,clive ,pickton1 ,joseph ,e4 ,loewenstein ,m4,d4 and the ,online ,distributed ,proofreading ,team at https3_/_/www4pgdp4net ,illustration3 ,hans ,holbein the ,younger ,coloured ,chalks4 ,basel ,museum ,,little ,,books ,,on ,,art ,,general ,,editor3 ,,cyril ,,davenport ,,holbein ,,by ,,beatrice ,,fortescue ,,with ,,forty-,,six ,,illustrations ,,methuen ,,co4 #cf ,,essex ,,street ,w4,c4 ,,london ,first published in #aijd ,,contents ,,chapter ,i ,,holbein',s ,,period1 ,,parentage1 ,,and ,,early ,,work ,historical epoch and antecedents--,special conditions and character of early ,christian art--,ideals and influence of the monk--,holbein's relation to medival schools--,his father1 uncle1 and ,augsburg home--,probable dates for his birth and his father's death--,troubles and dispersion of the ,augsburg household--,from ,augsburg to ,basel--,his brother ,ambrose--,erasmus and the ,praise of ,folly2 some erroneous impressions of both--,erasmus and ,holbein no ,protestants at heart--,holbein and the ,bible--,illustrated ,vernacular ,bibles in circulation before ,luther and ,holbein were born--,holbein's earliest ,basel oil-paintings--,direct and indirect education--,historical1 geographical1 and scientific revolutions of his day--,beginning of his connection with the ,burgomaster of ,basel--,jacob ,meyer zum ,hasen--,holbein's woodcuts--,his studies from nature--,sudden visit to ,lucerne--,italian influence on his art--,work for the ,burgomaster of ,lucerne #a ,,chapter ,,ii ,,holbein ,,basiliensis 7#aeai-aebf7 ,holbein ,basiliensis--,enters the ,painters' ,guild--,bonifacius ,amerbach and his portrait--,the ,last ,supper and its ,judas--,the so-called ,fountain of ,life at ,lisbon--,genius for design and symbolism in architecture--,versatility1 humour1 fighting scenes--,holbein becomes a citizen and marries--,basel in #aeai--;,froben's circle--,tremendous events and issues of the time--,holbein's religious works--,the ,nativity and ,adoration at ,freiburg--,hans ,oberriedt--,the ,basel ,passion in eight panels--,passion ,drawings--,christ in the tomb--,christ and ,mary ,magdalen at the door of the sepulchre--,rathaus wall-paintings--,birth of ,holbein's eldest child--,the ,solothurn ,madonna3 its discovery and rescue--,holbein's wife and her portraits--,suggested solutions of some biographical enigmas--,title pages--,portraits of ,erasmus--,journey to ,france1 probably to ,lyons and ,avignon--,publishers and pictures of the so-called ,dance of ,death--,dorothea ,offenburg as ,venus and ,las ,corinthiaca--,triumph of the ,protestant party--,holbein decides to leave ,basel for a time--,the ,meyer-,madonna of ,darmstadt and ,dresden1 and its portraits #de ,,chapter ,,iii ,,chances ,,and ,,changes 7#aebf-aecj7 ,first visit to ,england--,sir ,thomas ,more3 his home and portraits--,the ,windsor drawings--,bishop ,fisher--,archbishop ,warham--,bishop ,stokesley--,sir ,henry ,guildford and his portrait--,nicholas ,kratzer--,sir ,bryan ,tuke--,holbein's return to ,basel--,portrait-group of his wife and two eldest children2 two versions--,holbein's children1 and families claiming descent from him--,iconoclastic fury--,ruined arts--,death of ,meyer zum ,hasen--,another ,meyer commissions the last paintings for ,basel--,return to ,england--,description of the ,steelyard--,portraits of its members--,george ,gysze--,basel ,council summons ,holbein home--,the ,ambassadors at the ,national ,gallery2 accepted identification--,coronation of ,queen ,anne ,boleyn--,lost paintings for the ,guildhall of the ,steelyard2 the ,triumphs of ,riches and ,poverty--,the great ,morett portrait2 identifications--,holbein's industry and fertility--,designs for metal-work and other drawings--,solomon and the ,queen of ,sheba #aad ,,chapter ,,iv ,,painter ,,royal 7#aecf-aedc7 ,queen ,jane ,seymour--,death of ,erasmus1 and title-page portrait--,the ,whitehall painting of ,henry ,,viii4--,munich drawing of ,henry ,,viii4--,birth of an heir and the ,jane ,seymour ,cup--,death of the ,queen--,christina1 ,duchess of ,milan--,secret service for the ,king--,flying visit to ,basel and arrangements for a permanent return--,apprentices his son ,philip at ,paris--,portrait of the ,prince of ,wales and the ,king's return gift--,anne of ,cleves--,thomas ,howard1 ,duke of ,norfolk--,catherine ,howard--,lapse of ,holbein's ,basel citizenship--,irregularities--,provision for wife and children--,residence in ,london--,execution of ,queen ,catherine ,howard--,marriage of ,catherine ,parr--,dr4 ,chamber--,unfinished work for the ,barber-,surgeons' ,hall--,death of ,holbein--,his will--,place of burial--,holbein's genius3 its true character and greatness #aef ,,catalogue ,,of ,,principal ,,existing ,,works #ahh ,,references #ahi ,,index #aii ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations #a4 ,,holbein ,frontispiece ,self ,portrait4 ,from a photograph in the ,rischgitz ,collection4 #b4 ,,prosy ,,and ,,hans ,,holbein #af ,drawn by their father1 ,hans ,holbein the elder4 ,silver-point4 7,berlin ,cabinet47 #c4 ,,schoolmaster',s ,,signboard #bf ,oils4 7,basel ,museum47 #d4 ,,jacob ,,meyer 7,,zum ,,hasen7 #ca ,oils4 7,basel ,museum47 ,from a photograph in the ,rischgitz ,collection4 #e4 ,,dorothea ,,meyer 7ne ,,kannegiesser7 #ca ,oils4 7,basel ,museum47 ,from a photograph in the ,rischgitz ,collection4 #f4 ,,bonifacius ,,amerbach #df ,oils4 7,basel ,museum47 #g4 ,,fight ,,of ,,landsknechte #eh ,washed drawing4 7,basel ,museum47 ,from a ,photograph in the ,rischgitz ,collection4 #h4 ,,the ,,nativity #gb ,oils4 7,university ,chapel1 ,freiburg ,cathedral47 ,from a photograph by ,g4 ,rbke1 ,freiburg4 #i4 ,,the ,,passion #gd ,i4 ,,gethsemane4 ,,ii4 ,,the ,,kiss ,,of ,,judas4 ,,iii4 ,,before ,,pontius ,,pilate4 ,,iv4 ,,the ,,scourging4 ,v4 ,,the ,,mocking4 ,,vi4 ,,the ,,way ,,to ,,calvary4 ,,vii4 ,,it ,,is ,,finished4 ,,viii4 ,,the ,,entombment4 ,eight-panelled ,altar-piece4 7,basel ,museum47 #aj4 ,,christ ,,in ,,the ,,grave #gh ,oils4 7,basel ,museum47 #aa4 ,,the ,,risen ,,christ #hb ,oils4 7,hampton ,court ,gallery47 #ab4 ,,the ,,solothurn1 ,,or ,,zetter',,sche1 ,,madonna #hf ,oils4 7,solothurn ,museum47 ,from a photograph by ,braun1 ,clement1 and ,cie41 ,paris4 #ac4 ,,unnamed ,,portrait-,,study2 ,,not ,,catalogued ,,as ,,holbein',s #id ,silver-point and ,indian ink4 7,louvre ,collection4 ,believed by the writer to be ,holbein's drawing of his wife before her first marriage1 and the model for the ,solothurn ,madonna47 ,from a photograph by ,braun1 ,clement1 and ,cie41 ,paris4 #ad4 ,,erasmus #ih ,oils4 7,the ,louvre47 ,from a photograph by ,a4 ,giraudon1 ,paris4 #ae4 ,,the ,,ploughman2 ,,the ,,priest #ajb ,images of ,death4 ,woodcut series4 #af4 ,,dorothea ,,offenburg ,,as ,,the ,,goddess ,,of ,,love #ajd ,oils4 7,basel ,museum47 ,from a photograph in the ,rischgitz ,collection4 #ag4 ,,dorothea ,,offenburg ,,as ,,la,s ,,corinthiaca #ajf ,oils4 7,basel ,museum47 ,from a photograph in the ,rischgitz ,collection4 #ah4 ,,the ,,meyer-,,madonna #aji ,oils4 7,grand ,ducal ,collection1 ,darmstadt47 ,from a photograph by ,f4 ,hanfstaengl4 #ai4 ,,the ,,meyer-,,madonna #aji 7,later ,version4 ,held by many to be a copy47 ,oils4 7,dresden ,gallery47 ,from a photograph by ,f4 ,hanfstaengl4 #bj4 ,,sir ,,thomas ,,more #aaf ,chalks4 7,windsor ,castle47 ,from a photograph by ,f4 ,hanfstaengl4 #ba4 ,,john ,,fisher1 ,,bishop ,,of ,,rochester #aah ,chalks4 7,windsor ,castle47 ,from a photograph by ,f4 ,hanfstaengl4 #bb4 ,,sir ,,henry ,,guildford #abj ,oils4 7,windsor ,castle47 ,from a photograph by ,f4 ,hanfstaengl4 #bc4 ,,nicholas ,,kratzer #abb ,oils4 7,the ,louvre47 #bd4 ,,sir ,,bryan ,,tuke #abd ,oils4 7,munich ,gallery47 ,from a photograph by ,f4 ,hanfstaengl4 #be4 ,,elsbeth1 ,,holbein',s ,,wife1 ,,with ,,their ,,two ,,eldest ,,children #abf ,oils4 7,basel ,museum47 ,from a photograph in the ,rischgitz ,collection4 #bf4 ,,behold ,,to ,,obey ,,is ,,better ,,than ,,sacrifice4 ,,samuel ,,denouncing ,,saul #acd ,washed drawing4 7,basel ,museum47 ,from a photograph in the ,rischgitz ,collection4 #bg4 ,j,,rg 7,,or ,,george7 ,,gyze #adb ,oils4 7,berlin ,museum47 ,from a photograph by ,f4 ,hanfstaengl4 #bh4 ,,the ,,ambassadors #adf ,oils4 7,national ,gallery47 ,from a photograph by ,f4 ,hanfstaengl4 #bi4 ,,the ,,morett ,,portrait #aeb ,oils4 7,dresden ,gallery47 ,from a photograph by ,f4 ,hanfstaengl4 #cj4 ,,queen ,,jane ,,seymour #aeh ,oils4 7,vienna ,gallery47 ,from a photograph by ,f4 ,hanfstaengl4 #ca4 ,,king ,,henry ,,viii4 ,,and ,,his ,,father #afj ,fragment of cartoon used for the ,whitehall wall-painting4 7,duke of ,devonshire's ,collection47 #cb4 ,,king ,,henry ,,viii4 #afb 7,life ,study2 probably for the ,whitehall ,painting47 ,chalks4 7,munich ,collection47 ,from a photograph by ,f4 ,hanfstaengl4 #cc4 ,,design ,,for ,,the ,,jane ,,seymour ,,cup #afd 7,bodleian ,library47 #cd4 ,,christina ,,of ,,denmark1 ,,duchess ,,of ,,milan #aff ,oils4 7,national ,gallery47 ,lent by the ,duke of ,norfolk4 #ce4 ,,anne ,,of ,,cleves #agb ,oils4 7,the ,louvre47 ,from a photograph by ,a4 ,giraudon1 ,paris4 #cf4 ,,thomas ,,howard1 ,,third ,,duke ,,of ,,norfolk #agd ,oils4 7,windsor ,castle47 ,from a photograph by ,f4 ,hanfstaengl4 #cg4 ,,catherine ,,howard #agf ,chalk drawing4 7,windsor ,castle47 #ch4 ,,dr4 ,,chamber #ahj ,oils4 7,vienna ,gallery47 ,from a photograph by ,f4 ,hanfstaengl4 ,,holbein#a ,,chapter ,i ,,holbein',s ,,period1 ,,parentage1 ,,and ,,early ,,work ,historical epoch and antecedents--,special conditions and character of early ,christian art--,ideals and influence of the monk--,holbein's relation to medival schools--,his father1 uncle1 and ,augsburg home--,probable dates for his birth and his father's death--,troubles and dispersion of the ,augsburg household--,from ,augsburg to ,basel--,his brother ,ambrose--,erasmus and the ,praise of ,folly2 some erroneous impressions of both--,erasmus and ,holbein no ,protestants at heart--,holbein and the ,bible--,illustrated vernacular ,bibles in circulation before ,luther and ,holbein were born--,holbein's earliest ,basel oil paintings--,direct and indirect education--,historical1 geographical1 and scientific revolutions of his day--,beginning of his connection with the ,burgomaster of ,basel--,jacob ,meyer zum ,hasen--,holbein's woodcuts--,his studies from nature--,sudden visit to ,lucerne--,italian influence on his art--,work for the ,burgomaster of ,lucerne4 ,the eighty-three years stretching from #adfa to #aedc--;between the probable year of the elder ,hans ,holbein's birth and that in which the younger1 the great ,holbein1 died--constitute one of those periods which rightly deserve the much-abused name of an ,epoch4 ,the ,christian era of itself had known many3 the ,yellow-,danger of the fifth century making one hideous smear across ,europe2 the ,hic ,jacet with which this same century entombed an ,empire three continents could not content2 the new impulse which ,charlemagne and ,alfred had given to ,progress in the ninth century2 the triumphant establishment of ,papal ,supremacy1 that ,napoleonic idea of ,gregory ,,vii4--,sanctus ,satanas1 of the eleventh1 and grand architect in a vaster ,roman ,empire which still humanly contends for glory2 and lastly1 at the very threshold of the ,holbeins1 the invention of movable printing types about #addj1 and the fall of ,constantinople in #adec1 which combined to drive the prodigies and potencies of ,greek genius through the world4 ,each of these had done its own special work for the advancement of man--as for that matter all things must1 whether by help or helplessness4 ,not less than ,elijah did the wretched priests of ,baal serve those slow1 sure1 eternal ,purposes1 which include an ,ahab and all the futile fury of his little life as the sun includes its spots4 ,but although the stream of ,history is one1 and its every succeeding curve only an expansion of the first1 there has probably been no century of our era when this stream has been so suddenly enlarged1 or bent so sharply toward fresh constellations as in that of the ,holbeins1--when ,religion and ,art1 as well as ,science1 saw a ,new ,world upon its astonished horizon4 ,so that we properly call it a transition period1 and its representative men transitional4 ,yet we shall never get near to these real men1 to their real world1 unless we can forget all about the pose of this or the other ,zeitgeist--that tale ,told by an idiot1 full of sound and fury1 ,signifying nothing4 ,for we must keep constantly in mind that what we call the ,middle ,ages or--worse yet--the ,dark ,ages1 made up the ,yesterday of the ,holbeins and was the flesh and blood transmitted to them as their own flesh and blood with all its living bonds toward the ,old and all its living impulses toward the ,new4 ,a now famous ,new ,zealander is1 we know1 to sketch our own medivalism with contemptuous pity for its darkness4 ,but until his day comes1 our farthing-dips seem to make a gaudy illumination4 ,and1 meantime1 we are alive2 we walk about2 we1 too1 can swell the chorus which the ,initiated chant in every century with the same fond confidence3 ,we alone enjoy the ,holy ,light4 ,the ,new is ever becoming old2 the old ever changing into ,new4 ,and if we ask why each waxes or wanes just when it does and as it does1 there is1 in the last analysis1 no better answer than ,aurora's explanation for chancing on the poets-- ,because the time was ripe4 ,and the ,holbein century is one of stupendous ,transitions because the time was ripe2 and not simply because printing was invented1 or ,greek scholars were driven from ,constantinople to scatter abroad in ,europe1 or ,ferdinand and ,isabella wanted a direct route to ,cathay1 or ,friar ,martin nailed ninety-five ,theses to the door of ,wittenberg's church1 and built himself thereby an everlasting name as ,luther4 ,and because the time was ripe for a new ,art1 even more than because this or that great painter entrained it1 it also had its transition period1 and ,holbein is set down in manuals as a transitional painter4 ,teutonic1 too2 because all ,christian art is either ,byzantine or ,italian or ,teutonic in its type4 ,when it first crept from the catacombs under the protection of the ,constantinople ,court it could but be ,byzantine2 that strange composite obtained by stripping the ,greek beast of every pagan beauty and then decking it out with crude ,oriental ornament4 ,but who that prizes the peculiar product of that fanaticism would have had its cradle without this sleepless terror1 lest for the whole world of classic heathendom it should lose the dear-bought soul of purely ,christian ideals8 ,or who1 remembering that in thus relentlessly sacrificing its entire heritage of pagan accumulation it put back the clock of ,art to the ,stone ,age1 and had to begin all over again in the helpless bewilderment of untaught childish effort1--could find twice ten centuries too long