THE HOUSE OF THE DANCE AND THE WALL-PAINTINGS IN THE BASEL TOWN HALL
Holbein as a mural decorator—The “Haus zum Tanz”—The “Dance of Peasants”
frieze—Original studies and old copies—Decoration of the inner walls
of the new Basel Town Council Chamber—“Charondas of Catanea”—“Zaleucus
of Locris”—“Curius Dentatus”—“Sapor and Valerian”—The single figures
placed between the large compositions—Cessation of the work before its
completion.
AT this period of his life Holbein’s work was by no means confined to
the painting of portraits and church pictures. His activity was
ceaseless, and every moment of his time must have been fully occupied.
In addition to many book illustrations for the publishers, and designs
for glass-painters, armourers, and other craftsmen, he found
considerable employment in decorating the street-fronts of houses of
certain of the leading citizens with large wall-paintings, and, in some
instances, painted similar decorations on the inner walls. It is evident
from various contemporary and later references that he covered more than
one house in Basel with decorative designs in this fashion, and that the
art of wall-painting, practised in that city to some extent before his
time, received a great impetus from his example. He carried it to a far
greater pitch of excellence than had been achieved until then in any
country but Italy, and founded a school of monumental decorative design
which existed for a considerable period after his death, and has been
revived again in modern times in Lucerne, if not in Basel.
Unfortunately, nothing remains of his original work in this field except
a few isolated designs for one or two façades, and several tracings and
inferior copies of fragmentary remains of the actual wall-paintings; nor
has any definite record been handed down in Basel of any particular
dwelling so decorated by him, with the exception of the “House of the
Dance,” which obtained a wide celebrity in his own day, and was
evidently looked upon as his masterpiece. In carrying out the mural
ornamentation of this building he allowed his brilliant fancy full play,
and exercised the greatest ingenuity in turning to advantage the wide,
flat spaces of the commonplace frontage with its irregularly-placed
Gothic arched windows and openings, covering the whole of it with
painted Renaissance architecture rich in columns and friezes, balconies
and elaborate porticoes and other features, amid which characters from
ancient history and fable and modern life were placed with admirable
effect.
[Sidenote: THE HOUSE OF THE DANCE]
The “Haus zum Tanz” was so named by his fellow-citizens from the large
frieze representing a number of peasants dancing with the wildest
merriment and abandon, which at once took the popular fancy, though it
only formed a part of the decoration. An original drawing for the narrow
front façade still exists, while there is an old tracing of Holbein’s
study for the general design, and some sixteenth-century copies of his
sketches, from which a good idea of the decorative effect produced after
he had finished the work can be obtained. It was a corner house, and
stood in the Eisengasse, near the Rhine Bridge, and at that time
belonged to the wealthy goldsmith Balthasar Angelrot, from whom Holbein
received the commission. The decorations, probably carried out by him in
1520, were still visible, and described by Patin, in 1676, but towards
the end of the eighteenth century their faded remains were whitewashed
over. The old building itself stood until 1907, when it was pulled down
and rebuilt.[261]
The plan Holbein pursued shows a marked advance in his conception of
decorative design when compared with the earlier paintings of the
Hertenstein house in Lucerne. In the latter large pictures filled
practically the whole of the wide spaces between the windows, but he now
abandoned this practice to a great extent, and subordinated the
pictorial effect to one in which architecture played the leading part,
the characters introduced appearing as actual figures occupied in
various ways amid this elaborate setting. The main front of the house
was very irregular in its features. There were no straight lines, for
the windows differed greatly in height and breadth, and those of one
storey were in most instances not placed exactly over those in the
storey below them. To a painter of lesser mastership than Holbein such a
nondescript frontage would have greatly increased the difficulties to be
overcome in carrying out a successful decorative scheme; in his case the
very difficulties appear to have provided an added spur to his
imagination and the fanciful play of his humour, and he seized upon them
and turned them to the utmost advantage. According to Dr. Ludwig Iselin,
in his notes on Holbein written towards the end of the sixteenth
century, the painter regarded his work upon Angelrot’s house with some
amount of satisfaction, for when he revisited Basel in the autumn of
1538, and saw his wall-paintings both on the house-fronts and in the
Council Chamber rapidly fading away, he proposed to repaint them at his
own expense, and in criticising his work found that the “Haus zum Tanz”
was “rather good” (“Das Haus zum tantz wär ein wenig gutt”). According
to Theodor Zwinger (1577),[262] he received only forty florins (gulden)
for the whole of this work, very inadequate payment even for those days,
considering the amount of labour which he must have given to it. This
reference of Zwinger’s is of great interest, as, with the exception of
the wall-paintings in the interior of the Basel Town Hall, it is the
only record so far discovered of the prices the artist was in the habit
of receiving for such undertakings.
