving 10 gulden on account. Money was
evidently scarce in the Holbein household in these years; he was even
obliged to borrow 3 gulden from the churchwarden’s wife. For the second
altar-piece, commissioned on the 16th March 1508, he was to receive the
considerable sum of 325 gulden; but, as he was evidently still in debt,
the whole of the money was not paid directly to him, but was handed over
to various creditors; thus 74 gulden was paid to one Thomas Freihamer.
On the same occasion Holbein’s wife received a present of 5 gulden from
the church authorities, and his son, no doubt Ambrosius, one gulden.[25]
The elder Holbein, indeed, was often in monetary difficulties, more
particularly towards the end of his life. From time to time he was sued
for small sums by impatient creditors. In 1503 he went to law with a
neighbour, Paulson Mair, and on the 10th May 1515 he was sued by his
butcher, Ludwig Smid, for one gulden. In the following year he was twice
in the courts, the second time at the suit of one Jörg Lotter for the
small amount of 32 kreuzers. On the 12th January 1517 his own brother,
Sigmund, was obliged to take proceedings against him for a debt of 34
florins, money advanced to enable Holbein to move his painting materials
to “Eysznen”—that is, Isenheim in Alsace—to which place he went towards
the end of 1516 for the purpose of painting an altar-piece for the
monastery of St. Anthony. Once again, in 1521, a certain Hans Kämlin
sued him before the justices for two sums of 40 kreuzers, and 2 florins
40 kreuzers. Thus, in spite of numerous commissions, which, however,
were not always well-paid ones, he often had great difficulty in
supporting his household in comfort.[26]
[Sidenote: THE “ST. SEBASTIAN” ALTAR-PIECE]
The scope of this book does not permit a detailed description, or even a
bare list, of his numerous works. Two only of his later, and probably
his finest, paintings must be alluded to briefly—the “Martyrdom of St.
Sebastian,” in the Munich Gallery (Nos. 209-211), painted shortly before
his departure from Augsburg to Isenheim, and the “Fountain of Life,” in
Lisbon, both of which were at one time ascribed to his younger son.[27]
The “St. Sebastian” altar-piece,[28] which in earlier days was rightly
regarded as a work of the elder Holbein, is thought to have been one of
several commissions given to him by the nuns of St. Catherine in
Augsburg. The entry in the archives which is supposed to refer to it
merely states that “Sister Magdalena Imhoff has given 3 gulden to the
new Sebastian, for the Holy Cross on the altar, and the lay sisters 2
florins. This is the cost of the said picture.” Neither the name of the
artist who was employed upon it nor the date of the order is given, and
from the wording of the entry, and the very small price paid, it seems
evident that it cannot refer to so important a painting as the “St.
Sebastian.” Dr. Woltmann was probably right in suggesting that what was
ordered was merely a painted wooden figure of the saint, which was to be
added to a carved group of the Crucifixion on the altar of the
church.[29] The picture was first attributed to the younger Holbein by
Passavant and Dr. Waagen, who were misled by the forged extracts from
the St. Catherine annals, in which the passage quoted above was
considerably amplified, the “St. Sebastian” being definitely described
as a picture “by the skilful painter Holbein,” with the additional
information that it was ordered in 1515, and placed in the church in
1517, after its rebuilding, and that Magdalena Imhoff paid 10 gulden
towards it, and the other lay sisters 2 gulden each. As a result of this
falsification, the authorship of the picture was taken from the father
and given to the son, and, in consequence, it was regarded for a number
of years as an extraordinary manifestation of youthful genius. Even when
the forgery was discovered, such critics as Dr. Woltmann and Mr. Wornum
continued, from considerations of style, to uphold the picture as an
early Augsburg work of the younger Holbein. The inner and outer panels
of the wings, in particular, were considered to afford undoubted proof,
by their high artistic merit and their method of handling, that they
were from the brush of the son; and some modern critics still maintain
that, if not entirely his work, they were nevertheless carried out by
him under his father’s supervision, although they show a much more
finished and mature style than is to be found in the first sacred
paintings he produced in his early Basel days. Professor Karl Voll of
Munich holds that no one but the younger Hans could have painted the
lovely figures of St. Elizabeth and St. Barbara. Dr. Glaser, on the
other hand, is of opinion that the whole altar-piece is the work of Hans
Holbein the Elder. The picture is undated, though Passavant states that
it is inscribed “1516.” According to Förster, in 1840 the old frame bore
the inscription “1516, H. Holbain.” Dr. Woltmann placed it in the year
1515, but at that date the younger Hans had already left Augsburg for
Basel. From considerations of style, however, and the strong Renaissance
influence it displays, it is now generally considered to have been
executed by Hans Holbein the Elder in or about 1516, prior to his
departure from Augsburg to Isenheim.