for the astounding feat it achieved8 ,ten centuries1 after all1 make but a marvellous short course betwixt the archaic compositions of the third century and the compositions of ,giotto or ,wilhelm ,meister4 ,a great deal of nonsense is talked about the tyrannies which the ,monastic ,age inflicted on ,art4 ,of course1 monasticism fostered fanaticism4 ,it does not need the luminous genius that said it1 to teach us that whatever is necessary to what we make our sole object is sure1 in some way or in some time or other1 to become our master4 ,and with the monk1 the true monk in his day of usefulness1 every knowledge and every art was good or bad according as it served monastic ideals4 ,but it is absurd to say that the monk--qua monk--put the intellect in chains4 ,the whole body of his oppression was not so paralysing as the iron little finger of ,malherbe and his school of classic despots4 ,to charge upon the monk the limitations of his crude thought and cruder methods is about as intelligent as it would be to fall foul of ,shakespeare because boys played his women's parts4 ,the springs of ,helicon were the monk's also1 as witness ,tuotilo and ,bernard of ,clairvaux2 but it was by the waters of ,jordan that his miracles were wrought4 ,as ,johnson somewhere says of ,watts1 every kind of knowledge was by the piety of his mind converted into theology4 ,and for the rest1--by the labour of his hands1 by his fasting from the things of the flesh1 by his lofty faith--however erring or forgotten or betrayed1 in individual cases1--by every impressive lesson of a hard life lived unto others and a hard death died unto himself1 century after century it was the monk who taught and helped the barbarian of every land to turn the desolate freedom of the wild ass into a smiling homestead and the savage ,africa of his own heart into at least a better place4 ,the marvel is that he could at the same time find room or energy to make his monastery also a laboratory1 a library1 and a studio4 ,and yet he did4 ,to say that he abhorred ,greek ideals is to say that the shepherd abhors the wolf4 ,his life was one long fight with the insidious poison of the ,greek4 ,he did not1--at any rate in his best days--believe at all in ,art for ,art's sake2 and had far too intimate an acquaintance with the natural man to do him even justice4 ,what he wanted was to do away with him4 ,yet with all its repellent features1 it is to this unflinching exclusiveness of the monkish ideal that we owe one of the most exquisite blossoms on the stock of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries1--their innocent and appealing art2 an art as original and as worthy of reverence1 within its own peculiar province1 as the masterpieces of ,greece or ,italy4 ,you must turn from the beauty of ,antinous to the beauty of1 say1 the ,saint ,veronica1 among the works of the ,cologne school at ,munich1 before you can estimate the ,gulf of many things besides time which for ever divides the world of the one from the world of the other4 ,and then you must essay to embody the visions of ,patmos with a child's colour-box and brushes1 before you can compare the achievements--the amazing achievements--of the monkish ideal with the achievements of classic paganism4 ,with the school of ,wilhelm ,meister this tremendous revolution had accomplished itself2 and solely through the indomitable will of the monk4 ,the ideal of ,greece had been to show how gods walk the earth4 ,this ,christian ideal was to show how devout men and women walk with ,god4 ,their ineffable heavenly faces look out from their golden world-- ,inviolate1 unwearied1 ,divinest1 sweetest1 best1 upon this far-off1 far other world1 where nothing is inviolate1 and divinest things must come at last to tears and ashes4 ,but the monk had had his day as well as his way4 ,the so-called ,gothic architecture had expressed its uttermost of aspiration and tenuity2 and painting had fulfilled its utmost accommodation to the ever more slender wall-spaces and forms which this architecture necessitated4 ,and once again1 in the fifteenth century1 the time was ripe for a new transition4 ,art was now to reveal the realities of this world1 and to concern itself with ,man among them4 ,and just as the law of reaction flung the mind into religious revolt from the outworn dogmas and overgrown pretensions of the monkish ideal1 so did it drive the healthy reaction of art into its own extravagances of protest4 ,and we shall see how even a genius like ,holbein's was unable to entirely free itself from this reactionary defect4 ,for with all his astonishing powers1 imaginative and technical1 he never wholly overcame that defect of making his figures too short and too thick-set for grace1 which amounted to a deformity in the full-length figures of his early work1 and was due to his fierce revolt from the unnaturally elongated forms of an earlier period4 ,yet we should make a grave mistake if we were to regard ,holbein as cut off by this reaction from all affinities with the monkish ideals of the ,cologne school4 ,on the contrary4 ,we shall see1 especially in his religious pictures1 how many of those ideals had fed the very springs of his imagination and sunk deep into his art2 only expressing themselves in his own symbolism and in forms unlike theirs4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the ,augsburg ,gallery there is a painting by ,holbein's father1 the ,basilica of ,st4 ,paul1 in which there is a group introduced after the fashion of the period1 which has a special biographical interest4 ,this group1 in the ,baptism of ,st4 ,paul1 is believed by many authorities to be a portrait-group of the painter himself1--,hans ,holbein the ,elder1 and his two young sons1 ,ambrose 7or ,amprosy1 as it was often written7 and ,johannes1 or ,hanns4 ,the portrait of the father is certainly like ,holbein's own drawing of him in the ,duke d',aumale's ,collection1 which ,sandrart engraved in his account of the younger ,holbein2 while the heads of the two boys are very like those which we shall find later in a drawing in the ,berlin ,gallery4 ,from the pronounced way in which his father's hand rests on little ,hans' head1 while the left points him out1--and even his elder brother ,prosy shows by his attitude the special notice to be taken of ,hans1--it is clear that if this is a portrait-group either it was painted when the boys were actually older1 or the younger had already given some astonishing proof of that precocity which his early works display2 for in this group the younger boy cannot be more than eight or nine years old4 ,hans ,holbein the ,elder1 who stands here with his long brown hair and beard falling over his fur gown1 was a citizen of ,augsburg1 living for a while in the same street with the honoured ,augsburg painter1 ,hans ,burgkmair1 and occasionally working with him on large commissions4 ,that he was a native of ,augsburg1 and the son--as is generally believed--of ,michel ,holbain 7,augsburg commonly spelt ,holbein with an a71 leather-dresser--,i myself cannot feel so sure as others do4 ,there is no documentary evidence to prove that the ,michael ,holbein of ,augsburg ever had a son1 and there is both documentary and circumstantial evidence to prove that the descendants of ,hans ,holbein the ,elder claimed a different origin4 ,that a man was a citizen1 or burgher1 of any town1 of course proves nothing4 ,it was a period when painters especially learned their trades and practised it in many centres4 ,and this1 when guilds were all-powerful and no one could either join one without taking citizenship with it1 or pursue its calling in any given place without association with the guild of that place1 often involved a series of citizenships4 ,the elder ,holbein was himself a burgher of ,ulm at one time1 if not of other cities in which he worked4 ,but that ,augsburg was his fixed home for the greater part of his life is certain2 and the rate-books show that after the leather-dresser had disappeared from their register of residents in the retail business quarter of the city1 in the neighbourhood of the ,lech canals1 ,hans ,holbein the ,elder was1 in #adid1 a householder in this very place4 ,for some years the name of ,sigmund1 his brother1 is bracketed with his2 but about #aeag ,sigmund ,holbein established himself in ,berne1 where he accumulated a very respectable competence1 which1 at his death in #aedj1 he bequeathed to his dear nephew1 ,hans ,holbein1 the painter1 at that time a citizen of ,basel4 ,sigmund also was a painter1 but no unquestioned work of his is known4 ,there is nothing to show who was the wife of ,sigmund ,holbein's elder brother1 ,hans4 ,but by #adii this elder ,hans had either a child or children mentioned with him 7sein kind1 applying equally to one or more74 ,in all probability this is the earliest discoverable record of ,hans ,holbein the ,younger1 and his elder brother ,ambrose4 ,in all probability1 too1 ,hans was then about two years old1 and ,prosy a year or two older4 ,at one time it was vaguely thought that the elder ,hans had three sons2 and ,prosy1 or ,brosie1 as it was sometimes written1 got converted into a ,bruno ,holbein4 ,but no vestige of an actual ,bruno is to be found4 ,and as ,ambrose ,holbein's trail1 whether in rate-books or art-records1 utterly vanishes after #aeai1 it will be seen that for the most part of the younger ,holbein's life he had no brother4 ,hence it is easy to understand how his uncle ,sigmund's ,will speaks only of my dear nephew4 ,hans the elder lived far on in his younger son's life4 ,his works attest that he had talents and ideals of no mean order4 ,but ,i do not propose to enter here upon the vexed question as to how far the ,renaissance characteristics of the later works attributed to his hand are his own or his son's4 ,learned and exhaustive arguments have by turns consigned the best of these works to the father1 to the son1 and back again to the father4 ,in at least one instance of high authority the same writer has1 at different periods1 held a brief for both sides and for opposite opinions6 ,in this connection1 as on the battlefield of some of the son's greatest paintings1 the single-minded student of ,holbein may not unprofitably draw three conclusions from the copious literature on the subject3--,first1 that a working hypothesis is not of necessity the right one2 secondly1 that in the matter of his pronouncements the critical expert also may occasionally be regarded as ,un animal qui s'habille1 dshabille et babille toujours2 and thirdly1 that in default of incontestable documentary proofs the modest so far as ,i have been able to discover of ,holbein's first biographer1 ,van ,mander1 is a capital anchor to windward1 and is at any rate preferable to driving forth upon the howling waters of ,classification1 like ,constance upon the ,sea of ,greece1 ,alle sterelesse1 ,god wot4 ,but my chief reason for not pursuing the ,protean phantom of ,holbein's ,augsburg period is that1--apart from my own disagreement with many accepted views about the works it includes1 and the utter lack of data or determining any position irrefutably1--it is comparatively unimportant to the purpose of this little book4 ,for wherever the younger painter was born1--whether at ,augsburg or ,ulm or elsewhere1--and whatever ,i believe to be his rightful claim to such paintings as the ,st4 ,elizabeth and ,st4 ,barbara of the ,st4 ,sebastian altar-piece at ,munich1 ,fame1 like ,van ,mander1 has rightly written him down ,holbein ,basiliensis4 ,it is true that his father's brushes were his alphabet4 ,it may be true1 though ,i doubt it1 that his father's teaching was his only technical school4 ,but if he was1 as to the last he gloried in being1 the child of the ,old ,period1 he was much more truly the immediate pupil of the ,van ,eycks than of his father's irresolute ideals2 while ,basel was his university4 ,and whatever may have been his debt to those childish years when the little ,iulus followed his father with trembling steps1 his debt to ,basel was immensely greater4 ,the door-sill of ,johann ,froben's printing-house was the threshold of his earthly immortality4 ,when he turned his back on the low-vaulted years of ,augsburg1 it was because for him also the time was ripe4 ,the ,old ,period had cast his genius2 the ,new was to expand it to new powers and purposes4 ,still1 as the spiral grew1 ,he left the past year's dwelling for the new2 ,stole with soft step its shining archway through1 ,built up its idle door1 ,stretch'd in his last-found home and knew the old no more4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it may easily have been the elder ,hans' continuous troubles1 whether due to his fault or his misfortune it is idle now to inquire1 which made his sons leave ,augsburg4 ,certain it is that he but escaped from the clutches of one suit for debt after another in order to tumble into some fresh disaster of the sort1 until his own brother ,sigmund appears among his exasperated creditors4 ,after #aebd ,hans ,holbein the ,elder vanishes from the records4 ,probably1 therefore1 it was at about this date that he paid1--,heaven and himself only knowing how willingly1--the one debt which every man pays at the last4 ,at all events his sons did leave ,augsburg about #aead2 or1 at any rate1 ,hans did1 since there is a nave little ,virgin and ,child in the ,basel ,museum1 dated #aead1 which must have been painted in the neighbourhood of ,constance in this year1--probably for the village church where it was discovered4 ,as everything points to the conclusion that ,holbein was born in #adig1 he would have been some seventeen years old at this time1 and ,prosy eighteen or nineteen4 ,substantially1 therefore1 they must have looked pretty much as in the drawing which their father had made of them three years before2 that precious drawing in silver-point which is now in the ,berlin ,collection 7,plate #b74 ,over the elder1 still with the curly locks of the group in the ,st4 ,paul ,basilica1 is written ,prosy2 over the younger1 ,hanns4 ,the age of the latter1 fourteen1 may still be deciphered above his portrait1 but that of ,ambrose has quite vanished4 ,between the two is the family name1 written in ,augsburg fashion1 ,holbain4 ,at the top of the sheet stands the year of the drawing1 almost illegible1 but believed to be #aeaa4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #b ,,prosy ,,and ,,hanns ,,holbain ,drawn by their father1 ,hans ,holbein the elder ,silver-point4 ,berlin ,cabinet ,of the elder brother all that is certainly known may be said here once for all4 ,in #aeag he entered the ,painters' ,guild at ,basel1 where he is called ,ambrosius ,holbein1 citizen of ,augsburg4 ,he made a number of designs for wood-engraving1 title-pages1 and ornaments1 for the printers of ,basel--all of fair merit4 ,he may also have worked in the studio of ,hans ,herbster1 a ,basel painter of considerable note4 ,herbster's portrait in oils1 long held to be a fine work of the younger brother1--now that it has passed from the ,earl of ,northbrook's collection to that of the ,basel ,museum1 is attributed to ,ambrose ,holbein4 ,but little else is known of him2 and after #aeai1 as has been said1 the absence of any record of him among the living suggests that he died in that year4 ,in the late summer of #aeae came that momentous trifle which has for ever linked the name of young ,hans ,holbein with that of ,erasmus4 ,whether1 as some say1 the scholar gave him the order1 or1 as seems more likely1 some friend of both had the copy1 now in the ,basel ,museum1 on the margins of which the lad drew his spirited pen-and-ink sketches1--it is on record that they were made before the end of ,december1 and that ,erasmus himself was delighted with their wit and vigour4 ,and1 in truth1 they are exceedingly clever1 both in the art with which a few strokes suggest a picture1 and in that by which the picture emphasises every telling point in the satire4 ,but a great deal too much has been built upon both the satire and the sketches2 a great deal1 also1 falsely built upon them4 ,they have been made to do duty1 in default of all genuine proofs1 as supports to the theory by which ,protestant writers have claimed both ,erasmus and ,holbein as followers of ,luther in their hearts1 without sufficient courage or zeal to declare themselves such4 ,i confess that1 though myself no less ardent as a ,protestant than as an admirer of ,holbein1 ,i cannot1 for the life of me1 see any justification for either the claim or its implied charge of timorousness4 ,erasmus's ,praise of ,folly--like so many a paradox started as a joke1--had no notion of being serious at all until it was seriously attacked4 ,some four years before its illustrations riveted the name of a stripling artist to that of the world-renowned scholar1 ,erasmus had fallen ill while a guest in the sunny ,bucklersbury home where three tiny daughters and a baby son were the darlings of ,sir ,thomas ,more and his wife4 ,to beguile the tedium of convalescence the invalid had scribbled off a jeu d'esprit1 with its punning play on ,more's name1 ,encomium ,mori1 in which every theme for laughter1 in a far from squeamish day1 was collected under that title4 ,read aloud to ,more and his friends1 it was declared much too good to be limited to private circulation2 and accordingly1 with some revision and expansion1 it was printed4 ,that it scourged with its mockery those things in both ,church and ,state which ,erasmus and ,more and many another fervent ,churchman hated1--such as the crying evils which called aloud for reformation in the highest places1 and above all1 that it lashed the detested friars whom the best churchmen most loathed1--these things were foregone conclusions in such a composition4 ,but a laugh1 even a satirical laugh1 at the expense of excrescences or follies in one's camp1 is a very far cry from going over to its foes4 ,as a huge joke ,erasmus wrote the ,praise of ,folly2 as such ,more and all his circle lauded it2 as such ,froben reprinted it2 and as such young ,holbein pointed all its laughing gibes4 ,and it was part and parcel of the joke that he launched his own sly arrow at the author himself4 ,erasmus could but laugh at the adroitness with which the young man from ,augsburg had drawn a reverend scholar writing away at his desk1 among the votaries of ,folly1 and written ,erasmus over his head4 ,but it was hardly to be expected that he should altogether relish the witty implication1 or the presumption of the unknown painter who had ventured to make it4 ,nor did he4 ,turning over a page he also contrived to turn the laugh yet once again1 this time against the too-presuming artist4 ,finding1 perhaps1 the coarsest of the sketches1 one in keeping with the fat and splendid pig from the drove of ,epicurus1 he in his turn wrote the name of ,holbein above the wanton boor at his carousals4 ,it was a reprisal not more delicate than the spirit with which subjects too sacred to have been named in the same breath with ,folly1--the very words of our ,lord ,himself1--had been dragged into such company4 ,but though it1 too1 was a joke1 this little slap of wounded amour propre has found writers to draw from it an entire theory that ,holbein led a life of debauchery6 ,yet even this feat of deduction is surpassed by that which argues that because ,erasmus and ,holbein lashed bad prelates and vicious monks with satire1 therefore they detested the whole hierarchy of ,rome and loathed all monks1 good or bad4 ,erasmus laid the egg which ,luther hatched is the oft-repeated cry2 forgetting or ignoring the plain fact that ,erasmus eyed the ,lutheran egg with no little mistrust in its shell and with unequivocal disgust in its full-feathered development4 ,what connection have ,i with ,luther1 he writes some three years after ,holbein illustrated ,stultitia's worshippers1 or what recompense have ,i to expect from him that ,i should join with him to oppose the ,church of ,rome1 which ,i take to be the true part of the ,church ,catholic1 or to oppose the ,roman ,pontiff who is the head of the ,catholic ,church8 ,i am not so impious as to dissent from the ,church nor so ungrateful as to dissent from ,leo1 from whom ,i have received uncommon favour and indulgence4 ,as to ,holbein's ,protestant sympathies--using the name for the whole ,lutheran movement in which ,protestantism had its rise1--the assertions are even less grounded in fact1 if that be possible4 ,if he had it not already in his heart1 through ,erasmus and ,amerbach and ,froben and ,more and every other great influence to which he yielded himself at all1 he early acquired a deep and devout sense of the need of reform within the ,church4 ,like all these lifelong friends1 he wanted to see the ,church of ,rome return to her purer days and cast off the corruptions of a profligate idleness4 ,like them he couched his lance against the unworthy priest1 the gluttonous or licentious monk1 the wolves in sheep's clothing that were destroying the fold from within4 ,like them1 as they re-echoed ,colet--the saintly ,dean of ,st4 ,paul's1--he passionately favoured the translation of the ,scriptures into the vernacular and placing them in the hands1 or at any rate bringing them to the familiar knowledge1 of peasant as well as prelate4 ,but surely one must know very little of the teachings of the stoutest ,churchmen of ,holbein's day and acquaintance not to know also that they encouraged if they did not plant these opinions in his mind4 ,drer's woodcuts and engravings1 especially his various scenes from the ,passion1 writes even ,woltmann1 the biographer to whom every student of ,holbein owes so grateful a debt1 had prepared the soil among the people for ,luther's translation of the ,bible4 ,holbein's pictures from the ,old ,testament followed in their wake1 and helped forward the work4 ,yet it seems difficult to suppose that ,woltmann could have been ignorant of the facts of the case4 ,so far were ,holbein's1 or any other artist's1 ,bible illustrations or ,bible pictures from arguing a ,lutheran monopoly in the vernacular ,bible1 that in ,germany alone there were fifteen translated and illustrated editions of the ,bible before ,luther's appeared2 and of these fifteen some half-dozen were published before ,luther was born4 ,quentell1 at ,cologne1 for instance1 published a famous translation with exceedingly good woodcuts in #adhj1--three years before ,luther's birth4 ,while some nine years before ,quentell's ,german translation1 the ,abbot ,niccolo ,malermi published his ,biblia ,vulgare in the ,italian vernacular1 which went through twenty editions in less than a century3 one of which1--brought out at ,venice in #adij by the ,giunta ,brothers1--was illustrated by woodcuts of the greatest beauty4 ,so widespread was the demand for this ,malermi ,bible that another edition1 with new illustrations of almost equal merit1 was produced at ,venice in #adic1 by the printer known as ,anima ,mia4 ,all of these were vernacular ,bibles2 all illustrated2 all widely known throughout ,italy and ,germany before ,holbein was born or ,luther was in his tenth year4 ,and certainly it has not yet been suggested by the most rabid ,protestantism that either these or any of the many other illustrated vernacular ,bibles printed long before ,luther's great translation1--a translation with a special claim to immortality because it may be said to have set the standard for modern ,german1--were anything but ,roman ,catholic ,bibles4 ,they were translated and illustrated in behalf of no doctrine which ,protestantism does not hold in common with the ,church of ,rome4 ,to lose hold of these things1 to lose sight of the true attitude of ,holbein in his ,bible woodcuts and his ,images of ,death1 or of either ,erasmus or ,holbein in their satires on the flagrant abuses within their ,church1 and their unwavering devotion to that ,church1--is to deliberately throw away the clue to the most vital qualities in the work of either1 and to the whole course and character of ,holbein himself1 no less than to that of his lifelong friend and benefactor4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in #aeae the young painter who had come to ,basel to better his fortunes painted a table for ,hans ,br's wedding4 ,the bridegroom marched away1 carrying the ,basel colours1 to the bloody field of ,marignano 7or ,melegnano7 in this same year1 and never came back to sit with his smiling bride around ,holbein's most amusing conceits--where ,saint ,nobody was depicted among all the catastrophes of which he is the scapegoat1 and a few ordinary trifles--a letter1 a pair of spectacles1 etc4--were marvellously represented1 as if dropped by chance above the painted decorations1 so that people were always attempting to pick them up4 ,but ,hans ,br's sister had been the first wife of a certain brave comrade--,meyer of the ,hare1 who did come back and played an important part in young ,holbein's career4 ,long lost among forgotten rubbish1 ,hans ,br's table has been unearthed1 and is now preserved in the town library at ,zurich4 ,but although ,holbein had got his foot on the ladder of fame in this year's beginning of his connection with ,froben1 he was as yet very thankful to accept any commission1 however humble4 ,and as a human document there is a touch of peculiar1 almost pathetic interest about the ,schoolmaster's ,signboard preserved by ,bonifacius ,amerbach1 and now with his collection in the ,basel ,museum 7,plate #c74 ,it is a simple thing1 with no pretension to a place among works of art--this bit of flotsam from #aeaf1 when it was painted4 ,originally the two views1 the ,infant ,class and the ,adult ,class1 were on opposite sides of the sign2 but they have been carefully split apart so as to be seen side by side4 ,in the one is the quaint but usual ,dame's ,school of the period2 in the other the public is informed how the adults of ,basel may retrieve the lack of such early opportunities4 ,the inscription above each sets forth how whosoever wishes to do so can be taught to read and write correctly1 and be furnished with all the essentials of a decent education at a very moderate cost2 children on the usual terms4 ,and there is a delightful clause to say that if anyone is too dull-witted to learn at all1 no payment will be accepted1 be it ,burger or ,apprentice1 ,wife or ,maid4 ,somehow1 looking at the young fellow at the right of the table1 in the ,adult ,class1 sitting facing the anxious schoolmaster1 with his own brow all furrowed by the effort to follow him and his mouth doggedly set to succeed1--while the late1 low sun of a summer afternoon streams in through the leaded window1--one muses on the chance that so may the young painter from ,augsburg1 now but nineteen1 himself have sat upon this very bench and leaned across this very table1 in a like determination to widen out his small store of book-learning4 ,he could have had little opportunity to do so in the ever-shifting1 bailiff-haunted home of his boyhood4 ,and somewhere he certainly learned to write quite as well as even the average gentleman of his day2 witness the notes on his drawings4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #c ,,schoolmaster',s ,,signboard ,oils4 ,basel ,museum ,somewhere1 too1 and no later than these first ,basel years1 he acquired the power to read and appreciate even the niceties of ,latin1 though he probably could not have done more than make these out to his own satisfaction4 ,all his work of illustration is too original1 too spontaneous1 too full of flashes of subtle personal sympathy with the text1 to have emanated from an interpreter1 or been dictated by another mind than his own4 ,and this very ,signboard may have paid for lessons which he could not otherwise afford4 ,for if there is any force in circumstantial evidence it is certain that ,holbein not only wrote1 but read and pondered and thought for himself in these years when he doubtless had many more hours of leisure than he desired1 from a financial standpoint4 ,and the greatest pages of his autobiography1 written with his brush1 will be only so many childish rebuses if we forget what astounding pages of ,history and ,argument were turned before him4 ,in ,augsburg he had seen the ,emperor ,maximilian riding in state more than once1 and heard much talk about that ,emperor's interests and schemes and fears2 and of thrones and battlefields engaged with or against these4 ,augsburg was in closest ties of commerce with ,venice2 and the tides of many a tremendous issue of civilisation rolled to and fro through the gates of the ,free ,swabian ,city4 ,child and lad1 his was a precocious intelligence2 and it had been fed upon meat for strong men4 ,he had heard of ,alexander ,,vi4's colossal infamies1 and those of ,csar ,borgia as well2 and of the kingdoms ranging to this or that standard after the death of ,pope and ,prince4 ,he was nine years old then4 ,old enough1 too1 to drink in the wonderful hero-tales of one ,christopher ,columbus of ,genoa1 whose fame was running through the ,whispering ,gallery of ,europe1 while he himself lay dying at ,valladolid--ill1 heartbroken1 poor1 disgraced1--yet proudly confident that he had demonstrated1 past all denial1 the truth of his own conviction1 and touched the shores of ,cathay1 sailing westward from ,spain4 ,da ,gama1 ,vespucci1 ,balboa1 ,magellan1--theirs were indeed names and deeds to set the heart of youth leaping1 between its cradle and its twenty-fifth year4 ,holbein was twelve when ,augsburg heard that ,england had a young king1 whom it crowned as ,henry ,,viii4 ,he was setting out from his home1 such as it was1 to fight his own boyish battle of ,life1 when the news spread of ,flodden's ,field4 ,none of