PORTRAITS OF ERASMUS AND HIS CIRCLE
Portraits of Erasmus and Ægidius by Quentin Metsys—Copy of the “Erasmus”
at Hampton Court and the original in Rome—Portraits of Erasmus by
Holbein sent to London—The Longford Castle “Erasmus” and copies of
it—The Louvre portrait, and the study for it at Basel—Holbein’s
journey to the South of France—Drawings of the sepulchral effigies of
the Duke and Duchess of Berry—The Greystoke portrait and the version
at Parma—The Basel roundel—Woodcut portraits of Erasmus—Portraits of
Froben—Melanchthon—Holbein’s drawing of himself at Basel.
THE portraits painted by Holbein prior to his departure from Basel to
England were not numerous, even when allowance is made for the probable
disappearance or destruction of several of which no trace now remains.
There are less than a dozen in all, even when the three different
versions of Erasmus are included. The Burgomaster Meyer and his wife,
Benedikt von Hertenstein, Amerbach, Froben, Erasmus, and his own
portrait almost complete the list, to which may be added the two
versions of Magdalena Offenburg as “Venus” and as “Lais,” and the
portrait at the Hague now said to represent his wife shortly after he
married her. Considering the mastery he had already displayed in this
branch of art, it is extraordinary that he did not receive more
commissions for portraits from his fellow-citizens. He found a good
patron in Erasmus, however, who was always ready to sit for his
likeness. He was painted by several well-known artists, and employed
Holbein on more than one occasion. He presented several of these
portraits to friends and supporters in England and elsewhere, and as he
had many admirers who were anxious to possess one, Holbein’s original
pictures of him were copied a number of times both during the
philosopher’s lifetime and afterwards.
Although Erasmus paid his first visit to Basel in 1513 for the purpose
of making the acquaintance of Froben, who was about to publish several
of his works, including his edition of the New Testament, and renewed
this visit on several occasions, sometimes remaining there for months at
a time, he did not make the city his permanent home until 1521. Both
during these earlier visits and after he had settled in Basel, he made
Froben’s home his own. This house, “zum Sessel,” was in the Fischmarkt,
but after Froben’s death in 1526, Erasmus moved to the house of Froben’s
son, “zum Luft,” now No. 18 in the Bäumleingasse, and it was in this
latter house that he died in 1536. He was attracted by the freedom and
independence of the life within the city, and the opportunities it
afforded both for quiet study and daily intercourse with many learned
men, and also by the number and fame of its printers and their presses.
[Sidenote: PORTRAITS OF ERASMUS AND ÆGIDIUS]
The earliest portrait of Erasmus of which we have a record is the one
painted by Quentin Metsys in Antwerp in 1517, which formed the left-hand
side of a double portrait or diptych, of which the other half contained
the portrait of Peter Ægidius, the learned traveller, and town-clerk of
Antwerp,[364] to whom the _Utopia_ was dedicated, and whose garden was
selected by More as the scene in which Raphael Hythlodæus told the
imaginary story of that island city. It was painted as a joint-gift from
Erasmus and Ægidius to Sir Thomas, and the two portraits were hinged
together, and sent over to England. Several letters in the
correspondence of More and Erasmus have reference to this present. The
painting was delayed in the first place by the serious illness of Peter,
and then by indisposition on the part of Erasmus. “I was well enough,”
Erasmus tells More, “but some fool of a doctor prescribed for me a
couple of pills for purging my bile, and I, still more foolishly,
followed his advice; my picture had been previously begun, but, from the
physic I took, when I came back to the painter, he declared that my
features were not the same, so that his work is delayed for a few days
until I become more alive.” The portraits were finished by the 16th of
September 1517, and sent to More, who was then at Calais, in charge of
Erasmus’ “famulus,” Peter Cocles. More’s letter of thanks, dated October
6th, expressed the greatest delight with the gift, and contained a Latin
poem in honour of the portraits, in which they were both minutely
described. In a postscript he spoke in admiration of the way in which
Quentin had imitated his (More’s) handwriting on the letter which Peter
holds in his hand.
These two portraits no longer hang together, and until quite recently
all traces of the “Erasmus” had been lost. The “Ægidius” is now in
Longford Castle, in the possession of Lord Radnor, and with it hangs a
portrait of Erasmus; but the latter is not by Metsys, but by Holbein. At
what period the original pair were parted is not known, but the two in
Longford Castle were purchased at Dr. Meade’s sale in 1754, the first
Lord Folkestone giving 105 guineas for the “Erasmus,” which was rightly
sold as by Holbein, and 91 guineas for the “Ægidius,” also described as
by the same painter; and for many years both portraits were regarded as
the work of Holbein. Dr. Meade placed Latin inscriptions on the frames,
in which the names of Erasmus, Ægidius, and Holbein were joined
together. In more recent years the authorship of the “Ægidius” has been
rightly ascribed to Metsys, while Holbein’s signature, and the date 1523
on the “Erasmus” prove conclusively that it is not the original
companion-half of the diptych painted in Antwerp in 1517, further proof
of this being afforded by the fact that both subjects are represented
looking to the spectator’s left, instead of towards one another, and
that the “Erasmus” is painted on a considerably larger scale than the
other, which would not have been the case had the portraits been
intended as a pair. The matter was finally cleared up by the late Mr.
John Gough Nichols.[365] Ægidius[366] is represented in a fur coat,
holding in his left hand a letter addressed to himself in the
handwriting of Sir Thomas More,[367] and his right touching a book which
is inscribed “Antibarbaroi” in Greek capitals. An ivory sand-castor and
a gold cup and cover are on one of the shelves at the back, which are
covered with books. There is a replica of it in the Antwerp Museum,
which differs slightly in a few of the details, and is either a fine
contemporary copy or from the hand of Metsys himself, though until quite
recently it was still officially described as a portrait of Erasmus by
Holbein.[368]
[Sidenote: THE “ERASMUS WRITING”]
Until a year or two ago all traces of the original “Erasmus” by Metsys
had disappeared, but Herman Grimm, Woltmann, and H. Hymans all
identified a picture at Hampton Court as a reduced copy of the original.