Judged by his authentic works of this date in Basel, it is difficult to
allow that the younger Holbein had any serious part in the painting of
this altar-piece, though he may have worked on some of the details under
his father’s direction. Whether originally painted to the order of the
nuns of St. Catherine or not, the picture is said to have been found in
their possession on the abolition of the convent. It was acquired in
1809 from the church of St. Sauveur in Augsburg.
The central panel (Pl. 2) shows the nude figure of the saint, transfixed
with arrows, his right arm fastened by a chain above his head to a
fig-tree. Four archers at very close quarters are shooting at him, the
one kneeling in the left foreground, in the act of bending his bow,
being dressed in a striped costume of blue and white, the colours of
Bavaria, the hereditary enemy of Augsburg. Behind them stand spectators
in rich costumes, two on either side, the foremost one on the right
being the officer of the Emperor Diocletian, who is directing the
execution. In the background is a river, on the far side of which rise
the towers and buildings of a city, with the Alps beyond. The outer
panels of the shutters are painted with the “Annunciation to the
Virgin,” and the inner ones with the figures of St. Barbara and St.
Elizabeth (Pl. 3). St. Barbara, who is attired in a purple mantle, a
blue dress embroidered with gold, and wide white puffed sleeves, holds a
cup with the Host hovering over it. St. Elizabeth has also a purple
mantle, and a dress edged with fur. With her left hand she gathers up
her cloak, in which she is carrying bread for the poor, and with the
other pours wine from a tankard into a shallow bowl held by one of the
two beggars crouching at her feet. These two suppliants, both of whom
are afflicted with leprosy, have been painted with extreme and even
repulsive realism. Behind the leper on the right appears the head of the
painter himself, kneeling in adoration. The background in both these
panels is similar in character to the central one, that behind St.
Elizabeth representing, so it is said, a view of the Wartburg, near
Eisenach; while above and below are deep bands of rich Renaissance
ornamentation, of the type of design which the younger Holbein
afterwards carried to so high a degree of excellence. The whole work,
though still retaining many indications of the earlier influences which
moulded the elder Holbein’s art, is strongly imbued with the newer
conception of painting received from Italy. The drawing of the nude
displays greater knowledge than in the “St. Paul” altar-piece, the
colour is finer, and the figures of the two saints on the shutters
possess much grace and beauty. There are several silver-point studies
for the picture in the Copenhagen Museum, while the study for the head
of Holbein himself is, as already pointed out, at Chantilly.
VOL. I., PLATE 2.
[Illustration:
THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. SEBASTIAN
Central Panel
HANS HOLBEIN THE ELDER
ALTE PINAKOTHEK, MUNICH
]
VOL. I., PLATE 3.
[Illustration:
ST. BARBARA ST. ELIZABETH
Inner sides of the wings of the St. Sebastian Altar-piece
HANS HOLBEIN THE ELDER
ALTE PINAKOTHEK, MUNICH
]
[Sidenote: “THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE”]
It is in the “Fountain of Life” (Pl. 4),[30] painted in 1519,[31] that
the strongest proofs of the elder Holbein’s final surrender to the
influences of the Italian Renaissance are to be discovered. This
picture, like more than one other of his works, was formerly ascribed to
the son. Nothing is known of its earlier history, but it is said[32] to
have been taken from England to Portugal by Catherine of Braganza,
daughter of John IV of Portugal, and wife of Charles II, when she
returned home a widow after the king’s death in 1685, and that it was
presented by her to the chapel of the castle of Bemposta, where it
remained until removed to the royal palace in Lisbon forty or fifty
years ago. It thus appears to have belonged to the royal collections of
England in Charles II’s time, but no traces of it are to be found in any
inventory. If the picture ever was in this country, it can have been
only for a short time, for about the year 1628 it was in the collection
of the Elector Maximilian I of Bavaria, and is very carefully described
in a manuscript catalogue of his pictures of that date, with the
measurements, the date, and the name of the artist—“von Hanns Holpain ao
1519 gemalt.”[33] It is signed “IOHANNES HOLBEIN FECIT 1519,” but from
its present condition this signature seems to have been painted over an
older one. Attention was first called to the picture by Pietro
Guarienti, keeper of the Dresden Gallery, who was in Portugal from 1733
to 1736. He read the name as “Holtein,” and considered it to be the work
of one of Holbein’s pupils. This would indicate that the signature was
then becoming illegible, and that it was renovated some time after
Guarienti saw it. On the inner edge of the circular fountain in the
foreground there is also an inscription, “PVTEVS AQVARVM VIVENTIVM,”
which has also been retouched by some clumsy hand, for the older
writing, white on a brown ground, can still be seen beneath it.