these things would let such an one as he was rest content to apprehend them as a yokel4 ,from either the honest dominie of the ,signboard or some other1 we may be sure he sought the means to read and digest them for himself4 ,and if he learnt some smattering of the geography of the earth and the heavens after the crude notions of an older day1 he could have done no other1 at that time1 in the most enlightened ,universities4 ,ptolemy's ,geographia was still the text-book1 and the so-called ,ptolemaic ,theory still the astronomical creed of scholars4 ,copernicus was1 indeed1 a man of forty when ,holbein was painting this ,signboard in #aeaf4 ,but ,copernicus was still interluding the active duties of ,frauenburg's highly successful governor1 tax-collector1 judge1 and vicar-general1--to say nothing of his brilliant essays on finance1--with those studies in his watch-tower which were to revolutionise the astronomical conceptions of twenty centuries and wheel the ,earth around the ,sun instead of the ,sun around the ,earth4 ,but his system was not actually published until its author was on his death-bed1 in the year of ,holbein's own death4 ,so that these stupendous new ideas were only the unpublished rumours and discussions of circles like that of ,froben and ,erasmus1 when ,holbein first entered it4 ,but it is no insignificant sidelight on the history of this circle and this period to recall that the subversive theories of ,copernicus1--far as even he was from anticipating how a ,kepler and a ,newton should one day shatter the ,crystalline ,spheres1 and relegate to the dustheap of antiquity the ,epicycles1 to which he still clung1--had their only generous hearing from influential churchmen of ,rome4 ,luther recoiled from them as the blasphemies of an arrogant fool2 and even ,melanchthon urged that they should be suppressed by the secular arm4 ,nor let it be forgotten that these matters were never a far cry from those ,basel printing-presses where the greatest master-printers were themselves thorough and eager scholars2 ,men of ,letters1 in the noblest sense of the word4 ,and the discussion of all these high concerns of history and letters was as much a part of the daily life surging around their printing-presses as the roar of the ,rhine was in the air of ,basel4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #d ,,jacob ,,meyer 7,,zum ,,hasen7 ,oils4 ,basel ,museum ,illustration3 ,,plate #e ,,dorothea ,,meyer 7ne ,,kannegiesser7 ,oils4 ,basel ,museum ,as has been said1 the sister of that ,hans ,br for whom ,holbein painted the ,st4 ,nobody table had been the first wife1 ,magdalena ,br--a widow with one daughter1 when she married him--of ,jacob ,meyer1#b of the ,hare 7zum ,hasen74 ,magdalena died in #aeaa1 and about #aeab ,meyer zum ,hasen married ,dorothea ,kannegiesser4 ,and now in #aeaf1 a memorable year to ,holbein on account of this influential patron1 the young stranger was commissioned to paint the portraits of ,meyer 7,plate #d7 and his second wife1 ,dorothea 7,plate #e74 ,these oil paintings1 and the drawings for them1 are now in the ,basel ,museum4 ,and no one can examine them1 remembering that the painter was but nineteen1 without echoing the exclamation of a brilliant ,french writer3 ,holbein ira beaucoup plus loin dans son art1 mais dj il est superbe4 ,these warm translucent browns are instinct with life and beauty4 ,against the rich ,renaissance architecture and the blue of the sky-vista the massive head of ,meyer and the blonde one of his young wife1--the latter so expressive of half-proud1 half-shy consciousness1--stand out in wonderful vigour4 ,from the scarlet cap on his thickly curling brown hair to the piece of money between his thumb and finger1 the ,burgomaster's picture is a virile and masterly portrait4 ,and just as forcefully is the charm of his pretty wife1--with all her bravery of scarlet frock1 gold embroidery1 head-dress and chains1--her own individual charm4 ,they are both as much themselves in this fine architectural setting as in their own good house of the ,hare which adjoined the rising glories of the new ,renaissance ,council ,hall 7,rathaus7 in which ,meyer was to preside so often4 ,in #aeaf he had just been elected ,mayor for the first time2 but after this he had many consecutive re-elections in the alternate years which permitted this4 ,for no burgomaster could hold office for two years in actual succession4 ,previous to being ,mayor he had been an eminent personage as master of the guilds4 ,and both before and after his mayoralty he was a distinguished soldier1--rising from ensign to captain in the ,basel contingent which served at different times among the ,auxiliaries of ,france and of the ,pope4 ,but what made this election of #aeaf a civic epoch was that ,meyer zum ,hasen 7there were many unrelated ,meyers in ,basel1 and two among ,holbein's patrons1 who must be carefully distinguished according to the name of the house each occupied7 was the first ,burgomaster ever elected in this city from below the knightly rank4 ,while the piece of money in his hand1 far from fulfilling the absurd purpose sometimes suggested1--that of showing his claim to wealth6--marks another civic event of this year4 ,for it was on the #ajth of ,january1 #aeaf1 that the ,emperor ,maximilian had just issued the ,charter which gave to ,basel the right to mint her own gold coins4 ,in the painting the pose of ,meyer's right hand has been altered1 and the position which ,holbein originally gave it can still be made out4 ,the monogram and date are on the background4 ,in accordance with his invariable rule for portraits in oils1 ,holbein first made a careful drawing of each head on the same scale as the finished picture1 carrying it out with great freedom but at the same time with astonishing care and finish4 ,so that his studies for portraits are themselves works of art1 sometimes invested with even more spirit than the oil painting1 which was never made direct from the living model1--at any rate1 until ready for the finishing touches4 ,drawn with a point which could give a line as bold or as almost impalpable as he wished1 and modelled to the very texture of the surfaces1 the carnations are so sufficiently indicated or rendered with red chalk as to serve every purpose4 ,sometimes notes are also added4 ,thus in the upper corner of the drawing for ,meyer's head the artist has noted eyebrows lighter than the hair in his microscopic yet firm writing4 ,with these fine portraits1 painted as if united by the same architectural background1 ,holbein began a friendship of many years4 ,after some four centuries it is not possible to produce written records of such ties except in occasional corroborative details4 ,but neither is it possible to mistake the painted records of repeated commissions4 ,while as the lifelong leader of the ,catholic party in ,basel1 it was natural that ,meyer zum ,hasen should have much in common with a painter who all his life held firmly to his friendships with the most conspicuous champions of that party4 ,johann ,froben was another of these2 and from #aeae until ,froben's death eleven years later ,holbein had more and more to do for this printer4 ,occasionally1 too1 he drew for other ,basel printers2 but not often4 ,the eighty-two sketches on the margins of that priceless copy of the ,praise of ,folly1 which ,basel preserves in her ,museum1 had been suited to their company4 ,admirable1 though unequal1 as are their merits1 they are sketches1 whose chief beauty is their happy spontaneity4 ,such things are among the trifles of art1 and are not to be put into the scales at all with the finished perfection of his serious designs for wood engraving4 ,these were drawn on the block2 and even these cannot properly represent the drawing itself except when cut by some such master hand as his own4 ,since in preparing the design for printing the background is cut away1 leaving the composition itself in lines of relief1--it follows that everything1 so far as the reproduction is concerned1 must depend upon the cleanness and delicacy of the actual cutting4 ,a clouded eye1 a fumbling touch1 and the most ethereal idea becomes its travesty--the purest line debased4 ,hence the necessity for taking the knife into consideration in judging such work4 ,this is not the place for any fraction of that hot debate which ,kugler ironically styles the great question of the sixteenth century2 the debate as to whether ,holbein himself did or did not cut any of his own blocks4 ,assuredly he could do so4 ,the exquisite adjustment of every line to its final purpose1 the masterly understanding of the proper limitations and field of every effect1 all prove that he had an unerring knowledge of the craft no less than of the art of ,illustration4 ,but in his day that craft1 like every other1 had its own guild2 and it would not have been likely to tolerate any intrusion on its rights4 ,we know1 too1 that those woodcuts which most attest ,holbein's genius were engraved by that mysterious ,hans ,ltzelburger1 form-cutter1 called ,franck 7,hans ,ltzelburger1 ,formschnider1 genannt ,franck71 who still remains1 after all the researches of enthusiastic admirers1 a hand and a name1 and beyond this--nothing4 ,but it is when ,holbein's designs are engraved with ,ltzelburger's astonishingly beautiful cutting that we can appreciate how wonderful was the design itself4 ,to compare these fairy pictures with the painter's large cartoons is to get some conception of the arc his powers described4 ,it seems incredible that the same hand could hang an equal majesty on the wall of a tiny shell and on that of a king's palace1 and with equal justness of eye4 ,yet it is done4 ,he will ride a donkey or an elephant with the like mastery2 but you will never find ,holbein saddling the donkey with a howdah4 ,it is not always possible to subscribe to ,ruskin's flowing judgments2 but ,i gratefully borrow the one with which he sums up thus1 in a lecture on wood-engraving3 ,holbein does not give many gradations of light1 the speaker says1 but not because ,holbein cannot give chiaroscuro if he chooses4 ,he is twenty times a stronger master of it than ,rembrandt2 but therefore he knows exactly when and how to use it1 and that wood-engraving is not the proper means for it4 ,the quantity of it which is needful for his story he will give1 and that with an unrivalled subtlety4 ,and the student of ,holbein's art can but feel that ,ruskin has here touched upon a characteristic of the painter's peculiar power in every phase of it2--the power to be ,csar within himself2 to say to his hand1 thus far1 to say to his fancy1 no farther4 ,those who have come to know ,holbein something more than superficially1 or as a mere maker of portraits1 will smile at the dictum of some very recent authority which pronounces him wanting in imagination2 or at the hasty conclusion that what he would not1 that he could not4 ,he has given us1 for instance1 no animal paintings or landscapes pure and simple1 or1 at least1 none such have come down to us4 ,and yet what gems of landscape he has touched into his backgrounds here and there6 ,and what drawings of animal life he made6 ,there are two1 for instance1 in the ,basel ,museum which could not be surpassed2 studies in silver-point and water-colours of lambs and a bat outstretched4 ,no reproduction could give the exquisite texture of the bat's wings1 the wandering red veins1 the almost diaphanous membrane1 the furry body1--a miracle of patience and softness4 ,it is all purest ,nature4 ,like ,topsy one can but 'spec' it growed rather than was created4 ,and they are not only beautiful in themselves but full of living meanings4 ,many an hour the young painter enjoyed while he made such studies as his lambs on the pleasant slopes about ,basel2 the mountains scalloping the horizon1 and all the sweet fresh winds vocal with tinkling bells or the chant of the deep-throated ,rhine4 ,many of the long1 long thoughts of youth1--those thoughts that ring like happy bells or sweep like rushing rivers1 kept him company as he laid these delicate strokes and washes that seem to exhale the very breath of morning across four hundred years4 ,in the next year after painting the portraits of ,meyer and his wife there is a sudden break in the painter's story which has always puzzled his biographers4 ,after such a brilliant start in ,basel it is perplexing to find the young man1 instead of proceeding to join the ,painters' ,guild and take the necessary citizenship1 suddenly turn his back on all these encouragements and leave the town for a long absence and remote journeys4 ,as will be seen when we come to consider the story of ,holbein's married life1 however1 ,i have a theory that the influence which sent him south in such an unexpected fashion was apart from professional affairs4 ,whether this is a good shot or no1 certain it is that he did now go far south1--as distances were in those days2 and that1 paying his way as he went by his brush1 he went first to ,lucerne1 where the evidence goes to show that he apparently thought of settling instead of at ,basel1--and then on beyond it4 ,and it seems highly probable that at this time he pushed on over the ,alps and made his way into ,italy1--already the ,mecca of every artist4 ,here he could not now1 in #aeag1 have hoped to see either ,bramante or ,leonardo da ,vinci in person4 ,the former had died at ,rome two years before2 but1 without getting even as far as ,pavia1 ,milan could show some splendid monuments to his sojourn within her walls2 characteristic examples of that architecture of the closing fifteenth century which ,holbein loved as ,bramante himself4 ,leonardo was now in ,france2 but in the refectory of the ,santa ,maria ,monastery was his immortal1 though1 alas6 not imperishable1 masterpiece--,the ,last ,supper4 ,time had not yet taught ,leonardo1 much less ,holbein1 the fleeting nature of mural oil-painting2 the only so-called fresco painting which the latter ever attempted1 so far as is known4 ,but the great ,supper was still glowing in all the splendour of its original painting1 and would impress itself indelibly on an eye such as ,holbein's4 ,in more than one cathedral1 too1 as he wandered in such a holiday1 he would have noted how ,mantegna had made its architecture the background for his own individual genius4 ,at any rate each of these1 somehow and somewhere1 set its own seal upon the reverent heart of ,holbein at about this time4 ,whether through their original works or copies of them1--already familiar to ,augsburg as well as ,lucerne1--the lad sat humbly at the feet of both ,leonardo and ,mantegna4 ,by the first1 beside many a loftier lesson1 he was confirmed and strengthened in his native respect for accurate studies of the living world around him4 ,from the second he learned a still deeper scorn of pretty art4 ,yet though he sat at