[Sidenote: THE HOUSE OF THE DANCE]
The house, as already stated, was a corner one of three storeys, the
left-hand and narrow side being the one which fronted the Eisengasse.
The decoration covered both sides, and was painted more or less in
perspective, so arranged that the spectator, in order to obtain the full
effect of the design, must stand at the corner angle of the house, from
which he could see both sides at the same time. On the ground floor he
placed on either side of the broad arched windows and the narrower door
at the end of the chief façade thick, stumpy columns, with garlands
hanging below their Ionic capitals. He made skilful use of the Gothic
forms of the openings, as they actually existed, in such a way that the
pointed arches appeared to be merely the result of perspective
foreshortening, as seen from the spectator’s standpoint. Above these
arches, in the flat space beneath the first-floor windows, was painted
the broad band containing the “Bauerntanz,” or “Dance of the Peasants,”
which gave the house its popular name. This band was broken by a small
oblong window over the house-door, which Holbein utilised by turning it
into a stone table, with cans and jugs for the refreshment of the
dancers, against which two musicians are leaning, one playing the
bagpipes and the other a wind instrument of unusual shape. Boisterous
mirth reigns among the dancers. Their flitting shadows are cast upon the
wall behind them, as they give full vent to their delight in life by
means of measures more energetic than graceful, and much
rough-and-tumble play. Judging from the fine original study in the
Berlin Print Room,[263] which shows a part of this frieze, the
wall-painting itself must have produced a vivid effect of rapid,
lifelike movement, and even of noise and laughter. Above the Dance,
decorated pilasters supporting lofty columns, which ran up to the top of
the building, were placed between the windows, together with antique
figures of Mars, Venus, Cupid, and other gods. Above these again ran a
balcony with an open balustrading, supported on projecting cornices,
with numerous figures of Holbein’s fellow-citizens in contemporary
costume walking about and looking over into the street below, one of
them with a greyhound. Round the windows of the second floor, which were
of varying heights, he gave full play to his delight in Renaissance
architecture of a very intricate and fantastic kind, including his
favourite round medallions containing the heads of Roman Emperors and
other classical heroes and heroines, friezes with rich ornamentation,
grotesque figures with human bodies and tails of dolphins, and columns
and arches seen in strong perspective. On the top floor of all the small
windows were given the appearance of little square towers surrounded by
broken and ruined arches and masonry, overgrown with bushes, and behind
and between them the blue sky. On one of the walls was a peacock, and on
another a paint-pot with the brush stuck in it, as though left up there
by accident by the painter after the work had been finished and the
scaffolding removed, a pictorial joke which no doubt entertained the
passers-by.
The other frontage of the house faced a side street. On the wall nearest
the corner Holbein painted a lofty arched doorway, with steps leading to
the interior, above which Marcus Curtius, brandishing a battle-axe, was
represented on a great white, rearing horse, on the point of plunging
into the street, and close below him a Roman soldier in a crouching
position, with right arm uplifted in self-protection, as though fearful
that the rider would fall upon and crush him. Beyond this doorway there
were no windows on the ground floor, but merely a few small apertures.
Holbein covered this surface with arches and pillars with festoons, and
a low wall below. Over this wall the spectator was supposed to obtain a
view of the stabling below the level of the street, with a groom in
charge of a fine horse, the latter attached to a ring at the foot of a
lofty column, surmounted by a figure of Hebe. Between the windows on the
floor above stood a fat and youthful Bacchus, crowned with vine-leaves,
and holding a cup in his hand, and at his feet a cask with a second boy
asleep against it, and a cat stealing away with a mouse in her mouth.
Above this floor the treatment was mainly architectural, following the
lines of that on the Eisengasse frontage. The general effect produced by
the whole decoration must have been an exceptionally gay and brilliant
one, both from the effective manner in which Holbein made free use of
the Renaissance style of architecture, and from the joyous life and
movement of the numerous figures depicted. The decoration was intended
to amuse as well as to delight, and the tricks of perspective, together
with a realism the main purpose of which was to deceive the eye, were
conceived as a jest which should provide a source of continual interest
and merriment to the passing citizens. Such a method of covering house
walls had little in common with the work he had seen in Italy, except in
the sumptuousness of its setting. Although it may have sinned against
many of the right principles of mural decorative art, it nevertheless
appealed strongly to the fancy and taste of the Baselers of that day,
and “took the town” so completely that it set a fashion which lasted
many years. The humour and realism of it, however, were by no means its
foremost features; in many ways it must have produced a decorative
effect of great beauty and richness. Though he gave free play to his
fantastic imagination, he at the same time kept it within reasonable
bounds, so that it never offended against good taste, except in a
certain freedom of representation in some of the dancing couples, but
was always subordinate to the higher aims of his art.