The background, which occupies the upper half of the picture, is filled
with a building or open loggia of very elaborate architecture in the
style of the Italian Renaissance, with pillars of vari-coloured marbles,
and capitals and friezes richly carved and decorated. In the central
foreground, on the steps which ascend to this building, the Virgin
appears, enthroned. The Infant Christ sits astride her right arm, firmly
clasped against her breast. The Virgin appears to have been painted from
the same model as the Virgin on the outer shutters of the “St.
Sebastian” altar-piece. The Fountain of Life drips from a marble Cupid’s
mask on the step below her feet into a small circular basin, on the edge
of which is placed a tall vase with a spray of white lilies. Behind her
carved chair stand St. Joseph and St. Anne, and on either side of her
are groups of three saints, the two foremost ones being seated, with the
folds of their dresses spread over the flower-strewn grass. On the right
is St. Dorothy, in a richly-brocaded costume, and behind her kneels St.
Catherine of Alexandria with her right hand stretched towards the Infant
Christ, as a sign of their betrothal. On the left St. Margaret is
seated, with a book and a long cross, and a dragon at her feet, and
behind her St. Barbara is kneeling, holding the cup with the Host. Two
other saints complete the near groups, and in the background a number of
other saints are placed on either side. One of the figures is not unlike
the so-called wife of Holbein in the “St. Paul” altar-piece. Still
farther off, beyond the rails of the portico or temple, are three groups
of singing and playing angels with vari-coloured wings. In the distance
is an elaborate landscape, with a tall palm-tree, classical ruins, and a
view of sea and mountains. Bands of dark cloud stretch across the sky,
and the evening light still lingers over the waters, producing a
peaceful and rather sombre effect. The composition is the most
considerable to be found in any of the elder Holbein’s works, and is
well grouped and arranged. The influence of Martin Schongauer can be
very clearly traced in it, and the unusual position in which the Virgin
is holding the Child is directly derived from Schongauer’s beautiful
“Madonna in the Rose Garden,” which Holbein must have studied in the
neighbouring city of Colmar.[34] There were also altar-panels by
Schongauer in the Isenheim Monastery itself, where Holbein appears to
have been working when he painted the “Fountain of Life.” In addition to
this direct influence, others, both Flemish and Italian, are to be
traced in it, but well fused, so that the whole composition is unforced
and natural, and contains passages of much beauty. There is delicacy and
warmth in the flesh tints, and the sincerity of feeling which pervades
all the principal figures is one of its chief charms. The rich
architecture of the background shows good understanding and appreciation
of the Italian models upon which it is based, and in all ways the
picture indicates that when the elder Holbein put forth his greatest
powers he was worthy of being ranked among the best German painters of
the early sixteenth century.
VOL. I., PLATE 4.
[Illustration:
THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE
HANS HOLBEIN THE ELDER
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ANCIENT ART, LISBON
]
Although he does not appear to have had many opportunities of exercising
his skill as a portrait-painter, his very numerous studies in this
branch of art show abilities of a very high order, and possess many of
the qualities, though in a lesser degree, which his son afterwards
developed to so high a pitch of perfection. Indeed, in these
portrait-studies of men his art attains its greatest strength and finest
accomplishment. Sixty-nine of his drawings of heads are preserved in the
Imhoff Collection in the Berlin Museum. They are on the leaves of
sketch-books, and were made between 1509 and 1516, in silver-point and
pencil, some of them strengthened with white and with red chalk. A
smaller number of heads from the same series are in the Copenhagen
Museum, and at Basel and Bamberg, while isolated examples are to be
found in the print rooms of more than one European museum. Some of the
Basel drawings were made before 1508, and in the collection of M. Léon
Bonnat, which contains several fine silver-points by the elder Hans,
there is one of the Augsburg goldsmith, Jörig Seld, dated 1497.