their feet1 it was as no servile disciple4 ,he would fain be taught by them2 fain follow them in all humility and frankness4 ,but it was in order to expand his own powers1 not to surrender them2 to speak his own thoughts the better1 not theirs1 nor another's4 ,and1 in any event1 on such a journey ,lucerne must come first4 ,and that he thought of making some long stay here when he returned is shown by his having joined in this year #aeag1 the ,guild of ,st4 ,luke1 the ,painters' ,guild of ,lucerne1 then but newly organised4 ,master ,hans ,holbein has given one ,gulden1 reads the old entry4 ,two other items of this visit give us glimpses of its flesh-and-blood realities1 perhaps of its unrest4 ,the first1 that he also joined a local company of ,archers1 the ,militia of his day1 seems to bring his living footfall very close4 ,a resonant1 manly1 wholesome footfall it is1 too6 ,this broad-shouldered young fellow is as ready to draw a good stout bow among mountain-marksmen as a lamb among its daffodils4 ,the second item makes it still clearer that he had other elements as well as the pastoral in his blood4 ,on the #ajth of ,december he got himself fined for his share in a street-scrimmage1 where he would seem to have decidedly preferred the livelier to the better part of valour4 ,and then he would appear to have shaken the dust1 or more likely the snows1 of ,lucerne off his feet for the road to ,italy1 if not for ,italy itself4 ,whatever his objective1 he got1 at any rate1 well on toward the ,pass of the ,st4 ,gothard4 ,the scanty clues of such works as have remained on record prove that he reached ,altdorf4 ,but there the actual trail is altogether lost4 ,if he spent the entire interval brush in hand1 or if--as ,i believe--he treated himself to a bit of a holiday beyond the ,alps1 can be but a guess in the dark4 ,by this time the ,new ,year of #aeah1 then falling in ,march1 could not have been far off1 before or behind him4 ,and in #aeah ,holbein executed the commission which must have been the envy of every local artist4 ,jacob von ,hertenstein1 ,burgomaster of ,lucerne1 had now got his fine new house ready for decoration2 and it was to ,holbein that he gave the splendid commission to decorate it to his fancy1--the interior as well as the faade4 ,and a renowned triumph the painter made of it2 a triumph such as1 perhaps1 no other artist north of ,italy could then have equalled4 ,it is idle now to dwell upon the religious subjects of one room1 the genre paintings in another1 the battle scenes of a third1 and so on through those five famous rooms which were still in existence and fair preservation so late as #ahbd1 but are now for ever lost2 to say nothing of the painted ,renaissance architecture and the historic legends which looked like solid realities when the faade was studied4 ,but ,mizraim is become merchandise2 and all that is now left of what should have been a treasured and priceless heirloom is but a monument to the shame of that citizen1 a banker1 who could condemn such a thing to destruction as indifferently as if it had been a cowshed1 and to the shame of the municipality which1 at any cost1 did not prevent it4 ,some hasty sketches--due to individual enterprise and a sense of the dignity of ,holbein's fame--an original drawing for one of the faade-paintings1 and a few fragments of the interior paintings1 which still show themselves1 by chance1 in the banker's stable wall--these are all that remain to speak of what must have been the enthusiastic labour of the greater part of ,holbein's twenty-first year6 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,holbein ,,basiliensis #aeai-aebf ,holbein ,basiliensis--,enters the ,painters' ,guild--,bonifacius ,amerbach and his portrait--,the ,last ,supper and its ,judas--,the so-called ,fountain of ,life at ,lisbon--,genius for design and symbolism in architecture--,versatility1 humour1 fighting scenes--,holbein becomes a citizen and marries--,basel in #aeai--;,froben's circle--,tremendous events and issues of the time--,holbein's religious works--,the ,nativity and ,adoration at ,freiburg--,hans ,oberriedt--,the ,basel ,passion in eight panels--,passion ,drawings--,christ in the tomb--,christ and ,mary ,magdalen at the door of the sepulchre--,rathaus wall-paintings--,birth of ,holbein's eldest child--,the ,solothurn ,madonna3 its discovery and rescue--,holbein's wife and her portraits--,suggested solutions of some biographical enigmas--,title pages--,portraits of ,erasmus--,journey to ,france1 probably to ,lyons and ,avignon--,publishers and pictures of the so-called ,dance of ,death--,dorothea ,offenburg as ,venus and ,las ,corinthiaca--,triumph of the ,protestant party--,holbein decides to leave ,basel for a time--,the ,meyer-,madonna of ,darmstadt and ,dresden1 and its portraits4 ,and now it is #aeai1 and with it the true ,hour of ,holbein's destiny is striking4 ,take away the coming seven years and you will still have what ,holbein is too often thought to be only--a great portrait-painter4 ,no greater ever etched the soul of a man on his mask4 ,his previous and his after achievements would still amply justify the honour of centuries4 ,but add these seven years1 from #aeai to #aebf1 and dull indeed must be the intelligence that cannot recognise the great ,master1 without qualification and in the light of any thoughtful comparison with the very greatest4 ,his ,basel career may be said to begin here2 his earlier work furnishing the ,prologue4 ,on the #beth ,september1 #aeai1 when he was about two-and-twenty1 he joined the ,basel ,guild of ,painters2 that same ,guild of ,heaven 7,zunft zum ,himmel7 which his brother ,ambrose had joined two years earlier and from which he seems to have passed to the veritable guild of ,heaven at about this latter date4 ,and hardly is the ink dry upon the record of his membership than ,holbein painted one of the most beautiful of his portraits--that of ,bonifacius ,amerbach 7,plate #f74 ,he stands beside a tree on which is hung an inscription4 ,behind him is ,holbein's favourite early background1--the blue of the sky1 here broken by the warm brown and green of the branch1 and the faint glimpse of far-away mountains4 ,under his soft cap1 with a cross for badge1 his intensely gleaming blue eyes look out beneath grave brows4 ,the lips are softly yet firmly set2 the mouth framed by the sunny beard which repeats the red-brown of his hair4 ,the black scholar's gown1 with its trimming of black fur1 discloses his rich damask doublet and white collar4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #f ,,bonifacius ,,amerbach ,oils4 ,basel ,museum ,well may the inscription assert--above the signature1 the name of the sitter and the date #adth ,october1 #aeai-- ,though but a painted face ,i am not far removed from ,life2 but rather1 ,by truthful lines1 the noble image of my ,possessor4 ,as he accomplishes eight times three years1 so faithfully in me also ,is ,nature's work proclaimed by the work of ,art4 ,for here in truth is a work of ,nature which is no less a work of ,art4 ,this is the ,amerbach who began and inspired his son ,basilius 7so named after ,bonifacius's brother7 to complete the ,holbein ,collection1 which the ,basel ,museum bought long afterwards4 ,and such was the love of both that they included1 perhaps deliberately1 much that has small probability of claim to be ,holbein's work4 ,they would reject nothing attributed to him2 thinking a bushel of chaff well worth housing if it might yield one genuine grain4 ,and in view of these expressive facts1 it is hardly necessary to argue in behalf of the tradition that more than a conventional friendship bound the two young men together1--printer's son and painter's son1 musician-scholar and scholar-painter1 ,churchman and ,churchman2 the one twenty-four1 the other twenty-two4 ,bonifacius was the youngest of ,johann ,amerbach's three gifted sons4 ,as all the world knows1 ,johann had been also a scholar as well as a printer1 and great in both capacities4 ,the most eminent scholars of his day gravitated as naturally to this noble personality as they afterwards did to that of his protg and successor1 ,johann ,froben4 ,he had educated his sons1 too1 to worthily continue his life-work and maintain his devout principles4 ,bonifacius was the darling of more than one heart not given to softness4 ,he had been more the friend than the pupil of ,ulrich ,zasius at the ,university of ,freiburg1 before he went to ,avignon to complete his legal studies under ,alciat4 ,five years after this portrait was painted he became ,professor of ,law in the ,basel ,university4 ,i am ready to die1 writes ,erasmus of him1 when ,i shall have seen any young man purer or kinder or more sincere than this one4 ,very possibly it was for ,bonifacius himself that ,holbein painted his own portrait about this time 7,plate #a1 frontispiece74 ,it is a worthy mate1 at all events4 ,in the ,amerbach ,catalogue it was simply called ,holbein's counterfeit1 in dry colour 7ein conterfehung ,holbein's mit trocken farben72 the frame1 too1 was catalogued1 though the painting was kept in a cabinet separately when the ,basel ,museum acquired it with the ,collection4 ,the vigour and finish of this portrait on vellum1 done in crayons or body-colour1 make it a gem of the first water4 ,the drawing was done in black chalk1 and the tints have been rubbed in with coloured crayons or given with the point where lines of colour were required4 ,the work has the delicacy of a water-colour and the strength of oils4 ,the broad1 soft1 red hat1 though so fine a bit of colour1 is clearly worn as part of a simple everyday habit4 ,there is no suggestion of studying for effect1 or even caring at all about it4 ,he wears his hat pulled soberly down over his brown hair exactly as when he wore it thus about the business of the day4 ,the plastic modelling of the puckered brow and the mobile mouth is beautifully indicated4 ,the bluish tone left by the razor is just hinted4 ,in his drab coat with its black velvet bands1 with his shirt1 on which the high lights have been applied1 slightly open at the throat1 ,holbein himself seems to stand before one as in life4 ,among the early works of the ,amerbach ,catalogue there is one which shows strong traces of ,leonardo's and even more of ,mantegna's influence on him at this time4 ,it is a ,last ,supper1 painted in oils on wood4 ,but it was so mutilated in the iconoclastic fury of #aebi1 and has been so cobbled1 re-broken1 re-set1 and restored generally1 that it can no longer be called ,holbein's work without many reservations4 ,there is also another ,last ,supper1 one of a coarsely painted set on canvas1 which is attributed to him on much more doubtful grounds1 to judge by the composition and colouring4 ,myself ,i should be inclined to see the inferior hand of ,ambrose1 ,hans the elder1 or perhaps even ,sigmund ,holbein in these1 if they are genuine ,holbein works at all4 ,but there are still to be seen the traces of his own hand and mind in the ,last ,supper in oils on wood4 ,st4 ,john's head must originally have been very beautiful2 very manly1 too1--dark with sudden anguish and recoil4 ,there is a separate head of ,st4 ,john1 in oils1 in the same collection1 which shows how fixed was this noble originality of type in ,holbein's conception of the beloved apostle4 ,but it is in ,judas that the patient student will find1 perhaps1 most of ,holbein's peculiar cast of thought1 when once the initial repulsion is overcome4 ,by a very natural arrangement he is brought into the immediate foreground and sits there1 already isolated1 already damned1 in such a torment of body and soul as haunts the spectator who has had the courage to reconsider the dictum of authorities who call him a ,jew of frightful vulgarity4 ,frightful he may be2 but it is a strange judgment which can find him vulgar4 ,unfortunately1 the painting is no longer in a condition to justify reproduction2 but such as study this yellow-robed1 emaciated1 shivering1 fever-consumed ,judas will1 ,i venture to assert1 find food for thought in it even under all the injuries the work has undergone4 ,it is a demon-driven soul if ever there was one4 ,he is in the very act of springing to his feet and rushing away anywhere1 anywhere out of this ,presence2--no more concerned about his money-bag than about the food he loathes4 ,thirty pieces of silver6 ,if the priests have lied1 if this is in very truth the ,messiah his heart still half believes ,him1 will thirty pieces of silver buy his soul from the ,avenger8 ,is there time still to escape8 ,what if he break the promise given when he was over-persuaded in the market-place the other day8 ,but did not the ,high ,priest himself declare that this is ,beelzebub in person1--this fair1 false1 dear1--oh6 still too dear ,illusion8 ,up6 ,let him be gone out of this6--from the sound of that ,voice1 from the sight of that ,face1 get the thing over and done1 done--done one way or another6 ,if ,god's work1 as the priests swear1 well and good4 ,he will have earned the pity of ,god ,himself4 ,if the devil's1 as his heart whispers1 well1 too6 ,let him take his price and buy himself a rope long enough to house his soul in any ,hell1 rather than sit on in this one6 ,it is all painted1 or was once2 all written on that sunken cheek1 that matted hair and clammy brow2 in that cavernous socket1 that eye of lurid despair2 on the whole anatomy of a lost soul4 ,the hand that did it was very young1 very immature2 but it had the youth and the immaturity of a ,master4 ,there is another and a very different work1 an oil painting1 in the ,royal ,collection at ,lisbon1 signed ,,ioannes ,,holbein ,,fecit #aeai1 which1 if by the younger ,hans1 would almost put the question as to whether the painter knew the landscapes of ,italy1 beyond doubt2 so southern is the type of its background4 ,the work1 however1 has been rejected by ,woltmann1 on the strength of an old photograph not quite perfect4 ,he held the signature to be spurious1 and attributed the picture to the school of ,gerard ,david4 ,and he gave to the work the name by which it is now generally styled in ,english works3 ,the ,fountain of ,life 7,der ,brunnen des ,lebens#c74 ,he did so from the inscription within the rim of the well immediately in the foreground2 but a literal translation of this inscription1 ,,pvtevs ,,aqvarvm ,,vivencivm1 is1 ,i think1 to be preferred3 ,the ,well of ,living ,waters4 ,the majority of those competent to form a judgment in such matters are inclined to attribute the work to ,hans ,holbein the ,elder1 who did not die until some years later1 and who made use of a very similar form of signature4 ,and for myself ,i find it hard to see how anyone familiar with ,hans the ,younger could accept it as his work at any period of his career2 least of all at the date given in the signature4 ,so that equally whether ,woltmann