This is the “Erasmus Writing” (No. 594-331), a small half-length, turned
to the right, but with both eyes seen. He is writing in a book which
lies on a desk in front of him. Other books are on a shelf at the back,
with the titles inscribed on the edges of the leaves, all of them works
by Erasmus published before 1517. Mr. Ernest Law[369] suggests that it
is identical with the picture in Charles I’s catalogue described as
“Some schollar without a beard, in a black habit and a black cap,
looking downwards upon a letter which he holds in both hands, being
side-faced, less than life; which was sent to the King by his Majesty’s
sister, by Mr. Chancellor, Sir Henry Vane, Lord Ambassador from the King
to the King of Sweden, painted upon the right light—done by Cornelius
Vischer.” The poorness of the execution, the indistinctness of the
lettering on the books, and the utter gibberish of the words which
Erasmus is writing, betray the hand of some ignorant copyist, though
enough of the wording can be traced to show that the philosopher is
engaged in setting down the title and first words of his commentary on
St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, which was begun in 1517.[370] There is
a second copy of this portrait in the Amsterdam Museum; and in the 1904
edition of the Amsterdam Catalogue (p. 200), a third example was first
described, which is now generally regarded as the work of Metsys himself
and the missing half of the diptych. It is in Rome, until recently in
the collection of the late Count Stroganoff, and was in the possession
of Count Alexander Stroganoff as early as 1807. It is slightly smaller
than the “Ægidius” at Longford Castle, but has evidently been cut down,
as the height of the heads as seen against the shelves at the back is
the same in both pictures. Metsys represented the two friends as though
seated in a single chamber. Erasmus is placed on the left, facing the
right, and engaged in writing, and Ægidius is on the other side of the
room, looking up with More’s letter in his hand, and pushing forward his
own book of travels as though about to present it to the Englishman. The
same bookshelves run across the background in both portraits.[371] The
picture has been recently presented by Count Stroganoff’s heirs to the
Corsini Gallery in Rome.
Three or four years later Erasmus’ likeness was taken by Albrecht Dürer,
who met him during his tour in the Netherlands in July 1520. Dürer
appears to have made two drawings[372] of him at this time, and some
years afterwards, in 1526, he engraved his head from memory, with the
aid of one of these two studies. This engraving[373] by no means equals
Holbein’s several portraits of the scholar, either as a likeness, or in
its subtle expression of character. Erasmus, writing to Pirkheimer, said
that it was not at all like him, but that this was not surprising, as he
had greatly changed in five years.
[Sidenote: THE “ERASMUS AND FROBEN” DIPTYCH]
There is no direct evidence to prove that Holbein painted any portrait
of Erasmus before the year 1523, though it is very possible that he did
so. Perhaps the earliest may be the one mentioned by Remigius Faesch,
who infers, in his manuscript life of the painter, that Holbein once
painted a double picture of the friends Erasmus and Froben.[374] It is
said that after the sudden death of the latter in 1527, from injuries
caused by a fall on the pavement, Erasmus obtained the two portraits,
and had them hinged together, as a perpetual memorial of their great
friendship. After the death of Erasmus in 1536 this diptych remained in
Basel for nearly a century, and was then bought, about the year 1625, by
Michel Le Blond, the well-known collector of works of art, for one
hundred golden ducats, and shortly afterwards sold by him to the Duke of
Buckingham. The Duke afterwards gave the panels to Charles I. On the
back of the “Froben” portrait at Hampton Court there is pasted a piece
of paper inscribed—“This picture of Frobonus was delivered to his M^t.
by ye Duke of Buckingham [before he went to the] Isle of Ree,” the five
words in brackets being now illegible. In King Charles’ Catalogue they
are entered as, “The picture of Frobonius, with his printing tools by
him, being Erasmus of Rotterdam’s printer and landlord at Basil. Done by
Holbein”; and, “The picture of Erasmus of Rotterdam, in a high black
frame; done by Holben, fellow to the aforesaid piece of Frobenius,
painted upon the right light.” They were sold separately, after the
King’s execution, by order of the Commonwealth, and fetched larger
prices than almost any other pictures from the royal collection. They
were valued at £100 each, and at that price were purchased by Mr.
Milburne and Colonel Hutchinson respectively. They were returned to the
royal collection at the Restoration, and in 1672 Patin saw them hinged
together as they had been in earlier days. They are now in Hampton
Court.
While in the possession of Charles I, or more probably Le Blond,[375]
these two portraits were “restored,” and by no means improved. Four
inches were added to the top of the “Frobenius” in order to make it a
pendant to the “Erasmus,” and the backgrounds were repainted and altered
by Von Steenwyck. The original background of the “Frobenius” was either
plain or a simple room with a window, but has been changed to a lofty
apartment with pillars and a paved floor, part of the original
blue-green ground being left behind the head; in the “Erasmus” it has
been turned into an elaborate arrangement of stone pillars and arches,
resembling the gloomy interior of a church. Walpole states that Von
Steenwyck’s name and the date 1629 are on the “Frobenius,” but this
inscription cannot now be discovered. The latter is by far the finer
work of the two.
The portrait of Froben, which most modern critics do not admit to be an
original work, is described below. The companion portrait of Erasmus—No.
597 (324)—is certainly only a copy, and not a very good copy, of some
original by Holbein, possibly the Longford “Erasmus,” to which it bears
a close resemblance. It was accepted by Wornum as a genuine work of the
early Basel period,[376] but modern criticism is unanimous in condemning
its authenticity. Its only claim, and a very slight one, to genuineness
is that it was formerly hinged to the portrait of Froben; but Mr. Ernest
Law[377] throws doubt on the story that Erasmus himself had the two
joined together, which he regards as a myth, and suggests that the
joining was done by some picture-dealer in Basel after Erasmus’ death,
or by Le Blond himself when he purchased them. In the Hampton Court
picture[378] the scholar is represented at half-length, less than life,
turned slightly to the left. He is dressed in the usual black coat
trimmed with fur, and a black cap. The hands, excellently drawn, rest on
a closed red-bound book in front of him. The original plain background,
as already stated, has been elaborated and spoilt by Von Steenwyck. It
is probable that the double portrait spoken of by Faesch, of which he
had a copy, was not the original work of Holbein, and in that case the
supposition, based on his manuscript, that at some unknown period in the
history of the diptych the “Erasmus” was removed, and a copy substituted
for it, is equally incorrect.[379]
Most possibly the picture now at Hampton Court was the one actually
purchased by Le Blond in Basel, to whom it would be sold as a genuine
work by Holbein. A still less probable supposition is that a change took
place after the sale of the royal collection in 1650, when the picture
was in the possession of Mr. Milburne, who, it is suggested, at the
Restoration returned a copy in place of the original.