[Sidenote: WALL-PAINTING FOR AMERBACH HOUSE]
There is a large tracing of the design in the Basel Gallery, which has
evidently been taken from Holbein’s original drawing, and there are
other copies, almost contemporary, of his original studies for portions
of the work, one showing the lower part of the side wall with the horse
and groom. The Berlin Print Room, as already noted, possesses the very
beautiful drawing from Holbein’s own hand, which is the original study
for the front façade, showing the musicians and three of the dancing
couples of the “Bauerntanz,” with which the Basel tracing is in close
agreement, while in the Amerbach Collection there is a slighter version,
with certain variations, of the upper portion of the Berlin drawing,
showing the balcony with figures. It is a chalk and pen drawing, touched
with Indian ink.[264] Dr. Woltmann suggested that the man with the flat
cap on the extreme left of the balcony in the Berlin drawing, who is
looking down into the street, is intended for a portrait of Holbein
himself. In addition, the Basel Gallery possesses good copies of the
frieze with the dancers (No. 353),[265] and of the portion of the façade
with the mounted figure of Marcus Curtius,[266] made by the
glass-painter Niklaus Rippel in 1623 and 1590 respectively. Rippel was
master of the Basel Painters’ Guild in 1587. The “Curtius” drawing is
inscribed “in frontispicio domus,” and is evidently a faithful
transcript of the original; so much so that by its means it is possible
to obtain a very adequate idea of the grandeur of Holbein’s design, more
particularly in the magnificent group of the horse and its armed rider,
in which the Mantegnesque influence is unmistakable. Finally, there is
in the same Gallery an excellent reconstruction of the whole frontage
(No. 352), a water-colour drawing made by H. E. von Berlepsch in 1878,
based upon the Berlin study and the sixteenth-century copies of
Holbein’s sketches.[267]
One or two original studies remain, which were evidently made as designs
for exterior wall-paintings of which all record has been lost. There is
a slight but masterly washed pen drawing in the Amerbach Collection (Pl.
40 (1)),[268] representing the upper part of a house in which the
irregularly-placed windows have been adapted with the greatest skill to
suit the purposes of the elaborate scheme of Italian architecture, one
part of which is made to recede by a series of flat columns with
ornamented capitals seen in sharp perspective, while the other half
appears to project, and shows the seated figure of an Emperor, possibly
Charlemagne, between two windows, to which Holbein has given rounded
arches with a medallion between them containing an antique head. Dr.
Ganz is, no doubt, right in his suggestion that this drawing is a study
for a scheme of decoration for the façade of the family house of the
Amerbachs in the Rheingasse, in Little Basel, and that the figure of the
enthroned Emperor is a pictorial representation of the name—“zum
Kaiserstuhl”—by which the house was known. Probably Holbein received a
commission for its decoration in 1519, at the time he was painting
Bonifacius Amerbach’s portrait.[269] In the same collection there is a
design for a framework to surround an ordinary square-headed window,
either for internal or external wall-painting,[270] over which he has
thrown an ornamented arch filled in with scalloping, and crowned with a
brazier from which flames are blowing. It is supported by pillars of
elaborate and fantastic design, broken up into various bands of rich
ornament, among them ox skulls with small hanging garlands. At the base,
on each side, is a nude figure of a woman with a basket of fire on her
head. The window, only one half of which is shown, is supported below
with corbels, the central one with a grotesque head with an iron ring
suspended from its mouth. A third sketch, for the ground floor of the
Hertenstein house, has been already described.[271]
VOL. I., PLATE 40.