is right in believing the signature itself spurious1 or those are right who hold it to be the genuine signature of ,hans the ,elder1--a more detailed description of the composition does not fall within the scope of this little volume4 ,but the whole matter is most clearly set forth1 and a very beautiful reproduction in colours given of the painting itself1 in ,herr ,seeman's article upon it1 which will be found in the appended ,list of ,references4 99 99 99 99 99 ,considerably before #aeai1 as has been said1 ,holbein had begun to develop his special genius for ,design1 and to apply it to glass or window-paintings1 as well as to metal and wood-engravings4 ,the beautiful drawings1 whether washed1 or etched with the point1 in chalks or ,indian ink1 of which examples may be seen in almost every great collection1 private as well as public1 that year after year were created by that fertile brain and ever more masterly hand1 constitute an ,art in themselves4 ,and since so many 7perhaps the greater number as well as the greater in subject7 of his paintings have perished1 it is chiefly in his drawings that the progression of his powers can be followed1 or the plane and scope of his imagination recognised at all4 ,there is seldom a date on them2 but they will be found to date themselves pretty accurately by certain features4 ,in his earliest1 for instance1 that defect of which mention has been made1--the short thick figures due to the energy of his rebound from ,gothic attenuation is a grave fault4 ,there is a ,virgin and ,child among his washed drawings for glass-paintings in the ,basel ,museum1 for example1 which1 when you cut it off at the knees1 is one of the most charming pictures of ,mother and ,child to be found in any painter's treatment of this subject4 ,and behind them is a gem of landscape4 ,yet the whole1 as it stands1 is utterly marred by the ,virgin's dwarfed limbs4 ,but although ,holbein never entirely overcame this fault1 he did very greatly do so1 as the years passed4 ,his architectural settings1 too1 tended to greater simplicity in his later years4 ,yet this is not a safe guide4 ,some early designs have simple forms2 some comparatively late ones1 a very ornate architecture4 ,for the truth is that these architectural backgrounds and settings remained1 so long as his fancy had any free field for disporting itself1 an integral part of his conception4 ,but only as inseparable from the ,symbolism1 the under-tow1 of his imagination4 ,to my thinking1 at any rate1 they make a gravid mistake who look for realism in these things4 ,his stately pillars and arches1 his fluid forms of ornament1 are not his idea of the actual surroundings of the characters he portrays1 any more than they are your idea1 or mine1 of those surroundings4 ,is it to be supposed that he thought the dwellings of our ,lord were palaces8 ,or that he could not paint a stable8 ,those who maintain that ,holbein was a ,realist in the modern sense of the word must reconcile as best they can the theory with the facts4 ,but when we see the stage set with every stately circumstance1--the ,babe amid the fading splendours of earthly palaces1 our ,lord mocked by matter as well as man1--,i dare to think that we shall do well to cease from insisting on an adobe wall1 and to study those incongruous circumstances to which the will and not the poverty of ,holbein consents4 ,we shall1 at least1 no longer be dull to the tears of things as he saw them4 ,but it would be no less a mistake to think of ,holbein as one without a sense of laughter as well4 ,his drawings of open-mouthed peasants gossiping in a summer's nooning1 or dancing in some uncouth frolic1--and still more his romping children1 dancing children1 and the chase of the fox running off with the goose1--all of these are full of boyish fun4 ,would that they could be given here without usurping the place of more important works6 ,but that is impossible4 ,and so1 too1 with the costume-figures of ,basel1 among which is the charming back view of a citizen's wife1 with all the women bent far backward in the odd carriage that was then the latest fashion among them4 ,he was particularly happy1 also1 in his drawings of the ,landsknechte1 those famous ,mercenaries of ,blut und ,eisen2 always ready to drink a good glass1 and a-many2 to love a good lass after the same liberal fashion2 to troll a good song or fight a good fight2 and all with equal zest4 ,he had not mixed with these masterful gentry for nothing2 nor they with him to wholly die4 ,there are a number of drawings where they are engaged in combat1 too1 which show that ,holbein's heart leapt to the music of sword and spear as blithely as does ,scott's or ,dumas's--as blithely as did the hearts of the ,reislufer themselves4 ,look at the mad rush1 the hand-to-hand grapple1 in a drawing of the ,basel ,collection1 for instance 7,plate #g74 ,the blood-lust1 the heroism1 the savagery1 the thrust1 the oath1 the dust-choked prayer1 the forgotten breathing clay under the bloodstained foot2 the very clash and din of the fray2--all is told with the brush4 ,and yet not one unnecessary detail squandered4 ,it is as if one watched it from some palpitating refuge1 just near enough to see the forefront figures distinctly and to make out the interlocked hubbub and fury where the ranks have been broken through4 ,it would be a great day for ,art could we but chance upon some lost painting for which such a study had served its completed purpose4 99 99 99 99 99 ,on the #crd of ,july1 #aebj1 ,holbein fulfilled what was then the requirement of almost every guild1 and purchased his citizenship2 a citizenship to reflect unfading honour on ,basel1 and of which she has ever been justly proud4 ,and somewhere about the same time he married ,elsbeth ,schmidt1 a tanner's widow1 who had one child1 ,franz4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #g ,,fight ,,of ,,landsknechte ,washed ,drawing4 ,basel ,museum ,for the past four or five years ,basel had been steadily becoming more and more democratic4 ,and at a period when its lite were scholars and printers and civic officials of every origin1--when the illegitimate son of a ,rotterdam doctor was the true prince1 and ,beatus ,rhenanus1 the grandson of a butcher1 was his worthy second in the reverence of ,basel1--the widow and son of a reputable tanner and a rising young artist1 who had already the suffrages of the most influential citizens1 would find no doors closed to them on the score of social disabilities4 ,the friendship of such men as ,erasmus1 ,froben1 ,bonifacius ,amerbach1 and the ,mayor1--all conspicuous stars in the ,church party1--would have ennobled a man of less genius than ,holbein in the eyes of his fellow-citizens2 and rightly4 ,but as to the exact locality in which ,holbein set up his first married roof-tree--that ,bethel of sacred or saddest dreams--no documentary evidence has yet come to light4 ,circumstantial evidence1 however1 amounts to a strong probability in favour of the ,rheinhalde of ,great-,basel4 ,if there was an emblem peculiarly abhorrent to the ,basilisk 7the ,device of ,basel7 it was the ,crescent-and-star4 ,but nothing could better serve to recall the rough outline of ,basel in ,holbein's day than this very emblem4 ,as the ,rhine suddenly swerves from its first wild rush westward and races away1 northerly1 to the ,german ,ocean1 it shapes the hollow of the crescent in which ,little-,basel 7,klein-,basel7 nestled as the star2 and1 appropriately enough1 since it was here that the ,catholic's ,star of ,faith rallied when overcome across the river1 where curved the crescent of ,great-,basel 7,gross-,basel74 ,and the relative proportions of the two would be fairly enough represented by the symbols respectively used4 ,great-,basel's northern face was protected by the ,rhine1 while the stout city wall secured its convex curve4 ,of this wall the eastern horn was ,st4 ,alban's ,gate2 its north-west was ,st4 ,john's ,gate 7,st4 ,johann ,thor72 beside which stood the decaying ,commandery of the ,knights of ,malta1 which had contributed a large sum toward the expanded wall1 in order to be included within it4 ,and just as these spots still mark the horns of the old crescent1 the ,spalen ,thor shows where it had its greatest depth1 midway between the other two4 ,a straight line running due north-east from this ,spalen-,thor would cross the big square of the ,fish-market 7,fischmarktplatz7 pretty nearly as the uncovered stream of the ,birsig1 or ,little ,birs1 did before the quaint little bridge1 which then united the two halves of the ,fischmarkt1 was absorbed in the paving over of stream and square before ,holbein's day4 ,this same straight line would of itself draw the ,old ,bridge 7,alte ,brcke7 with approximate exactness1 the even then ancient bridge which centred the star of ,klein-,basel to its crescent4 ,and in the ,historical ,museum1 where the ,barefooted ,friars worshipped then1 we may still see the grotesque piece of clockwork1 the wooden ,stammering ,king 7,lllenknig71 that for centuries used hourly to roll great eyes and stick out its tongue a foot long across the river from the ,gross-,basel end of the bridge4 ,it is often said that this monster was set up as a public token of the hatred which the triumphant ,protestantism of the south bank felt for the stubborn ,catholicism of ,klein-,basel4 ,but the thing was a famous ancient joke before party feeling turned it into a gibe4 ,bonifacius ,amerbach's home1 the ,emperor's ,seat 7,kaiserstuhl1 now #bc1 ,rheingasse71 was in ,klein-,basel4 ,johann ,amerbach had bought it1 near to his beloved friends1 the ,carthusians4 ,in #aebj the good old man had slept for six years in the cloisters of the monastery2 where to-day the children of the ,orphan ,asylum play above his grave4 ,but all the conditions of ,holbein's daily life would lead him to prefer ,basel proper1 and to choose the quarter in which he bought a home eight years later4 ,this was then the western quarter of ,gross-,basel1 along the river-face of which ran the high southern and western bank of the ,rhine1 the ,rheinhalde1 now ,st4 ,johann ,vorstadt4 ,about where the present ,blumenrain ends stood the arch1 or ,schwibbogen4 ,further on still stood the ,gate of the ,cross 7,kreuzthor71 by the ,house of the ,brothers of ,st4 ,anthony1 the ancient ,klsterli of ,basel4 ,before the ,commandery of ,st4 ,john got themselves included within the city wall the ,kreuzthor was its western gate4 ,the whole district of ze ,crze1 so called because its boundaries were crosses before towers replaced them1 has however become absorbed in the ,st4 ,johann ,vorstadt1 while the ,kreuzthor has disappeared altogether4 ,the quarter was a favourite one with members of the ,fishers' ,guild and with decent folk of small mean s4 ,as early as #aeag the ,fishers' ,company had extended itself so greatly as to become a notable institution of the ,vorstadt1 including many members from ,klein-,basel also2 while its military record was a proud one4 ,but it was in this year1 while ,holbein was making his visit to ,lucerne and beyond1 that this guild took the more truly descriptive name which it bears to this day1 that of the ,vorstadt ,association 7,vorstadtgesellschaft74 ,and to this association1 which in after years gave him a famous banquet1 ,holbein1 we know1 belonged later on1 if not now4 ,every day would take him to the ,fischmarkt1--the great square humming with activity1 crowded with inns1 public-houses1 shops1 booths1 dwelling-houses1--the trade mart of every nationality4 ,the ,cornmarkt near by1 now the ,marktplatz1 with its almost finished ,rathaus1 was the centre of official civic life4 ,when the great bell clanged on the ,rathaus1 and its flag was flung out1 not only every professional soldier1 but every guild and every male above fourteen1 knew his appointed place at the wall1 and took it4 ,but every day1 and all day1 the ,fischmarkt flung out its peaceful standards1 or rallied men to this side or to that with the tocsin of its presses1--the old ,amerbach printing-house of the ,settle 7zum ,sessel71 which was ,johann ,froben's home and printing-house in #aebj4 ,morning after morning1 and year upon year1 ,holbein turned his back upon ,st4 ,johannthor1 and walked eastward along the ,rheinhalde2--the river racing toward him on his left hand1 the ,university rising in front of him beyond the bridge1 and the delicate ,cathedral towers beyond the ,university4 ,for the ,basel ,minster was still the ,cathedral of the great ,see of ,basel4 ,passing the wall of the ,dominican ,cemetery1 on which was painted the ancient ,dance of ,death with which his own after-creations were so often to be confused1 ,holbein must many a time have studied the famous old copy4 ,for though the ,dominican painting was then nearly a century old1 it was a copy of a still older original in the ,klein-,basel nunnery of ,klingenthal1 a community under ,dominican direction4 ,but he would pass another spot--one day to be of far more living importance to him4 ,in #aebj it was a corn warehouse1 known by the name of ze ,crz1 which belonged to ,adam ,petri1 the printer1 who had inherited it from his uncle1 the famous printer ,johann ,petri1 by whose ingenious improvements the art of printing was so greatly facilitated4 ,two years later1 in #aebb1 ,froben bought this granary1 ze ,crz1 and converted it into the book-magazine which was known all over ,europe as ,froben's ,book-house4 ,and in this latter year ,adam ,petri1 greatly to ,luther's disgust1 pirated ,luther's translation of the ,new ,testament1 which had appeared three months before4 ,holbein drew a superb title-page1 ante-dated #aebc1 for this enterprise of ,petri--the ,new ,testament now right faithfully rendered into ,german1--with the symbols of the ,evangelists at the four corners1 the arms of ,basel at the top1 the device of the printer at the foot1 and the noble figures of ,st4 ,paul and ,st4 ,peter on either side2 figures which will bear comparison with ,drer's ,four ,temperaments of a later date4 ,later still he designed another striking title-page for ,thomas ,wolff's translation2 and his beautiful title-pages and ornaments for ,froben1 with whom his connection was not a temporary matter such as these others1 would need a volume to themselves4 ,holbein's only rival1 if he could be called such1 in work of this sort was the talented goldsmith1 ,urs ,graf1 who1 as an exceedingly loose fish1 lived most appropriately in the ,fischmarkt in his own house near the old ,birsig ,bridge1 when he was not in the lock-up for one or another of his constant brawls and scandals4 ,but to compare the best work of both is to recognise a difference in kind as well as degree3 the essential difference between even negligent genius and the most elaborate talent4 ,high talent ,urs ,graf had unquestionably2 though stamped1--,i think1--with the lawless