[Sidenote: PORTRAITS OF ERASMUS]
The first portraits of Erasmus by Holbein to which a date can be given
are the Longford Castle example and the profile likeness in the Louvre,
both of which were painted in 1523, probably towards the end of that
year, when the artist was about twenty-six; and it is generally agreed
that these are the two which were sent to England by Erasmus in 1524. In
a letter to his friend Wilibald Pirkheimer at Nuremberg, dated June 3rd
of that year, Erasmus says: “Only recently I have again sent two
portraits of me to England, painted by a not unskilful artist. He has
also taken a portrait of me to France.” That the painter to whom Erasmus
refers was Holbein is proved by a passage in Beatus Rhenanus’
_Emendations of Pliny_, published by Froben in March 1526, and written
in the previous year. In speaking of the most celebrated German painters
of the day, he mentions Dürer in Nuremberg, Hans Baldung in Strasburg,
and Lucas Cranach in Saxony, and concludes with Hans Holbein in
Switzerland, “born in Augsburg, but for a long time a burgher of Basel,
who last year painted, most successfully and finely, two portraits of
our Erasmus of Rotterdam, which he afterwards sent into England.”[380]
One of the two sent to England was a present to William Warham,
Archbishop of Canterbury, whose yearly pension to Erasmus was increased
about this time. The latter wrote to Warham on September 4, 1524: “I
hope that the portrait painted of me, which I sent to you, has reached
you, so that you may have somewhat of Erasmus should God call me hence.”
It is not known for whom the second portrait was intended. No reference
to it is to be found in the numerous letters despatched to England by
Erasmus in that year, addressed, among others, to Fisher, Tunstall,
Wolsey, and the King himself. It was not, apparently, meant for Sir
Thomas More, for he already possessed the portrait of his friend by
Metsys, and it is not very probable that Erasmus would send him a
second. Nor does More speak of it in his letters to Basel, although he
is certain to have done so had he received so valuable a gift, for he
was lavish in his praise and his thanks for the Metsys portrait in 1517.
It has been generally supposed that the well-known letter from More to
Erasmus, in which he speaks of Holbein as a wonderful artist, affords
proof that Sir Thomas had seen one or both of these two portraits, and
that it was of them he was speaking when he praised the painter’s skill.
The date of this letter is given as December 18, 1525, in the published
works of Erasmus, but Herman Grimm showed that it was incorrect, and
altered the year-date to 1524, in which Woltmann followed him. This,
however, is also an error. The real date of the letter is 1526, as is
proved by the literary work of Erasmus mentioned in it; and it has,
therefore, nothing to do with the two portraits sent over in 1524, but
was written shortly after Holbein’s arrival in London, when More had
made his personal acquaintance.[381]
It is impossible to say which of the two portraits of 1523 is the
earlier in date. No doubt the preliminary drawings for both were made in
the little room or study in which the scholar sat daily at work upon his
own writings, or supervising the publication and correcting the proofs
of other volumes issued by Froben, for whom he was then acting as a kind
of editor-in-chief. In the Longford Castle example (Pl. 54)[382] Holbein
has shown his sitter to the waist, turned to the left, the face seen in
three-quarters. He is wearing his invariable dress of black lined with
sable, and over it a dark cloak trimmed with black fur, and a black
doctor’s cap over his grey hair. He gazes in front of him, with a
half-smile in his blue eyes and on his fine, sensitive mouth. His hands
rest on a red book placed on the table before him, on the gilt edges of
which is inscribed, partly in Greek and partly in Latin characters,
“ἩΡΑΚΛΕΙΟΙ ΠΟΝΟΙ ERASMI ROTERO—” (The Herculean labours of Erasmus of
Rotterdam)—the end of the last word being hidden by the sable cuff of
the cloak. The background shows on the left a flat, richly-ornamented
pillar and capital of Renaissance design, and on the right a green
curtain hung from a rod by rings, partly drawn aside, and revealing a
shelf on which are three books and a glass water-bottle. On the cover of
the book which leans against the latter is the date “MDXXIII.,” and on
the edge of the same volume is a damaged couplet in Latin, now partly
defaced, which J. Mähly, after supplying several missing words, read as
follows:—
“Ille ego Joannes Holbein, en, non facile ullus.
Tam mihi mimus erit quam mihi momus erat.”[383]
These lines, no doubt, were composed by Erasmus himself in praise of the
artist. Traces of further inscriptions, now undecipherable, are to be
seen on the edges of the other books. This work shows an extraordinary
advance in Holbein’s powers as a portrait-painter when compared with
even so fine a work as the “Bonifacius Amerbach,” painted four years
earlier. The modelling of both head and hands is searching in its truth,
and he rarely accomplished anything more perfect in the subtlety of its
delineation of character, and in a realism without exaggeration or
hardness of detail. We see the “little old man,” as Dürer described him
when he met him in Brussels some years earlier, just as he was in
reality, the marks of age on his strongly-lined face, and about the eyes
something of the tired look of the scholar and bookman, but the face
still stamped with mental energy, and a calm, tolerant, and dignified
outlook on life. A faint smile lights up his features, as though
satisfied both with his own accomplished work and with the world in
which he was living. For penetrating insight, indeed, this portrait is
almost unsurpassed. It shows that side of the character of Erasmus which
is displayed in his familiar letters to friends, in his _Praise of
Folly_, and his _Colloquies_, a gentle, genial sense of humour which
sweetened his intercourse with his fellows.[384] A sheet in the Print
Room of the Louvre contains a slight, almost obliterated, study for the
head in this picture, but full face, and a masterly drawing for the
right hand, full of character;[385] a second contains two studies of the
left hand, and one of the right hand holding the pen in the Louvre
portrait (Pl. 55).[386] In the catalogue of the Meade sale it was stated
that the picture had been at one time in the Arundel Collection.[387]
VOL. I., PLATE 54.