[Illustration:
1. STUDY FOR A PAINTED HOUSE FRONT WITH THE FIGURE OF A SEATED EMPEROR
BASEL GALLERY
]
[Illustration:
2. THE AMBASSADORS OF THE SAMNITES BEFORE CURIUS DENTATUS
1521-22
Fragment of the wall-painting formerly in the Basel Town Hall
BASEL GALLERY
]
[Sidenote: LEGEND OF THE INN “ZUR BLUME”]
In the collection of drawings in the Louvre there is an elaborately
drawn design for the decoration of a house with a narrow frontage and
high-pitched gables,[272] which, although not from Holbein’s own hand,
bears considerable resemblance to his style and methods in carrying out
large mural paintings. It may be a contemporary copy of one of his
designs, or, perhaps, an original work by one of the clever Basel
artists who adopted his manner. The architectural details, however, are
characterised by a fantastic play of fancy carried beyond the limits
Holbein usually prescribed for himself in work of this nature. Some of
them are frankly impossible, and if actually carried out in brick or
stone would at once fall to pieces. This element of architectural
absurdity is to be seen very clearly in the large capital in the centre
supported by a much weaker and smaller one, in the curious thin bands of
projecting stonework with circular openings through which all the
columns pass, and the equally curious circular vaulting over the door,
with round openings through which two cupids bend down in the act of
supporting a coat of arms. The principal features of the design are two
deep bands divided by the columns into panels containing combats between
sirens and grotesque men with fish-like extremities ending in spirals of
foliage. On either side of the windows of the second floor double
columns are set close together, between which three nude old men are
striving to force themselves. On the topmost storey two figures are
looking over a balcony in front of two small windows. Medallions with
antique heads are freely introduced, and every part of the house-face is
so lavishly covered with small ornamentation that the eye becomes
confused, and the general effect produced is one of restlessness and
over-elaboration. Below the ground-floor window a fictitious opening is
shown, in which two large dogs are fighting over a bone. Woltmann
suggests that a passage in Dr. Ludwig Iselin’s notes has reference to
these two animals, and may be taken as some indication that this
particular design for house-decoration was Holbein’s own, and had been
carried out by him in Basel. Iselin says, in speaking of the artist’s
truthfulness to nature: “He painted a dog, at which dogs running past
used to bark.”[273]
[Sidenote: LEGEND OF THE INN “ZUR BLUME”]
An old Basel legend, which, like so many other legends, has no evidence
to support it, connects Holbein’s name with the decoration of another
house in Basel—the inn “zur Blume” in the Fischmarktplatz. The story
runs that the painter was deeply in debt to the innkeeper, and in order
to pay his dues he undertook to cover the outside of the house with
frescoes; but the work progressed too slowly for the owner, and
Holbein’s absences in search of enjoyment were too frequent, so that the
former kept a close watch upon him, and threatened to cut off supplies
unless he remained at his post. The painter’s ingenuity, however, was
equal to the emergency. When he was at work high up on the building his
body was hidden from the view of those in the street by the scaffolding,
but his legs were still in sight, so he painted a fictitious pair on the
wall, as though dangling down, with feet crossed; and seeing these, the
landlord thought all was well, and so left his artist to his own
devices.
The most important work in wall-painting undertaken by him at this
period was the decoration of the Council Chamber in the newly-rebuilt
Town Hall or Rathaus of Basel. In 1504 it was decided to replace the old
building with a new one, and the work was begun in 1508 and completed
early in 1521, the Council assembling in it for the first time on the
12th of March in the latter year. The decoration of the interior walls
of the chief room was given to Holbein, partly, no doubt, through the
influence of his patron, Jakob Meyer, who was still burgomaster, though
his troubles were already beginning, and culminated before the close of
that year, when he was removed from office. The commission must have
been mainly due, however, to the Council’s knowledge of Holbein’s skill
and inventive powers in this branch of art, as shown in the decorations
of several house-fronts in the city. The painter continued his work in
the Chamber after the deposition of Jakob Meyer and the election of
Adelberg Meyer, who was unrelated to his predecessor, to the post of
chief magistrate. According to the account books of the Council, the
commission was given to the painter on the 15th June 1521, on the day of
St. Veit and St. Modestus, and the contract stated that he was to
receive 120 gulden for the whole work, and that he was to be paid in
advance by the “Drei Herrn,” who were the members of the Council who
controlled the finances, on the day of the signing of the contract,
forty gulden, or fifty Basel pounds, the gulden being equal to one Basel
pound and a quarter.[274] The remaining payments, in smaller amounts,
were made to him on the 20th July and 14th September 1521, and on the
12th April, 16th June, 31st August and 29th November 1522. He received
no money during the winter of 1521-22, when the work, no doubt, would be
temporarily suspended owing to the shortness of the days and the lack of
good light. This is one of the few instances in which we possess
authentic records of the amounts received by Holbein for his work.