caprices of his own character4 ,holbein's every design has not only what ,urs ,graf lacked--that ordered imagination which is ,style--but over and above all1 the subtle expression of ,power4 ,many a time1 too1 just where he would turn away from the ,rhine for the business centre of ,gross-,basel1 the artist would make some little pause at the old ,flower ,inn 7zur ,blume71 which gave its name to the ,blumenplatz1 and is still commemorated in the greatly extended ,blumenrain of to-day4 ,all the world now knows the famous hotel of ,the ,three ,kings2 and where it reaches nearest to the ,old ,bridge stood the ,blume of ,holbein's time1 even then the oldest of the ,basel inns4 ,this ,blume1 not to be confused with later inns of the same name1 shared with its no less famous contemporary1--,the ,stork1 in the ,fischmarkt1--the special patronage of the chief printers4 ,basilius ,amerbach1 for instance1 the brother of ,holbein's friend ,bonifacius1 lived at the ,blume2 and often the painter must have turned in for a friendly glass with him and a chat about ,bonifacius1 away at his law studies in ,avignon4 ,as for the ,stork1 its very rooms were named in remembrance of the envoys and merchant traders who flocked to it on all great occasions4 ,there was a ,cologne ,room1 for instance1 and a ,venetian ,room1 among many others4 ,the men of ,venice1 indeed1 had a particular affection for it4 ,here ,holbein met with all nationalities1 and learned much of the great centres of other countries4 ,here came all the ,basel magnates and printers4 ,and here1 a few years later on1 came that bizarre personage who was for a very brief time ,basel's town physician1 the ,paracelsus ,theophrastus ,bombastus to whom we owe our word bombastic4 ,holbein was on a visit to ,england during the latter's short tenure of office1 when the combined scholarship and poverty of ,oporinus made him the hack of ,paracelsus and the victim of many a petty tyranny4 ,at that time ,oporinus1--the son of that ,hans ,herbster1 painter1 whose portrait is now attributed to ,ambrose ,holbein1--was glad to place his remarkable knowledge of ,greek at ,froben's service4 ,he was not yet a printer1 as later when ,holbein drew a clever device for him4 ,and neither he nor the painter could know that one day the daughter of ,bonifacius ,amerbach should marry him out of sheer pity for his unhappy old age1--somewhat as he himself1 when but a lad of twenty1 married an aged ,xantippe from gratitude4 ,but in #aebj1 when ,holbein was just married1 ,oporinus was still a student and ,bonifacius unmarried4 ,erasmus1 too1 did not permanently take up his home with ,froben until the following year1 and was now at ,louvain4 ,yet what a true university was that little house zum ,sessel 7now #c1 ,todtengsslein1 the little lane where the old post-office stood7 to an intelligence such as ,holbein's6 ,and what a circle was that of ,froben's staff6 ,from ,froben himself1 above whom ,erasmus alone could tower in scholarship1 down through every member to the youngest1 and from such men as ,gerard ,lystrius on the one hand and the literally ,beatus ,rhenanus on the other1 what things were not to be learned6 ,and what discussions those were that drew each man to give of his best in the common talk6 ,venice sent news of the unspeakable ,turk1 whom she had such good cause to watch and dread4 ,for fifty years his name had ceased to blanch the cheek of other nations2 but now it was said1 and said truly1 that the dying ,selim1 the ,grim1 had forged a thunderbolt which ,suleyman ,,ii4 would not be slow to hurl4 ,no man could know the worst or dared predict the end1 as to that ,yellow ,terror of ,holbein's time4 ,and closer still1 to keen eyes1 were the threats of the coming ,peasant ,terror4 ,wurtemberg had battened down the flames1 it is true2 but the deck of ,europe was hot under foot with the passions that were soon to make the ,turks' atrocities seem gentle in comparison4 ,the death of ,maximilian and the election of ,charles ,v4 were a year old now4 ,but none knew better than the ,basel printers how much the ,league of ,swabia and the ,swiss ,confederation had weighed in the close contest of claims between those three strangely youthful competitors for the ,emperor's crown2--,charles1 but nineteen2 ,francis ,i41 one-and-twenty2 and ,henry ,,viii41 not twenty-five4 ,basel also knew that ,charles had only bought his triumph by swearing to summon the ,diet of ,worms4 ,all the more1 therefore1 was she intensely alive to the possible issues of the ,arabian-,nights-,entertainment which had but just concluded on the dreary ,calais flats when ,holbein became one of ,basel's citizens4 ,erasmus had come back full of it4 ,marco ,polo's best wonders made but a dingy show beside the ,field of the ,cloth of ,gold1 where in this ,june the two defeated candidates for imperial honours had kissed each other midway between the ruined moat of ,guisnes and the rased battlements of ,arde4 ,then1 on top of this1 came the rumours of the ,english ,king's undertaking to answer ,luther's most formidable attack on ,rome4 ,it was in #aebj1 the year after his great disputation with ,eck at ,leipzig1 that ,luther published his cataclysmic addresses3 ,to the ,christian ,nobles of ,germany and ,on the ,babylonian ,captivity1--the latter of which itself contains the whole ,protestant ,reformation in embryo4 ,would to ,god1 exclaimed ,erasmus of it1 that he had followed my counsel and abstained from odious and seditious proceedings6 ,bishop ,tunstall1 then in ,worms1 had also written of it3--,i pray ,god keep that book out of ,england6 ,but before the year was out that book had reached ,england1 and ,henry ,,viii4 had sworn to annihilate its arguments and to triumphantly defend the dogmas of ,rome4 ,the eagerly-awaited ,defence did not get printed1 and would remain in ,pope ,leo's hands for a year yet4 ,but ,basel knew1 through ,more and ,erasmus1--whose canny smile probably discounted its critical quality1--pretty much its line of defence4 ,nor was ,froben's circle one whit more surprised than its royal author when its immediate reward was that formal style and title--,defender of the ,faith1--to which a few years more were to lend so different a significance4 ,by this latter date ,ulrich von ,hutten had fled to ,basel1 only to find that his violent heresies had completely estranged ,erasmus1 and closed ,froben's door1 as well as all other ,roman ,catholic doors1 against him for ever4 ,he lodged1 therefore1 at the ,blume until the ,basel ,council requested him to leave the town1 a little before his death1 in #aebc4 ,but in #aebj ,hutten was still at ,sickingen's fortress1 digging with fierce ardour the impassable gulf between him and the band of friends and ,churchmen among whom ,holbein ever ranged himself4 99 99 99 99 99 ,among the five lost works which ,patin says ,holbein painted1 there was a ,nativity and an ,adoration of the ,kings4 ,it is impossible now to say what resemblances1 if any1 existed between these and the same subjects1 executed not much later1 which are now in the ,university ,chapel1 ,freiburg ,minster4 ,these latter are the only known works of ,holbein that still hang in a sacred edifice4 ,they were evidently designed to fold in upon a central altar-piece with an arched top1 thus making1 when open1 the usual triptych2 but the central painting has vanished4 ,this large work was a gift to the ,carthusian monastery in ,klein-,basel2 and the arms of the donor1 ,hans ,oberriedt1 are displayed below the ,nativity1 as well as the portraits of himself and his six sons4 ,below the corresponding right wing1 the ,adoration1 are the arms of his wife and her portrait1 with her four daughters4 ,in both wings what ,i can only describe as the atmosphere of ,infancy1--and a touching atmosphere it is too--is strengthened by keeping all the figures small and heightening this suggestion by contrast with a grandiose architecture4 ,in both1 too1 the sacred scenes reveal themselves like visions unseen by the ,oberriedt family1 who face outward toward the altar and are supposed to be lighted by the actual lights of the church4 ,the whole work must once have been a glorious creation1 with its rich colours1 its beautiful architectural forms1 and its mingling of purest imagination with realism4 ,what would one not give to see the lost work these wings covered8 ,illustration3 ,,plate #h ,,the ,,nativity ,oils4 ,university ,chapel1 ,freiburg ,cathedral ,in the left wing1 the ,nativity 7,plate #h71 ,holbein has remarkably anticipated the lighting of ,correggio's famous masterpiece1 not finished until years after this must have been painted1 by the conditions of ,oberriedt's history and ,basel's as well4 ,the ,light that is to light the world lights up the scene with an exquisite enchanting softness1--yet so brilliantly that the very lights of heaven seem dimmed in comparison4 ,the moon1 in ,holbein's deliberate audacity1 seems but a disc as she bows her face1 too1 in worship4 ,shining by some compulsion of purest ,nature1 the divine radiance glows on the ecstatic ,mother2 and away above and beyond her--,how far that little candle shines1 and shines1 and shines again amid the shadows6 ,it illumines the beautiful face of the ,virgin1 touches the reverent awe of ,st4 ,joseph1 plays over marble arch and pillar1 discovers the wondering shepherd peering from behind the pillar on the left1 and irradiates the angel in the distance1 hastening to carry the glad tidings4 ,the happy cherubs behind the ,child rejoice in it2 and as they spring forward one notices how ,holbein has boldly discarded the conventional1 and attached their pinions as if these were a natural development of the arm instead of a separate member4 ,the same union of unfettered fancy symbolism and realism displays itself throughout the right wing1--where the ,virgin is enthroned in front of crumbling palaces4 ,the sun's rays form a great star1 of such dazzling light that one of the attendants shades his eyes to look upward1 and an old man with a noble head1 wearing an ermine cape1 presents his offering as the chief of the three kings2 while a ,moorish sovereign1 dressed in white1 makes a splendid figure as he waits to kneel with his gift1 and his greyhound stands beside him4 ,the colouring of both paintings must have had an extraordinary beauty when the painter laid down his brush4 ,to carp at such conceptions because their architecture is as imaginative and as deeply symbolical as the action1 is to demand that ,holbein shall be someone else4 ,these pictures1 beyond the portraits below them1 are the farthest possible from aiming at what we demand of ,realism1 though their own realism is astonishing4 ,holbein all too seldom sounds them1 but when he does choose to stir only a joyous elation in the heart he rings a peal of silver bells4 ,here all is glad thanksgiving4 ,the ,divine has come into a sick and sorry world2 and1 behold1 all is changed6 ,nothing sordid1 nothing shabby1 consists with the meaning of this miracle4 ,therefore it is not here4 ,all is transformed2 all is a ,new ,jerusalem--splendour1 peace1 ineffable and mysterious ,beauty4 ,with the dominance of the anti-,catholic party1 which unseated ,meyer zum ,hasen in #aeba1 his friend ,oberriedt also fell into trouble4 ,and soon after ,erasmus and ,bonifacius ,amerbach1--disgusted with the iconoclast fanaticism of #aebh and #aebi1--took refuge in ,catholic ,freiburg-in-the-,breisgau1 ,oberriedt also left ,basel for that city4 ,he took these wings with him to save them from the destruction which probably overtook the central work4 ,the latter was1 perhaps1 too large to conceal or get away4 ,during the ,thirty ,years' ,war they were again removed1 and safeguarded at ,schaffhausen4 ,and so great was their fame that they were twice expressly commanded to be brought before a sovereign2 once to ,munich1 to be seen by ,maximilian of ,bavaria2 and again to ,ratisbon for the ,emperor ,ferdinand ,,iii4 ,in #agih they were looted by the ,french1 and were only restored to ,freiburg in #ahjh4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #i ,,the ,,passion ,eight-panelled ,altar-piece ,oils4 ,basel ,museum ,i ,gethsemane ,,ii ,the ,kiss of ,judas ,,iii ,before ,pontius ,pilate ,,iv ,the ,scourging ,v ,the ,mocking ,,vi ,the ,way to ,calvary ,,vii ,it is finished ,,viii ,the ,entombment ,another great religious picture1 once no less renowned than ,oberriedt's altar-paintings1 has suffered a worse fate4 ,this is the eight-panelled altar-piece of the ,passion1 now in the ,basel ,museum 7,plate #i74 ,so far back as is known it was preserved1 probably after being hidden from the fury that attacked all church pictures1 in the ,rathaus4 ,maximilian ,i41 of ,bavaria1 the zealous collector of ,drer's works1 offered almost any price for this altar-piece by ,drer's great contemporary4 ,but ,basel1 unlike ,nremberg1 was not to be bribed2 and the world-famous painting remained to draw art-lovers from every country in ,europe4 ,nor did the most competent judges fail to envy ,basel her jewel1 and to eulogise its perfections4 ,painters such as ,sandrart1 looking at it after it had survived a hundred and fifty years of vicissitude1 could exclaim3 ,it is a work in which the utmost that our art is capable of may be found2 yielding the palm to none1 whether of ,germany or ,italy1 and justly wearing the laurel-wreath among the works of former times4 ,alas6 this laurel1 too1 has been filched from ,holbein's fame4 ,in #agga the altar-piece was consigned to the collection where it now is2 and it was then decided to gild the gold and paint the lily4 ,the work was subjected to one of those crude restorations which respect nothing save the frame4 ,and no monarch will ever again compete for its possession4 ,red is over red and blue over blue1 doubtless2 but in place of ,holbein's rich harmony a jangle of gaudy conflicting colours now sets one's teeth on edge4 ,so that only in a photograph can one even enjoy the composition--all that is left of the ,master4 ,but here it can be seen with what art the painter has so combined eight separate and distinct pictures1 each a gem1 into one1 by such a distribution and balance that the whole is as integral as a pearl4 ,the scene on the ,mount of ,olives1 which a great critic once pronounced worthy to compare with ,correggio's work1 is only to be surpassed by the ,entombment4 ,and in every scene--what freedom1 action1 verve6 ,from the first to the last all passes with the swift step of ,calamity1 yet all with noble dignity4 ,the ,basel ,museum possesses also a set of ten washed drawings in ,indian ink1--scenes of the ,passion designed for glass-painting1--which must be conned and conned again before one can know ,holbein at all in his deepest moods4 ,they are a great ,testament1 though they seem unbearably harsh at a superficial glance4 ,but put aside your