[Illustration:
ERASMUS
1523
_From the picture in the collection of the Earl of Radnor at Longford
Castle_
]
[Sidenote: THE LONGFORD CASTLE “ERASMUS”]
This version of Erasmus was repeated and copied more than once, with
slight modifications, during the lifetime of the sitter as well as after
his death. Such versions are to be found at Turin, Vienna, and
elsewhere, the best of which is the one in the collection of Mr. Walter
Gay, in Paris;[388] while there are others, less closely following the
original, such as the “Erasmus” at Hampton Court already described,
which forms a pendant to the “Frobenius.” There is a fine portrait of
Erasmus in Windsor Castle by George Pencz[389] of Nuremberg, a pupil of
Dürer’s, which is evidently based on the Longford Castle picture, or a
good copy of it,[390] which bears the artist’s initials and the date
1537, so that it was painted the year after the scholar’s death. It has
a plain green background, on which the shadow of the head is cast, and
part only of the clasped hands are shown. The dress closely resembles
that worn by Erasmus in the Longford Castle picture. This portrait,
though it lacks much of the character of the original which inspired it,
reproduces many of its small details, including the peculiar patch of
darkened skin between the left cheek-bone and the ear, which is to be
seen in almost all Holbein’s portraits of him.[391] It was bought by the
Duke of Hamilton in Nuremberg and presented by him to Charles I in 1652.
It was No. 13 in Van der Doort’s Catalogue of that King’s collections.
Everything indicates that the original picture of which this is a
version was in England in 1537; but as there is no record of any visit
paid to this country by Pencz, he must have worked, not from the
Longford original, but from one of the variants painted about 1530,
after Holbein’s return to Basel from England.
The portrait in the Louvre (Pl. 56)[392] is smaller than the Longford
Castle picture. Erasmus is shown in profile to the left, about
two-thirds the size of life, seated at a table, writing, his eyes cast
down on the paper, which he holds in position with his left hand upon a
book he is using as a writing-desk. In his right[393] is a reed pen. His
dress is the same as in Lord Radnor’s picture, and his black cap almost
conceals his grey hair. In the background on the left is a damask
curtain of dark bluish green, with a pattern of trees and lions in sage
green, and powdered with small red and white flowers; and, on the right,
some wooden panelling. The inscription on the paper he holds is now
quite illegible, but in the study for the picture, in the Basel Gallery,
it is still to be plainly read, and shows that the scholar is setting
down the title of the work upon which he was engaged at the time he was
sitting to Holbein. It runs—
“In Evangelium Marci paraphrasis per
D. Erasmum Roterodamium aucto[rem]
Cunctis mortalibus ins[itum est].”
This is the heading of his paraphrase of the Gospel of St. Mark, upon
which he was at work in 1523, and gives the date of the picture. The
inscription on the Louvre portrait was undoubtedly the same.
VOL. I., PLATE 55.
[Illustration:
STUDY FOR THE HANDS OF ERASMUS
_Drawing in silver-point and red and black chalk_
LOUVRE, PARIS
]
VOL. I., PLATE 56.
[Illustration:
ERASMUS
1523
LOUVRE, PARIS
]
[Sidenote: PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS IN THE LOUVRE]
This portrait, like the one in Longford Castle, is painted with the
utmost perfection, in dark but warm tones; it almost surpasses the other
both in colouring and in its mastery of expression. The features are
firmly set, the sitter’s thoughts entirely concentrated on his work, so
that he is oblivious to all else but the matter in hand. The drawing of
the hands is masterly. The complexion is warm and healthy, and the
eyebrows, unlike the hair, locks of which straggle below the cap, have
not yet turned grey. This picture was once in the possession of the
Newton family. On the back of the pine panel on which it is painted is
pasted a paper memorandum, now partly destroyed, which runs: “Of
Holbein, this ... of Erasmus Rotterdamus was given to ... Prince by Jos.
Adam Newton.” In addition there is a red seal with the Newton arms and
their motto, “Vivit post funera virtus,” as well as the brand of Charles
I (C. R. surmounted by a crown), and of the French royal collection (M.
R.—_i.e._ Musée Royal—also below a crown). King Charles afterwards
exchanged this picture and a “Holy Family” by Titian with Louis XIII for
Leonardo’s “St. John the Baptist,” through the medium of the French
Ambassador, the Duc de Liancourt. After Charles’s execution the Leonardo
returned to the French royal collections, being purchased at the sale by
the French banker Jabach for £140, and presented by him to Louis XIV. In
the catalogue of the Louvre by MM. Lafenestre and Richtenberger it is
stated that the “Erasmus” was “painted for Sir Thomas More,” but this is
mere conjecture, and probably not correct. It was engraved by François
Dequevauvillers for the “Galerie du Musée Napoléon,” and etched by Félix
Bracquemond about 1860. A facsimile of the first state of this fine
plate was reproduced in the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_[394] shortly after
the etcher’s death.
The original study for the Louvre portrait, in the Basel Gallery (No.
319),[395] is painted in oil on paper, afterwards fastened down on
panel. With the exception of a plain background, and some slight
differences in the costume, it agrees in all points with the more
elaborately finished picture. Erasmus is using a book bound in red as a
writing-desk, which rests upon a second volume. The tablecloth is green.
His upper lip shows several days’ growth of iron-grey hair. Although not
so fine in execution, it is nevertheless a remarkable and lifelike
study. The present plain green background, however, is not original. It
had at one time a patterned tapestry hanging behind the figure, as can
be seen in the woodcut taken from it by Rudolf Manuel in the Latin
edition of Sebastian Münster’s _Cosmography_, published in 1550, which
has an inscription beneath it referring to the portrait in terms of high
praise, and stating that Holbein painted it from life.[396] It is
described in the Amerbach inventory as “Ein Erasmus mit olfärb vf papir
in eim ghüs H. Holbeins arbeit,” and it appears to have belonged to
Bonifacius almost from the day it was painted. All evidence points to
this oil-study being the third portrait mentioned by Erasmus in his
letter to Pirkheimer of the 3rd June, 1524, which was taken by the
painter into France. Bonifacius Amerbach was absent in that country,
studying law at Avignon under Alciat, and afterwards at the University
of Montpellier, for two years, from May 1522 to May 1524.[397] In his
absence Erasmus sent him his own portrait as a present, and by the hands
of the artist who painted it. If the date of the letter to Pirkheimer is
correct, Holbein must have paid his visit to the South of France in the
early spring of 1524. The letter to Pirkheimer, written in the beginning
of June, states that the pictures had been sent to England and France
“recently,” but, according to Woltmann, Amerbach was back again in Basel
in May, before the date of the letter, so that the sequence of events
becomes a little confused. It is, of course, possible that Amerbach
received the portrait on the eve of his departure from Montpellier, and
that he may even have made the journey home in Holbein’s company; while
Erasmus may not have troubled himself to inform his correspondent that
the portrait sent into France was already back again in Basel.