[Sidenote: WALL-PAINTINGS IN BASEL TOWN HALL]
The Town Hall, which stood in the market-place, with the house of Jakob
Meyer, “zum Hasen,” adjoining it on the south, has undergone
considerable changes since its building, so that to-day both the
exterior and interior are by no means in the same condition as when
Holbein was working there. In those days the Council Chamber was an
irregular quadrangle, about 34 feet by 65 feet, and only 12½ feet high,
and the ceiling was supported by three columns down the centre of the
room. The wall fronting the market-place was entirely filled with large
windows and the doors leading to the chief staircase, and provided no
space for decorative treatment, so that Holbein’s work was confined to
the three remaining walls, the long one opposite, which was also broken
up by two windows and two doors, and the two narrower ones at either
end, which were not parallel. Of these latter, the one on the north had
a heating chamber and a large stove at one end of it, and was separated
from the rest of the hall by a balustrade. The only unbroken wall was at
the southern end, next Meyer’s house. It was called in the accounts the
“back wall,” because the visitor turned his back on it on entering the
room, and this wall was not decorated by Holbein until after his return
from his first visit to England. Taking it altogether, the room was so
low and so irregular in its arrangement that it was by no means well
suited for carrying out a scheme of mural decoration on a monumental
scale; but Holbein triumphed over all difficulties, and produced
magnificent results, so far as can be judged from the few studies,
tracings, and copies which remain. The subjects selected for
representation were divided from one another by richly-ornamented
Renaissance columns, so that the room, when finished, appeared to be
open on all sides, here looking out upon some landscape, and there into
some great hall or palace made to appear vast by the clever use of
perspective. Between the principal pictures were placed smaller,
single-figure subjects, standing in niches on a somewhat higher level,
and forming part of the architectural framework. The subjects of the
larger paintings were of the kind then popular north of the Rhine, and
were intended, by means of celebrated examples taken from ancient
history, to bring home to those who used the room, the absolute
necessity of impartial justice in the administration of the affairs of a
state or community, and at the same time to indicate the punishment
which in most cases is bound to follow the breaking of the law, and to
extol the virtues of simplicity and a love of country free from all
self-seeking. These subjects, and the Latin inscriptions which
accompanied them, were not Holbein’s own invention, but were, in all
probability, selected for him by such learned friends as Myconius and
Beatus Rhenanus.[275]
The only records which remain of this great work, all of which are in
the Basel Gallery, consist of a few fragments taken from the walls
before the last traces of the paintings had finally faded away; original
studies for three of the chief subjects from Holbein’s own hand; a few
contemporary copies of his designs; and others taken from those parts of
the design which could still be discerned at the time when the actual
fragments of Holbein’s handiwork were cut away from the walls.
Unfortunately the paintings themselves had but a short life. Less than
fifty years after the last one was completed they were already in a
deplorable condition, largely through damp. Probably the three months’
interval which elapsed between the completion of the building and the
beginning of its decoration was due to the desire to allow the walls to
become thoroughly dry; but even this precaution was not sufficient to
save Holbein’s handiwork from gradual destruction. The walls, possibly
from faulty construction, appear never to have become entirely free from
moisture, while the paintings were also allowed to suffer from general
neglect. Wurstisen in his _Epitome Historiæ Basiliensis_, published in
1577,[276] speaks of them as “delineations of the choicest things by the
hand of the German Apelles,” but two years later the largest of them was
reported to be so terribly injured by the weather that it was in danger
of complete destruction. The Council, therefore, commissioned the
painter Hans Bock to make a copy of it in oils on canvas, which, when
completed, was hung on the wall in front of the original painting. This
“large piece,” which Bock copied in 1579, was probably the whole of the
back wall, containing the “Rehoboam” and the “Samuel and Saul.” This
work occupied his whole time for twenty-six weeks, and his application
for payment for this half-year’s work, dated the 23rd November 1579, to
be found among the Basel archives. In it he demands one hundred florins,
a sum which the Council evidently considered too great, although it
works out at little more than a shilling a day in modern money, a
moderate but not a contemptible wage as rates of payment went in those
days. Among the reasons Bock gives for asking so much is that far more
is really due to a copyist, who has to imitate laboriously the work of
another, than to one who paints merely from his own fancy; and he goes
on to say that, “among all the Holbein pieces in the painted hall, this
is not only the greatest in length, but also contains the most difficult
and laborious work, as, besides landscape, there are one hundred faces
drawn perfectly or partially, so that I must copy them all piece by
piece, besides many horses, weapons, and other things.”[277] The details
he mentions were only to be found in one of the paintings, that of
“Samuel and Saul,” though it did not contain nearly one hundred heads,
but with the adjoining picture of “Rehoboam,” which Bock probably
included, the number would be nearly correct.
[Sidenote: DESTRUCTION OF THE WALL-PAINTINGS]
One hundred years later the wall-paintings were still to be seen, though
rapidly deteriorating. They are mentioned by Tonjola (1661), who quotes
the various inscriptions which accompanied them,[278] and by Patin
(1676), who speaks of the three walls of this hall as painted by
Holbein. After this all traces of them were gradually lost, damp and
neglect almost obliterating them. They were no longer visible in 1796,
for Peter Ochs does not mention them in his description of the Council
Chamber.[279] Even Bock’s copy seems to have fallen to pieces, and in
the end the walls were covered with tapestry hangings, and Holbein’s
work was completely forgotten. In 1817, however, when some repairs were
carried out in the hall, necessitating the removal of the tapestries, a
few remaining traces of the original work were discovered. On the fresco
of “Charondas,” on the north wall, the date 1521 was still legible.