[Sidenote: THE ELDER HOLBEIN’S STUDIES]
These drawings, which at one time were all ascribed to his son, and
are so attributed in the first edition of Dr. Woltmann’s book,
represent citizens of Augsburg in all classes of life, many of them,
no doubt, personal friends of the painter, who, in a number of cases,
has written their names on the sketches. There is no evidence to show
that the majority of them were preliminary studies for portraits for
which he had received commissions; they were done partly for his own
amusement and practice, and partly to serve as models for figures in
his sacred paintings. They form, nevertheless, a very valuable record
of the Augsburg life of his day, and so may be compared, in the
wideness of their range at least, with the more brilliant series of
drawings by his son. In numerous instances the same sitter has been
drawn two or three times; of Johannes Schrott[35] and Hans
Griesher,[36] monks of St. Ulrich, there are no less than seven and
six respectively. Among them there are portraits of the Emperor
Maximilian,[37] on horseback, in helmet, and with sword, and of his
grandson, afterwards Charles V,[38] with a falcon on his wrist,
inscribed “herzog karl vo burgundy.” As Charles became Duke of
Burgundy in 1515, and King of Castile in 1516, the drawing must have
been made in the former year. There are several portraits of members
of the great Fugger family, among them Jacob Fugger,[39] the head of
the clan; his nephews, Raimund[40] and Anton[41]; his cousin, Ulrich
Fugger the Younger,[42] and his wife, Veronica Gassner[43]; and
several more. Other leading Augsburg families are represented in heads
of Gumprecht Rauner,[44] Hans Nell,[45] Hans Pfleger,[46] and Hans
Herlins,[47] and members of the court circle by such men as Kunz von
der Rosen,[48] the Emperor Maximilian’s lifelong friend and adviser.
Included among these drawings are representations of more than one of
Holbein’s fellow-workers in art, such as Hans Schwartz[49] the
wood-carver, and Burkhart Engelberg,[50] stone-carver and architect.
Representatives of more lowly pursuits are Gumpret Schwartz,[51]
schoolmaster, and one Grün,[52] a tailor, and certain “merry fellows”
of the artisan class. The heads of ladies are not very numerous, but
one of them, the wife of the Guildmaster Schwartzensteiner,[53] a
typical example of the “good wife” of Augsburg, has been drawn no less
than three times. A less reputable personage among them is Anna, known
as “the Lomentlin,”[54] who was twice expelled from the town for
serious misconduct, and returned in the end apparently repentant,
afterwards posing as a saint, and professing to be able to live
without meat or drink. One of the most important groups in this series
of drawings represents the monks of St. Ulrich, Augsburg’s famous
monastery—Heinrich Grün,[55] Leonhard Wagner,[56] Conrad Merlin,[57]
Johannes Schrott, Hans Griesher, and others. Finally, there are a few
studies of heads of members of the artist’s family, including his own
likeness, that of his brother Sigmund,[58] and the double portraits of
his two sons, which have been already mentioned.