[Sidenote: VISIT TO THE SOUTH OF FRANCE]
Nothing is known of this journey undertaken by Holbein, but it is not at
all likely that he set out solely as the messenger of Erasmus, for the
set purpose of delivering the portrait to Amerbach. It is much more
probable that the desire for travel was still strong in him, and that
the spirit of adventure, combined with the wish to discover fresh fields
for the practice of his art, may have sent him forth as a wanderer
again. In this connection, Dr. Ganz points out the somewhat strange
coincidence that at this very time, the 19th April 1524, his patron,
Jakob Meyer, set out from Basel for Lyon, with a band of two hundred
men, in order to join the French expedition about to proceed against
Milan.[398] Holbein may have seized the opportunity of travelling with
him, not necessarily as a fighting man, but for the sake of company on
his journey. The route followed was probably through Besançon, Dijon,
Beaune, Macon, Lyon, and down the Rhône to Avignon, Nimes, and
Montpellier. In these cities he would see many fine examples of French
Renaissance architecture, the influence of which, as already pointed
out, can be detected in certain of his designs for glass-painting; and
it is highly probable, also, that he must have had opportunities of
studying to some extent the work of the Clouets and their school, with
whose art, both in point of view and technique, his own had certain
features in common, and that their portraits, with their enamel-like
surfaces, and more particularly their lifelike and elegant
portrait-studies in coloured chalks, must have made a considerable
impression upon him.[399] Beyond such influences as these, to be seen in
his later work, there is nothing to indicate such a journey, nor, if it
were actually taken, for how long he was absent from Basel.[400] The
scarcity of dated works between 1523 and 1526 may suggest a lengthy
absence abroad, but this is more than counterbalanced by the fact that,
with the exception of a couple of drawings, there is nothing from his
hand, either portrait, or church picture, or wall decoration, so far
discovered, which can be shown to have been carried out in France. It is
possible, though not probable, that the greater number of the “Dance of
Death” woodcuts, which were first published in 1538 at Lyon, were
finished by 1523, and that Holbein, during his stay in that city, may
have made arrangements with the Trechsels for their publication; but
there is nothing to show that this was the objective of his journey.
Moreover, everything seems to indicate that Holbein merely supplied the
designs for these woodcuts to the engraver Lützelburger, and had no
further monetary interest in them or their publication in which case his
visit to Lyon need not necessarily have had anything to do with
them.[401]
The two drawings to which reference has been made are in the Basel
Collection, and are studies of two life-size sepulchral effigies of the
early fifteenth century, in the cathedral of Bourges, representing the
Duke Jehan de Berry, who died in 1416, and his wife, kneeling with hands
clasped in prayer. In Holbein’s day the monument was still in its
original position in the private chapel of the Dukes of Berry,
afterwards pulled down, when the figures were removed to the ambulatory
of the choir. Other parts of the monument are now in the local museum.
Holbein’s masterly touch has vivified the somewhat stiff and formal
attitudes of these kneeling figures, in which, however, can be seen the
beginnings of that realism and individuality which formed so marked a
characteristic of the work of a later period of sculpture. These two
fine drawings,[402] of which that of the Duchess (Pl. 57)[403] is the
more beautiful, have almost the appearance of being studies from life
instead of mere transcripts from the stone, and this effect is
heightened by the skilful use the artist has made of touches of red and
yellow crayons to his black chalk drawings. The sharp features of the
Duchess, with high forehead and pointed nose, seen in profile, are full
of expression. She wears the costume of the early fifteenth century,
with a high ruff and heavy gold necklace, her golden hair enclosed in a
fine net, and surmounted by a diadem set with square stones and jewels.
It is now only possible to compare Holbein’s truth of likeness to the
original in the case of the statue of the Duke, for in that of the
Duchess the head was broken off during the French Revolution, and was
replaced by another some forty years later, lacking all expression, and
with a royal crown instead of the ducal diadem.
These two studies, however, cannot have been made during Holbein’s visit
to Southern France in 1524; the draughtsmanship of them points to a
later period, when his art had reached its greatest pitch of perfection.
The position of Bourges, too, in the very centre of France, was far
distant from the route he would take to reach Montpellier. Nor can they
be connected with his first journey to England in 1526, for on that
occasion he passed through Antwerp, his direct route being down the
Rhine; and he made use, no doubt, of the same waterway on his return to
Basel in 1528. In all probability the visit to Bourges took place in
1538. In the late summer of that year Holbein went with Philip Hoby to
Joinville and Nancy on Henry VIII’s business,[404] and took the
opportunity of paying a visit of a few weeks’ duration to his family and
old friends in Basel. On his return to England he is supposed to have
taken his eldest son with him as far as Paris, where he apprenticed him
to the goldsmith Jakob David, and from Switzerland Bourges would be on
the route to the capital of France.[405]
VOL. I., PLATE 57.
[Illustration:
THE DUCHESS OF BERRY
_Drawing in black and coloured chalks_
BASEL GALLERY
]
After Holbein’s return to Switzerland from England in 1528 he painted
Erasmus again. A number of versions of this third type exist, of which
the finest are the small Greystoke portrait, which in 1909 passed into
the collection of the late Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, and the small roundel
in the Basel Gallery. One of the versions, in the Parma Gallery, bears
the date 1530. Erasmus had retired to Freiburg with Amerbach in 1528 in
order to avoid the iconoclastic disturbances in Basel, and he must have
given Holbein a sitting, most probably in that town, between 1528 and
1530. These later portraits closely follow the Longford Castle type as
regards the pose and the position of the head, three-quarters face to
the spectator’s left, and the details of the dress; but the sitter
appears considerably older, and in every instance the background is a
plain one.