Seven fragments of considerable size were saved, from the three
paintings of “Rehoboam,” “Curius Dentatus,” and “Zaleucus,” and small
copies of the chief remains were made in water-colours by Hieronymus
Hess for the art firm of Birmann, and these are now preserved in the
Basel Gallery (Nos. 328-332). From such inadequate materials as these it
is possible to obtain only a very general idea of the original beauty of
this great undertaking. It would be supposed that these mural
decorations, painted as they were on interior walls, would have long
outlived Holbein’s work of a similar nature on the exterior façades of
Hertenstein’s mansion and the House of the Dance, whereas the contrary
was the case, for in both the last-named instances the paintings
remained in fairly good condition until comparatively modern times. This
indicates that the cause of the rapid destruction of the Town Hall
decorations was not owing to Holbein’s lack of knowledge of the proper
methods of fresco painting, but was due solely to bad building on the
part of the Council’s architect, and, later on, to neglect at the hands
of the authorities, who made no adequate attempt to preserve works which
added so great a distinction to their building.
The four chief subjects painted by Holbein in 1521-22 were—(1) Charondas
of Catanea, the law-giver of the city of the Thurii, who had issued a
decree forbidding the wearing of arms in the public assembly under pain
of death, but himself inadvertently broke the law. Hurrying to the
council chamber from a journey, he forgot to leave his weapons behind
him; and on attention being called to this by one of his enemies, he
immediately cried out, “By Zeus! the law shall be master,” and ran
himself through with his sword. (2) Zaleucus of Locris, whose laws
punished adultery by the loss of both eyes. His only son was found
guilty of this crime, but the people begged him to show mercy, as the
culprit was his heir, and their future ruler. Zaleucus resisted their
entreaties for a long time, but in the end yielded to the extent of
sacrificing one of his own eyes, and ordering only one of his son’s to
be removed, thus upholding the majesty of the law. (3) Curius Dentatus,
who, kneeling before his fire, preparing his modest meal, sends away the
ambassadors of the Samnites, who have come with rich presents in order
to persuade him to take no part in the war against them. (4) Sapor, king
of Persia, who is making use of the body of the captive emperor Valerian
as a step from which to mount his horse. Between these pictures were
placed single figures of Christ, King David with the harp, Justice,
Wisdom, and Temperance. The remaining large subjects, which were painted
in 1530-31, were Rehoboam spurning the Elders of Israel, Saul rebuked by
Samuel, and possibly Hezekiah breaking the Idols.
In the picture of “Charondas” the action takes place in a lofty hall,
its roof supported by richly-decorated columns, with long architraves
covered with bands of sculptured figures and medallions. Charondas
stands in front of the councillors in the act of plunging his sword into
his breast, as with uplifted eyes he calls the gods to witness that he
is prepared at all costs to uphold the laws. Some of the onlookers sit
spell-bound, too overcome with surprise and agitation to attempt to stay
his hand, while others are still disputing among themselves as to the
necessity or justice of so severe a punishment for so trivial a fault.
This is one of the frescoes which Hess copied in 1817,[280] and the
Basel Gallery also possesses a contemporary copy of Holbein’s original
design,[281] which was probably made by some pupil or assistant attached
to his own workshop. When the two are compared, it becomes apparent that
Holbein, when he came to paint the subject upon the wall, added
considerably to its length. Hess’s copy is almost twice as long as it is
high, and on either side three or four figures have been added to the
group of councillors which do not appear in the copy of the first
design, which is almost square in its proportions, and corresponds in
size with Holbein’s original design for the “Sapor” subject.[282]
[Sidenote: “THE BLINDING OF ZALEUCUS”]
In the “Zaleucus” the scene is laid in a great chamber with a large
arched opening at one end, through which can be seen the outer walls of
the palace and other Renaissance buildings illuminated by sunshine. The
blinding of the two men is depicted with great realism. The son falls
back in his chair, with open mouth and a look of terror on his face as
the executioner prepares to tear out his left eye. Opposite to him his
father, crowned, in princely robes, an aged man, with long silvery
beard, sits in his chair of state, placed in front of heavy tapestry
hangings, freely offering himself to the torture. Holbein has very
skilfully marked the contrast between the abject fear of the culprit,
who appears about to scream aloud, and the old man, who makes ready to
meet the sharp pain with dignified restraint, and only displays his
feelings in the way in which he grips the arms of his throne. In the
case of the son, the executioner, dressed in the body armour of a Roman
soldier, is using considerable violence; in that of the father, he is
first examining the eye with a lens in order that he may remove it with
as little pain as possible. This severe object-lesson in the majesty of
the law is witnessed by a great crowd of spectators, all clad in togas,
who regard the scene with contending emotions of horror and compassion.