[Sidenote: PORTRAIT OF A LADY OF AUGSBURG]
There is a small finished portrait of a lady of Augsburg, whose
Christian name only, Maria, is known, in the collection of Sir Frederick
Cook, at Richmond, which is the sole example of portraiture by the elder
Holbein in England; and, indeed, with the exception of the portrait of a
man, dated 1513, in the Lanckoronski Collection in Vienna,[59] which is
also attributed to him, it is very possibly the only specimen of such
work by him in existence. This portrait is of particular interest,
because it conflicts with the statement of Dr. Glaser, that he never
painted an independent portrait.[60] It was formerly attributed to the
younger Holbein, but most critics failed to see his hand in it; and,
when exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1906, it was
described as of the South German School, with a note recording that the
names of Schaffner and Ambrosius Holbein had been tentatively suggested
in connection with it. Dr. Friedländer, however, considered it to be a
work of the younger Holbein in his early Basel period. In 1908 Dr. Carl
Giehlow suggested that the older painter was its real author, and drew
attention for the first time to the fact that a fine study for it exists
in the British Museum (Pl. 5); and further evidence in favour of this
attribution has been brought forward by Mr. Campbell Dodgson.[61]
The picture is on panel, 13¾ by 10½ inches. The sitter wears a white cap
with embroidered margin of fleur-de-lis pattern. Her yellow bodice,
trimmed at the edges with a broad band of black velvet, opens in front
to show a white under-garment patterned in black and gold. The girdle is
studded with gold ornaments. The hands are hidden, being pushed within
the sleeves, as though for warmth. The background is plain blue, and on
the back of the panel is painted “Maria” in an abbreviated form,
evidently the sitter’s Christian name. On the front of the old original
frame is inscribed: “ALSO.WAS.ICH.VIR.WAR.IN.DEM. 34. IAR.” (So was I in
truth in my thirty-fourth year.)
The silver-point drawing in the British Museum is, says Mr. Dodgson, “a
delicate piece of work, in perfect preservation, and so fresh and
spontaneous that it must be regarded as a study from life, preparatory
to the picture, and not as a copy from the latter. It is significant
that only the main outlines of the costume are noted, and that
ornamental details, which it would have taken a long time to draw, are
reserved for the final execution of the portrait in oils; nothing of the
kind is even suggested except the fleur-de-lis pattern on the cap. All
the essential outlines of the figure itself, on the other hand, are
drawn with a careful and expressive line, which notes the folds of the
flesh beneath the chin more accurately than the creases of the sleeve at
the elbow.” This drawing, like the portrait itself, is neither signed
nor dated, so that it may be suggested, by those who see in the finished
work the hand of the younger Holbein, that the drawing also is the work
of the son. There is, however, a second drawing of the same lady in the
Berlin Museum,[62] one of the series of the elder Holbein’s studies, in
which she is represented in almost the same position, and wearing the
same dress, though apparently several years older.[63] It does not seem
to be a repetition of the earlier drawing, but a fresh portrait from
life made after a considerable interval. The Berlin drawing is
undoubtedly the work of the elder painter, while the one in the British
Museum is closer to his style than to that of his son at the period in
question, when the latter was still in his teens, as shown in such early
Basel drawings as the studies of Meyer and his wife. The new
attribution, therefore, appears to be the correct one, the evidence in
favour of the elder Holbein being, if not conclusive, at least very
strong.
VOL. I., PLATE 5.
[Illustration:
STUDY FOR THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY OF AUGSBURG
_Silver-point drawing_
HANS HOLBEIN THE ELDER
BRITISH MUSEUM
]
Little is known of the last eight years of his life. The “Fountain of
Life” is the only picture painted by him during that period which has
survived.[64] It is supposed that he never returned to Augsburg, but
died in Isenheim; but that he spent the whole period there seems
unlikely. Isenheim is close to Basel, and it is not impossible that his
last days were passed under the roof of his son Hans in the latter city.
A letter, dated 4th July 1526, and addressed to the Vicar of the Order
of St. Anthony in Isenheim by the burgomaster of Basel, Heinrich
Meltinger, bears out this supposition.[65] It was written on behalf of
Hans Holbein the Younger, and by means of it he made a final attempt to
obtain possession of, or compensation for, his father’s painting
materials, which the latter had left behind him, or which had been
detained for some purpose by the monastery authorities. From this letter
it appears, also, that the son had made more than one previous attempt,
during his father’s lifetime, and at the elder painter’s request, to get
the goods returned; from which it is to be inferred that for some
considerable time prior to his death Hans Holbein the Elder had left
Isenheim. In 1521, as already pointed out, he was sued by Hans Kämlin
for a small debt, but this does not necessarily indicate that the
painter himself was in Augsburg at the time. His death took place in
1524, as is proved by an entry in the Handwerksbuch of the Augsburg
Painters’ Guild of that year, in which “Hannss Holbain maller” is noted
as deceased; but this again does not prove that his actual death
occurred in that city.
------------------------------------------------------------------------