[Sidenote: THE GREYSTOKE PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS]
The Greystoke picture[406] has every appearance of being a work from
Holbein’s own brush. The masterly modelling, the fine and subtle
draughtsmanship, the wonderful expression of the mouth and the still
keen and brilliant eyes, are too good and too true to life to be the
work of a mere copyist. The cheeks are more sunken and the face more
heavily lined than in the portraits of 1523. The eyebrows are still
dark, but the hair which straggles from below the black cap is white,
and is drawn with all the minute care and delicacy with which Holbein
always portrayed it in his portraits, and the stubble of a beard of a
few days’ growth is also indicated with the touch of a master. The
hands, resting on a narrow ledge in front of him, and half concealed by
the deep fur cuffs of his gown, are not so good, and are much less
expressive than was usual with Holbein. The picture is in a fine state
of preservation, and the colour scheme is rich and harmonious, though
the plain blue background has turned to a greenish hue in the course of
time. Upon it, to the left of the head, is a small white label, with the
inscription, “Erasmus Roterodamus,” which appears to be fastened to the
wall with red wafers and a pin, like the label in the portrait of the
Duchess of Milan. According to Sir Sidney Colvin,[407] both labels were
probably the work of the same hand, and are of later date than the
paintings. He suggests that the inscription on the “Erasmus” portrait
was added to it when it was in the Arundel Collection.
On the back of the panel is an interesting inscription, written,
according to the same authority, in a hand of not later date than
1530-50. It runs as follows:—
“Haunce Holbein me fecit
Johanne[s] Noryce me dedit
Edwardus Banyster me possidit.”
John Norris, or Noryce—the name was spelt in various other ways—was one
of the minor officials of Henry VIII’s court, filling the part of
gentleman usher, which he afterwards held under Edward VI and Queen
Mary, dying in 1564 as chief usher of the Privy Chamber to the latter
queen. Among other offices which he obtained was that of Controller of
Windsor Castle. He was son and heir of Sir Edward Norris of Bray and
Yattendon in Berkshire, and elder brother of that ill-fated Henry
Norris, one of Henry’s close companions, who was involved in the tragic
fate of Anne Boleyn. The inscription shows that at some time, probably
during Holbein’s life, John Norris owned this portrait of Erasmus, and
that he presented it to a friend named Edward Banister. According to Sir
Sidney Colvin’s researches, this Banister was also employed about the
Court. In 1526 he appears as a gentleman usher out of wages for the
county of Hants, and in 1539 he was one of the representatives of the
same county appointed to receive Anne of Cleves at Calais and escort her
to England. The inscription on the picture was probably written by
Banister himself.
This portrait may have been the one in the possession of John, Lord
Lumley, son-in-law of Henry Fitzalan, twelfth and last Earl of Arundel
of that creation. In the Lumley inventory of 1590 it is described as “Of
Erasmus of Roterdame, drawne by Haunce Holbyn.” Among his other
portraits by Holbein, Lord Lumley also possessed the full-length of the
Duchess of Milan, and it is most probable that the label with the
inscription was added to both portraits when in his collection. The
“Erasmus” was afterwards in the famous collection of Thomas Howard, the
great Earl of Arundel, from which it passed by bequest of Alathea,
Countess of Arundel, to her grandson, Charles Howard, into that of the
Greystoke branch of the Howard family, where it remained, at their seat
in Cumberland, until its recent purchase by Mr. Morgan. The Earl of
Arundel possessed two portraits of Erasmus by Holbein,[408] the second
being the Longford Castle picture. While in this collection the
Greystoke version was engraved by Lucas Vorsterman, a very excellent
print, undated, in which the figure is in reverse of the picture.[409]
It was engraved again, when in the same collection, by Andreas Stock,
the plate being dated from the Hague, 1628. In this engraving the
position is the same as in the portrait, which suggests that Stock
merely copied from Vorsterman, and not from the picture itself. In the
inscription at the foot of Stock’s engraving it is stated that the
portrait from which it was taken was the one which Erasmus himself told
Sir Thomas More he very greatly preferred to the one of him by Albrecht
Dürer; but the statement appears to have no real foundation in fact.
Whether the portrait was sent to England by Erasmus in charge of Holbein
when he returned to England in 1532, as a present to some friend or
admirer, or whether the artist brought it over in the ordinary way of
his business, it is now impossible to say. It is now in the Metropolitan
Museum, New York.
[Sidenote: PARMA PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS]
The Greystoke portrait closely resembles the Parma picture, which is
regarded by most critics as an original work, though to the present
writer it appears to be no more than a fine contemporary copy or
adaptation of Mr. Morgan’s picture or the Basel roundel. The Parma
example,[410] in which Erasmus is shown with his hands holding open one
of his own books, has the date 1530 on the plain background, two figures
on either side of the head.[411] Documentary evidence[412] exists,
showing that Holbein had painted one or more portraits of Erasmus at
this period. One of them was in the possession of Goelenius, professor
at Louvain, and in 1531 Johannes Dantiscus, Bishop of Kulm, and
afterwards of Ermeland, was anxious to obtain a copy of it, and wrote
asking to have this done for him by a painter of Malines. Goelenius, in
reply, sent to his friend the original portrait as a gift. The Bishop,
however, not to be outdone in generosity, returned the present, at the
same time saying that the portrait was an earlier one than he had
supposed, and that he wanted one of a more recent date. In answer to
this Goelenius wrote that fortunately he was on terms of such close
friendship with Holbein that he could get him to do anything he wished,
and would procure from him a portrait of Erasmus which he had quite
recently painted. Some portrait, whether an original or only a copy, was
eventually sent, and it has been suggested that it was the portrait now
in the Parma Gallery. When Dantiscus became Bishop of Ermeland, he
would, in all probability, take the portrait with him; and this district
was afterwards devastated by the Swedes during the Thirty Years’ War,
and many of the art treasures of the province carried to Sweden. Some of
these spoils of war became the property of Queen Christina, who took
them with her to Italy, where she lived in later life, and among the
works so taken, it is conjectured, may well have been the Erasmus
portrait now at Parma.
VOL. I., PLATE 58.
[Illustration:
1. ERASMUS
Roundel
BASEL GALLERY
]
[Illustration:
2. PHILIP MELANCHTHON
Roundel
PROVINZIAL MUSEUM, HANOVER
]
The little roundel in the Basel Gallery (No. 324) (Pl. 58 (1)),[413]
which is about four inches in diameter, forms part of the Amerbach
Collection, and, no doubt, came into the possession of Bonifacius on the
death of Erasmus. It agrees in all respects with the Greystoke portrait,
though only the head and shoulders are shown, and it is not quite so
masterly in its execution. It is very possibly the original study made
by Holbein in Freiburg, upon which the Greystoke and other portraits
were based. It has a plain blue-green background, and is perhaps not
quite in its original state. There is a third “Erasmus” at Basel, the
small panel in the Faesch Collection (No. 356),[414] a good old copy of
the roundel in the Amerbach Collection. All three are mentioned by
Patin. It would serve no useful purpose to enumerate and describe the
many other versions of the roundel, the Greystoke, and the Longford
portraits, which exist in various European collections at St.