Two fragments of the original painting are still preserved at Basel—the
head of Zaleucus (No. 331), and that of one of the spectators (No. 332).
Of this fresco also there is a water-colour copy at Basel made by Hess
from the almost obliterated original,[283] and a sixteenth-century copy
of Holbein’s design for it.[284] In this case the two copies agree in
their proportions, and indicate that the painting was one of the smaller
of the chief subjects with which the room was decorated. According to
Dr. Ganz, three other old copies of this wall-painting exist, one by H.
R. Manuel in a private collection in France, one by J. Wentz, done in
1551, now in the Basel Collection, and the third in a glass painting of
1580.[285]
Of the picture of “Curius Dentatus” no record remains beyond the
water-colour copy made by Hess in 1817,[286] and a fragment of the
painting itself in a bad state of preservation, showing the heads of the
three foremost of the five Samnite ambassadors (No. 330) (Pl. 40
(2)).[287] From Hess’s copy it is to be gathered that this composition
must have been an exceptionally fine one, though one of the smallest of
the series. The characters are placed under an open portico with round
arches through which a wide expanse of country is seen. There is a tall
tree in the foreground, and in the distance buildings and a bridge over
a river, and a lofty mountain. Curius, dressed in Roman armour, is
kneeling in front of his open hearth, cooking his evening repast, and
looking round, without rising, at the five ambassadors, who are attired
in rich Renaissance dress, and bear golden vessels and a large dish full
of gold. Curius, refusing their bribes, points to the turnips he is
cooking, and exclaims: “Malo hæc in fictilibus meis esse et aurum
habentibus imperare” (“I would rather have these in my pot and rule over
those who have gold”). These words were painted over the picture itself.
Each one of the larger compositions, as well as the single figures, had
similar painted inscriptions in Latin, and other admonitory couplets
were placed upon the walls, the text of all of them being given by
Tonjola in his _Basilea Sepulta._ The hall in which Curius is receiving
the Samnites fills the upper half of the fresco, and is supported on
masonry which occupies the lower half, in which is seen the opening to a
vaulted chamber or cellar, in front of which stands an armed man,
possibly intended to represent the messenger of the Basel Town Council,
as he is dressed in the black-and-white armorial colours of the city,
and wears a small badge with the city’s coat of arms fastened to his
shoulder. His right hand is raised to his feathered hat as though he
were about to salute the spectator. This picture was intended to glorify
republican simplicity, and may have had reference also to the burning
question of the “French pensions,” which helped to bring about Jakob
Meyer’s downfall.[288]
[Sidenote: “SAPOR AND VALERIAN”]
Of the fourth picture, “Sapor and Valerian,” the only record remaining
is the beautiful design at Basel from Holbein’s own hand (Pl. 41).[289]
The drawing is lightly washed with water-colour, chiefly red in the
faces and the brickwork of the architectural background, and blue and
grey in other parts. This picture was one of the narrower ones, and the
space was crowded with figures. In the centre, the aged Emperor,
crowned, and with a long white beard, kneels on the ground resting on
his outspread hands, his body pressed down by the weight of Sapor, who
places one foot on his back as he prepares to mount his horse. The
latter, like all the other figures, is dressed in the costume of
Holbein’s own day, with a long sword and a gold chain across his
shoulders. The horse is held by a foot-soldier, in a blue cloak, who
looks over his shoulder towards the spectator. The space behind the
central group is filled with soldiers, mounted and on foot. The knights,
some of whom are in full armour, carry long lances over their shoulders,
which add to the effect of the scene, while the men on foot hold aloft
great pikes. The mounted knight near the centre, with plumes all round
his broad hat, is a noble and dignified figure, and the drawing of
Sapor’s horse is excellent. The procession comes along the street from
the right, and passes round the corner of the building, which fills in
the background, as in several of the earlier “Cross-Bearing” pictures.