Petersburg,[415] Cassel, Karlsruhe, Vienna, Turin,[416] Rotterdam,
Lausanne,[417] and elsewhere. As already stated, they were in great
demand among the admirers of Erasmus, so that numerous copies must have
been made. In the lifetime of Amerbach’s son Basilius there were no less
than five in Basel, and when Richard Strein of Vienna wrote to him
asking him to procure him a portrait of the great humanist, Amerbach, in
reply, wanted to know which of the five he would like copied. The copy
by Pencz, already described, may have been taken from one of these later
portraits rather than from the Longford portrait of 1523. The copy at
Rotterdam is said to have been presented by the Basel Council to the
Rotterdam Council in 1532.
[Sidenote: WOODCUTS PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS]
Two other portraits of Erasmus by Holbein cannot be overlooked. These
are the two beautiful woodcuts from his designs, which, from the
fineness and accuracy of their execution, must have been cut by Hans
Lützelburger. The first is a small round portrait,[418] showing the head
and shoulders only, in profile, turned to the spectator’s right, seen
against a plain background, and inscribed round the plain circular
framework “Erasmus Roterodam.” It is evidently of about the same date as
the Louvre portrait, and may have been one of the first of Holbein’s
designs engraved by Lützelburger, who settled in Basel about 1523. The
delicate and rather emaciated features of the scholar have been
reproduced with wonderful skill. It was first used on the back of the
title-page of the _Adagiorum opus Des. Erasmi Roterodami_, published by
Froben in 1533, and again in _Des. Erasmi Rot. Ecclesiastæ sive de
ratione concionandi libri quatuor_ (1535).
The second,[419] and still more beautiful, woodcut is considerably
larger, being 11¼ inches high by 9 inches wide (Pl. 59). In his
catalogue Amerbach calls it “Erasmus Rotterdamus in eim Ghüs.” Erasmus
is represented at full length, standing, turned three-quarters to the
right, in his doctor’s cap and furred gown, his right hand resting on
the head of a truncated figure of Terminus, towards which he points with
his other hand. The framework or “ghüs” within which he is placed shows
to the fullest advantage Holbein’s complete mastery of Renaissance
design, and is equal to the finest contemporary Italian work of the
kind. It is purer in style, and lighter and more elegant in effect, than
the greater number of his earlier designs for woodcuts. Two pillars with
caryatid figures, with long beards and folded arms, and baskets of fruit
on their heads, support a round arch above which on either side are nude
figures with cornucopiæ, from which hang long wreaths of fruit and
foliage. The whole is surmounted by a winged cherub above a lion’s head,
from the mouth of which hangs a tablet inscribed “ER. ROT.” At the base
a larger tablet is supported by two fish-tailed female figures. As a
portrait this engraving is as fine as either the Longford or the Louvre
pictures. The small head is full of force and character; and equally
fine is the expression on the smiling face of the Terminus, while the
treatment of the draperies is just as admirable. It is difficult to know
which to admire the most, the beauty of the artist’s design and
draughtsmanship, or the wonderful fidelity of the engraver, who in
cutting it has lost little or nothing of the delicacy of Holbein’s
touch, for both are masterly.
The original pear-wood block is in the Basel Gallery. Early proof
impressions of it are in the British Museum, the Berlin and Munich Print
Rooms, and elsewhere. These have a two-lined Latin inscription on the
tablet at the base—
“Corporis effigiem si quis non vidit Erasmi,
Hanc scite ad vivum picta tabella dabit.”
(If anyone has not seen Erasmus in his bodily shape, this cut, drawn
from life, will give his counterfeit.) The design was evidently made for
a complete edition of the works of Erasmus, but no such publication has
been met with in which this impression with the single distich appears.
The woodcut is first encountered in the complete edition of his writings
published by Froben’s son, Hieronymus, and Nic. Episcopius in 1540, with
a four-lined inscription, in which Holbein’s name is coupled with that
of Erasmus in terms of high praise—
“Pallas Apellæam nuper mirata tabellam,
Hanc ait, æternum Bibliotheca colat.
Dædaleam monstrat Musis Holbeinnius artem,
Et summi Ingenii Magnus Erasmus opes.”
No one but Lützelburger can have cut it, so that the design must have
been made before Holbein’s first visit to England. Why Froben made no
earlier use of it, it is impossible to say.
VOL. I., PLATE 59.
[Illustration:
ERASMUS
_From a woodcut in the British Museum_
]
[Sidenote: PORTRAITS OF FROBEN]
The history of the double portrait of Erasmus and Froben, as far as it
is known, has been already given. The version of Froben, at Hampton
Court[420]—No. 603 (323)—is a drawing on parchment, afterwards fastened
down on a panel, and roughly finished as a picture, and has little of
the careful elaboration of Holbein’s painted portraits. It is a
half-length figure, less than life-size, turned to the right, the face
seen almost in profile. The arms are folded, and the hands, thrust
within the sleeves of his brown cloak, which is lined with fur at the
neck, are not seen. He wears no cap, and his straight hair is growing
thin. The head is seen against what now appears to be a window or
opening, sea-green in colour, which is part of the original plain
background, afterwards repainted by Von Steenwyck with various pillars
and mouldings. In front is a narrow stone ledge, over the greater part
of which hangs what appears to be a white cloth, on which is inscribed,
“IOANNES FROBENIUS TYP. HHOLBEIN P.” which is not the original
handiwork of the painter. The face is a kindly but ugly one, and bears
out the character given to him by Erasmus, who was overcome with grief
at his sudden death. “All the friends of the belles lettres,” he wrote
to a friend, “should put on mourning attire and shed tears at the death
of this man, and should wreath his grave with ivy and flowers. Never
before have I felt how great is the power of sincere friendship. I bore
with moderation the death of my own brother; but what I cannot endure is
the longing for Froben. So simple and sincere was his nature that he
could not have dissembled had he wished. To show kindness to everyone
was his greatest delight, and even if the unworthy received his
benefits, he was glad. His fidelity was immovable, and as he himself
never had evil in his mind, he was never able to cherish suspicion of
others.”
There is a similar portrait of Froben in the Basel Gallery (No.
357),[421] an old copy, which was presented to the Basel University by
Christian von Mechel, who acquired it as an original work by Holbein
from the publisher Enschede at Haarlem in 1792, and was transferred to
the Gallery in 1811. In the letter making the gift he speaks of it as
softer, richer, and more powerful than the usual Holbein style. A third,
and inferior, example was lent to the Tudor Exhibition in 1890 by Sir
Henry B. St. John Mildmay, Bt. (No. 134), which is perhaps identical
with the small portrait in oil which belonged to Walpole and was sold in
1842 at the Strawberry Hill sale for 19 guineas.
The genuineness of the Hampton Court portrait of Froben has been often
disputed, and to-day the consensus of opinion is not in its favour. Both
Waagen and Woltmann regarded it as a copy, and more recent writers,
among them Dr. Ganz, hold the same view. Even those who consider it to
be a genuine work by Holbein are forced to own that it is by no means a
fine example of his portraiture. The head, however, has more character
than is usually found in a copy, and, no doubt, its present condition is
due to some extent to the mishandling it received from Von Steenwyck,
who probably did not confine his attentions solely to the background. It
is possible, therefore, to regard it as an original study by Holbein,
which has suffered somewhat severely in the course of years. Mr. Ernest
Law speaks of it as a genuine though not first-class example, and refers
to the version at Basel as “little more than a clumsy imitation” of
it.[422] The Basel Catalogue, on the other hand, says that the latter
portrait, which is an old copy or else an original which has suffered
severely from repainting, is “incomparably better than the
seventeenth-century replica at Hampton Court.” Woltmann considered the
Basel version to be merely a late Netherlandish copy,[423] while
Knackfuss says that it is “very bad as regards colouring.”[424]
[Sidenote: ROUNDEL OF MELANCHTHON]
Another friend and correspondent of Erasmus, Philip Melanchthon, was
painted by Holbein, though there is no evidence to show when or how they
met. The small roundel in oils of the young German scholar in the
Provinzial Museum at Hanover (Pl. 58 (2))[425] may perhaps have been
done as a pendant to the circular “Erasmus” at Basel. It is almost
exactly the same size, about four inches in diameter, and is carried out
with an almost equal delicacy and freedom of touch, as though it were a
study direct from nature. Melanchthon is shown nearly in full profile to
the right, with dark smooth hair falling on his ears, and a scanty beard
and moustache. His coat and plain white shirt are open in front, showing
the bare chest. The background is grey, but may possibly have been at
one time blue. The head itself is not free from retouching. It is
preserved in its original circular box, the inner side of the cover
being decorated in grey monochrome with a very beautiful design of
foliage and fruit intermingled with the heads and figures of satyrs in
the Renaissance style from Holbein’s own hand, and across the centre a
cartouche with the following inscription in gold: “Qui cernis tantum
non, viva Melanthonis ora, Holbinus rara dexteritate dedit,”[426] which
is perhaps the sitter’s own personal tribute to the skill of the
painter. The style of the Renaissance decoration indicates that in all
probability the portrait was painted during Holbein’s third stay in
Basel (1528-32).[427] Melanchthon attended the Imperial Diet at Speier
in 1529,[428] and a little later visited his mother in Bretten, and it
is by no means impossible that he also went to Freiburg to see Erasmus,
and that while there, some time during 1530, Holbein painted the
roundels of both friends. A second version of this portrait was in the
possession of Horace Walpole, in which the inscription runs round the
outer edge. It fetched fifteen guineas at the Strawberry Hill sale in
1842, and is now in the collection of Sir William van Horne in Montreal.
With these portraits of Erasmus and some of his most intimate friends
may be placed Holbein’s own portrait of himself (_Frontispiece_), the
very exquisite drawing in the Basel Gallery (No. 320),[429] in which he
is represented almost full face, wearing a large red hat, a brown-grey
cloak or overcoat with bands of black velvet, and a white shirt tied
with strings at the neck. He is beardless, with short dark-brown hair,
and brown eyes. The study is on paper, and is drawn in Indian ink and
coloured chalks, and washed with water-colour which has faded in parts.
This drawing, like the portrait of Holbein’s wife and children, and the
one of Von Rüdiswiler of Lucerne by Ambrosius Holbein, has been at some
time cut out round the outlines, and afterwards mounted on a greyish
paper, which produces the slight effect of hardness which must certainly
have been missing in its untouched state.[430] In 1907 the plain blue
background was carefully renewed from an old example.
Some writers have held that it is not absolutely certain that this
drawing really represents the painter. In the Amerbach inventory of 1586
it is described as, “Item ein tafelen gehort darin ein conterfehung
Holbeins mit trocken farben (a counterfeit of Holbein in dry colours,
_i.e._ crayons), so im grossen kasten vnder Holbeins kunst ligt”; and in
the later inventories it is described in much the same way. Knackfuss,
among others, says that from these words it is not positively to be
concluded that the “counterfeit” was of Holbein himself. There can be
little doubt, however, that Amerbach intended to describe it as a
portrait of Holbein by himself; if it had been a drawing of some unknown
sitter he would have so described it. As far back as 1676 it was
published by Patin in his edition of the _Praise of Folly_ as Holbein’s
portrait from his own hand. It bears, too, a strong likeness to the
portraits of Holbein as a boy by the elder Hans, both in the “St. Paul”
picture and in the drawing of 1511 of the two brothers at Berlin. There
is the same massive head, with its fine forehead, breadth of
cheek-bones, strong chin, and firm mouth. It has great resemblance, too,
when due allowance has been made for the passing of twenty years or so,
to the miniature portraits of himself which he painted at the end of his
life. It may be accepted, indeed, without reservation as a genuine
portrait of Holbein, of about the date 1523-5, when he was some
twenty-six years old.[431] As a portrait it is a magnificent study. The
face is a strong one, of a somewhat serious cast, but with a suggestion
of humour about the finely shaped mobile mouth and in the clear brown
eyes. The broadly built head with its high forehead indicates strength
of character and intellectual capacity, and there is a quiet dignity and
a sense of power in the whole countenance and in the carriage of the
youthful figure, which one would expect to find in the likeness of a
painter possessed, as Holbein was, of such brilliant technical abilities
and so wonderful a creative genius.[432]
------------------------------------------------------------------------