This building, which is seen from an angle, with deep arched arcading
below and a row of windows above, is a representation of the
recently-finished Town Hall of Basel, within which the wall-painting
itself was placed, and the quaint building next to it, with its
battlemented cresting seen against the blue sky, is to be found marked
on Matthaeus Merian’s plan of the city (1615). It was in reality
separated by two other houses from the Rathaus, but Holbein, attracted
no doubt by its picturesqueness, has moved it nearer. Over Sapor’s head
is a large ribbon label inscribed “Sapor Rex Persar,” and below the
Emperor is written “Valerianus Imp.” On either side are shown the
pillars which divided the chief compositions from each other; flat
columns, the upper half covered with carving of Renaissance design, and
the lower with slabs of coloured marbles and a circular medallion
containing an antique head such as is to be found in almost all
Holbein’s architectural drawings. An inscription at the foot, which
runs, “Hans Conradt Wolleb schanckts Mathis Holzwartenn,” gives the
names of two consecutive owners of this drawing. Wolleb, who was
Magistrate of Basel, died on September 9, 1571. On August 6th of that
year the Alsatian poet, Matthias Holzwart, permitted a performance of
his play, _King Saul and the Shepherd David_, to be given in the Basel
market-place, and Wolleb may have presented the drawing to him at that
time in recognition of the event. The same border also contains the
letters A.V.E. in a monogram, probably the initials of a third owner of
the design.[290]
VOL. I., PLATE 41.
[Illustration:
SAPOR AND VALERIAN
Design for one of the wall-paintings in the Basel Town Hall
_Pen and water-colour drawing_
BASEL GALLERY
]
[Sidenote: COMPLETION OF TWO OF THE WALLS]
The five single figures in painted niches which filled in the smaller
spaces on the walls had each an appropriate inscription in Latin. The
Basel Gallery possesses copies of Holbein’s preliminary studies for each
one of them, which, like the similar copies of the Charondas and
Zaleucus designs, are drawn on paper made in Basel with a water-mark
which was not used after 1524, thus showing that they must be
contemporary, and, as already suggested, very possibly done by some one
in Holbein’s own studio.[291] Christ[292] is represented holding a long
tablet with the words: “Quod tibi non vis fieri alteri non facias”
(“What thou dost not wish to be done to thee, that do to no other”). In
the band of ornament at his feet is a small tablet with the date 1523.
King David[293] is shown with his harp, and a scroll over his head with
“Juste judicate filii hominum” (“Judge justly, ye sons of men”).
Justice,[294] crowned, stands beneath an open arch behind a balustrade,
with her balance at her feet. With her sword, grasped in her right hand,
and with the forefinger of her left, she is pointing to a large tablet
suspended from the top of the arch, which contains the inscription: “O
vos reigentes obliti privatorum publica curate” (“O ye rulers, forget
your private affairs, and care for those of the public”). Wisdom[295] is
shown in a shell-crowned niche. She has a double face, and her long hair
falls below her waist. In her left hand she holds a torch, and in her
right a book with the inscription, “Inicium sapiencie timor domini”
(“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”). A scroll over the
torch bears the words, “Experiri prius consilio quam armis prestat” (“It
is better to try by counsel than by arms”). Finally, Moderation[296] is
represented as a young woman with long, clinging garments, in the act of
pouring wine from a large vessel of blown glass into a small flagon. The
admonition in her case runs, “Qui sibi plus licere vult quam deceat sue
studet ruine” (“He who wishes to enjoy more than is his due, acts to his
own destruction”). Other inscriptions quoted by Tonjola appear to refer
to further paintings, possibly single figures only, of which, however,
no traces remain. The compositions on the “back wall,” with subjects
from the Old Testament, painted some eight years afterwards, are
described in a later chapter.[297]
While Holbein was carrying out the earlier paintings, the sculptor
Martin Lepzelter was also at work in the Council Chamber. He carved two
half-length figures of prophets and four coats of arms for the pillars
which supported the ceiling, for which he was paid eight Basel pounds on
August 3, 1521.[298]
When, on the 29th November 1522, on the Saturday before St. Andrew’s
Day, Holbein received a final payment of twenty-two Basel pounds and ten
shillings, which was the balance of the 120 gulden he was to receive for
the whole work, he had completed two walls of the Council Chamber, and
he felt that he had more than earned the amount of his commission,
although the back wall was still untouched. He, therefore, made
representations to the Council to this effect, and they appear to have
felt the justice of the claim, as they could hardly have failed to do,
when they saw in how brilliant a manner the completed portion had been
carried out. In consequence, they agreed that he had fully earned the
money, and ordered the balance to be paid to him, deciding “to let the
back wall alone till further orders.”[299] In any case, as the winter
had begun, it would have been necessary to postpone the completion of
the work until the following spring, and, no doubt, it was the original
intention that Holbein should finish the room as soon as the season
permitted. For some reason, however, nothing was done in the matter
until after his return from his first visit to England. Possibly the
Council were too busily occupied in attempting to keep order in a city
in which the spread of the new opinions brought about by the Reformation
was already dividing the townsfolk into two separate camps. In the
spring of 1522, also, Basel was engaged in several military enterprises,
which would cause the Council to hesitate before spending money upon
such luxuries as art, which could be dispensed with until times were
less critical and the city’s affairs more prosperous.
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