own ideas and humbly study the ideas of ,holbein1--sure that they must be well worth the reverence of yours or mine1--and little by little you will be made free of that ,underworld where ,holbein's true self has its home2 you will pierce its gloom and find its clue and understand its tongue4 ,it is a small matter whether you and ,i find ourselves in sympathy with that world1 or can never be acclimatised4 ,the great matter1 the only matter1 is to understand it2 to see in its skeletons something more than lively bones1 in its graves something besides ,horror4 ,without mastering the logical sequence of these ten drawings1--where scene by scene the ,divine recedes before our eyes1 and the ,son of ,man assumes more and more the whole burden of ,sin and ,death1--it is inevitable that the life-size painting of ,christ in the ,grave1 also in the ,basel ,museum 7,plate #aj71 should seem just a ghastly and unpardonable piece of realism4 ,realism of the most ghastly truthfulness1 as to a corpse in the grave1 it certainly is4 ,but although it may be questioned whether such a picture should ever be painted1 no one who looks through the form to the thought that shapes it would pronounce even this awful utterance unpardonable4 ,there have been those who could see in this dead ,christ1--lying rigid in a green sarcophagus that throws over the waxen flesh the ghastly threat of that decay which would follow if no miracle intervened1--there have been those1 ,i say1 who could see in it only superb technique4 ,and others see only the negation of all idealism1 if not of all faith4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #aj ,,christ ,,in ,,the ,,grave ,oils4 ,basel ,museum ,yet put this painting1--the acme of technical beauty as well as of ruthless realism1--at the close of the ten ,passion drawings1 and ,i venture to believe that the one coherent conception that runs through them all will legitimately find its conclusion here4 ,here ,he lies that surrendered ,himself to the punishment of ,sin and the penalty of ,death--for all men and all time4 ,his pale lips are set with the superhuman agony of the cry with which ,he paid the uttermost farthing of that bond4 ,man has died for man1 martyrs for faith2 here ,god has died unto ,himself1 for us4 ,there has been no playing at death4 ,all the pitiless terrors of the grave are here1 with ,him who for love of us has chosen to know ,mortality like at all points with mortal men4 ,what ,he bore for us1 shall we shrink from so much as realising8 ,the great eyes are fixed in a look whose penetrating1 almost liquid sweetness not even the rigor of the final anguish could obliterate4 ,divine devotion1--devotion more than mortal1--still lingers in those sockets4 ,the heart may well dilate before this sight2 the soul fall on its knees4 ,by each of those bloodstained steps1 by the sting of this death1 we have been paid for4 ,here1 here only1--as ,holbein saw it1--is the leverage the heathen philosopher vainly sighed for to move the world2 ,god's leverage1 ,infinite ,love4 ,this is anything but a theological tangent4 ,a great artist has bequeathed us his beliefs1--drawn and painted in many works1 with every patient1 virile1 expressive power at his command4 ,there has been enough and to spare of shrieks or scoffs4 ,a little humility and a little study is in place1 too4 ,for the rest1 let us not forget that this large painting was made for some altar2 and that many a weeping penitent1 many a devout heart1 has been pierced with its message4 ,on the edge of the stone coffin1 which is tinted a warm green within1 and lit by some opening at the foot1 is the inscription in gold letters3 ,,jesus ,,nazarenus ,,rex ,,jud,,orum4 ,the stigmata are painted with unsparing truth4 ,the work is dated #aeba4 ,there is in the ,hampton ,court ,gallery a little painting which has only comparatively recently been recognised as ,holbein's1 but which forms the beautiful and fitting close of this set of religious pictures4 ,as is the case with so many of his works1 the critics are not unanimous upon it4 ,but the authorities who have no doubts as to its being a genuine ,holbein of this period are so weighty that ,i need not argue the point in support of my own convictions4 ,in the ,hampton ,court ,catalogue it is styled ,mary ,magdalen at our ,lord's ,sepulchre1 but ,i prefer to call it the ,risen ,christ 7,plate #aa74 ,it must once have been supremely beautiful2 for even now its ideal loveliness shines through all the evil fortunes which have once again defaced the handiwork of ,holbein4 ,the type of ,christ1 and indeed the work throughout1 bears a marked resemblance to the eight-panelled ,basel altar-piece4 ,the painter has chosen the moment recorded in the twentieth chapter of ,st4 ,john4 ,in that early dawn1 when it was yet dark1 ,mary has brought spikenard in a marble cup1 if not to anoint the sacred ,dead at least to pour it on the threshold of the sealed tomb1 with tears and prayers4 ,she has fled to tell ,st4 ,john and ,st4 ,peter of the sacrilege of the open tomb1--has followed them back1 still mechanically clasping her useless spikenard1--has seen them go in where her trembling knees refused to follow1 and then go homeward1 as we can see them in the distance1 arguing the almost incredible fact4 ,poor ,mary has had no heart for discussion4 ,she has stayed weeping by the empty grave until two pitying angels have appeared to recall her from despair1 and she has turned herself back1--too frightened to stay for comfort4 ,and then she has seen near her a ,face1 a ,form1 she was too dazed to recognise until the unforgettable ,voice has thrilled through her1 and she has flung herself forward with the old1 instinctive cry1 ,master6 to touch1 to clasp that ,hand1 so dear1 so familiar1 so all-protecting1 and find it a reality4 ,it is this tremendous moment that ,holbein has seized4 ,and with what exquisite feeling for every detail of the scene1 every great emotion6 ,had the painting been preserved1 as it deserved to be1 surely it too could claim a part of that laurel wreath which ,sandrart averred could not be torn from the ,basel altar-piece by any rival1 whether ,italian or ,german4 ,illustration3 ,plate #aa ,,the ,,risen ,,christ ,oils4 ,hampton ,court ,gallery ,the misty landscape1 with the crosses of ,golgotha and the eastern hills catching the first brightness of the new ,day dawning over mortality2 the broken clouds of night1 scattered like the conquered horrors of the grave1 and the illuminated tomb where ,hope and ,faith henceforth ask us why we weep2 the hurrying agitation of ,st4 ,peter and the trusting serenity of ,st4 ,john1 expressed in every gesture2 the dusky trees2 ,mary's quivering doubt and rapture1 touched with some new awe2 and the simple majesty with which our ,lord stays that unconscious innocent presumption1 ,touch me not4 ,what forbidding tenderness in that ,face lighted by the grave ,he has passed through6 ,what a subtle yet eloquent suggestion of the eternal difference1 henceforth1 between ,love and love is in these mortal lineaments that have evermore resumed their divinity6 ,no face1 no type1 no art1 can ever realise ,christ2 yet when this little painting was first added to the great roll of ,holbein ,basiliensis1 it must have gone as near to realising its subject as the colours of earth can go4 ,but every man1 happily for himself1 has a material as well as an immaterial world with which he must be concerned4 ,to transpose ,bagehot's profound little saying1--,each man dines in a room apart1 but we all go down to dinner together4 ,and though ,holbein knew the pinch of narrow means1 he had no lack of good cheer as well as austere food in his art4 ,on ,march #abth1 #aeba1 the ,great ,council held its first meeting in the new ,rathaus2 and ,meyer zum ,hasen1 who presided over it as ,burgomaster1 entrusted to his protg the enviable task of decorating the ,council ,chamber4 ,fifty-six years after ,holbein's work was completed these wall-paintings were described as representations of the noblest subjects--done by the ,german ,apelles4 ,by this title the painter was everywhere recognised throughout the greater part of his lifetime4 ,in all1 there would seem to have been six large pictures or set pieces2 but two were not done until years later4 ,one wall being too broken up by windows to be suitable1 there remained three1--of which the back wall adjoining ,meyer's house was not touched at this time4 ,ostensibly the reason was want of funds2 but as a matter of fact the ,protestant party 7to anticipate this name71 which grew strong enough to unseat ,meyer before the year was out1 was at this time indifferent to art when not positively inimical to it4 ,whether treating a faade or an interior it was ,holbein's custom to make a flat wall-space assume the most solid-looking forms of ,renaissance architecture4 ,iselin once said of a faade of ,holbein's1 that there was a dog painted on it so naturally that the dogs in the street would run up and bark at it4 ,and so astounding was the realism with which he threw out balconies1 and added windows1 cornices1 and statues1 and the richest carvings1 pillars1 arches1 and vistas of every sort1 that no eye could credit them with illusion4 ,horses neighed in the courtyards1 flowers bloomed in the gardens1 dogs leaped beside master or mistress1 and children played in the spacious balconies1 or moved to and fro between the splendid marble pillars and the distant wall4 ,to study the copies that remain of such works is to be astounded by their feats of perspective4 ,inside would be kindred illusions4 ,large pictures would seem to be actually taking place without1 and beheld through beautifully carved archways or windows2 while the apparent walls would have niches filled with superb marble statues and the ceiling be supported by pillars1 behind which people walked and talked or leaned out to watch the chief scenes4 ,and so it was with the ,council ,chamber4 ,but nothing now remains of these works except fragments and a few drawings for the principal features4 ,so far as can be judged1 each wall had two large scenes2 the four pictures of this period being chosen from the heroic legends of the ,gesta ,romanorum2 the two painted later1 from the ,old ,testament4 ,but while these large works were going forward ,holbein was busy with many others2 private commissions for ,froben1 occasionally for other printers1 and for altar-pieces or portraits4 ,all through his life his industry and accomplishment left him small time for leisure or the dissipations of leisure4 ,nor is there any year of his life when his work does not attest a clear eye and a firm hand4 ,these things are their own certificate of conduct2 at any rate1 of worldly conduct4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in #aebb occurred two important events in his life4 ,his first child1 the son he called ,philip1 was born2 and he painted an altar-piece which is in some respects the most beautiful of his extant works4 ,the latter--now in the ,solothurn ,museum1 and therefore called the ,solothurn ,madonna 7,plate #ab7--;has had one of the most extraordinary histories to be found in the records of art4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #ab ,,the ,,solothurn1 ,,or ,,zetter',,sche1 ,,madonna ,oils4 ,solothurn ,museum ,the background of this picture1--a massive arch of grey sandstone supported by iron stanchions1--was evidently designed to suit the surrounding architecture of some grey-walled ancient structure4 ,on a das covered with a green carpet1 patterned in white and red and emblazoned with the arms of the donor and his wife1 sits the lovely ,madonna with the ,child held freely yet firmly in two of the most exquisite hands which even ,holbein ever painted4 ,her dress is a rich rose-red2 her symbolical mantle of universal ,motherhood1 or ,grace1 is a most beautiful ultramarine1 loaded in the shadows and like a sapphire in its lights4 ,the flowing gold of her hair shimmers under its filmy veil1 and the jewels in her gold crown flash below the great white pearls that tip its points4 ,where the sky-background approaches ,mother and ,child1 its azure tone is lost in a pure effulgence of light2 as if the very ether were suffused with the sense of the ,divine4 ,the ,child is drawn and painted superbly4 ,the carnations are exquisite2 the gravity of infancy is not exaggerated1 yet fittingly enforces the gesture of benediction4 ,the left hand is turned outward in a movement so peculiar to happy1 vigorous babyhood that it is a marvel of observation and nature4 ,the little foot is admirably foreshortened1 and the wrinkled sole a bit of inimitable painting4 ,but perhaps most wonderful of all is the art with which1 amid so many splendid details1 the ,child is the centre of interest as well as of the picture4 ,how it is so1 is ,holbein's own secret4 ,to right and left of the ,virgin stand two fine types of spiritual and temporal authority4 ,behind and at her right1 almost hidden by the amplitude of her mantle1 kneels a poor wretch who is introduced here by some necessity of the commission itself1 but is skilfully prevented from obtruding his needs on the serene beauty of the scene4 ,dropping gold into his alms-bowl with a hand effectively contrasted with his brown thumb1 stands the sinner's saint--the good ,bishop of ,tours2 while some other condition of the work has embroidered ,st4 ,martin's red mitre with the figure of ,st4 ,nicholas4 ,there is one other striking circumstance about ,st4 ,martin2 and that is that1 although he is in the ,virgin's presence1 he wears the violet chasuble of an ,intercessor4 ,the chasuble is lined with red1 and it and the rich vestments1 on which scenes of the ,passion are displayed1 are the patient verisimilitude of ancient vestments4 ,in ,st4 ,martin's gloved left hand is his crozier and the right glove1 which he has drawn off to bestow his alms4 ,opposite to him stands the patron-saint of ,solothurn1--,st4 ,ursus1 a hero of the ,theban legend1--dressed from head to foot in a suit of magnificently painted armour4 ,his left hand grasps his sword-hilt2 his right supports the great red flag with its white cross4 ,nor is that flag of the year #aebb the least interesting detail of this work4 ,with the crimson reflections of the flag streaking the cold gleams of his glittering armour1 his stern dark face and the white plumes tossing to his shoulder1 ,st4 ,ursus is a figure that may well leave historical accuracy to pedants4 ,below his foot are the initials ,h4,h41 and the date1 #aebb2 as if cut into the stone4 ,this work was commissioned by ,hans ,gerster1 for many years ,town ,archivist of ,basel1 in which capacity he had to convey important state papers to other councils with which that of ,basel had negotiations4 ,from this it came about that from the year when ,basel entered the ,swiss ,confederation1 in #aeja1 ,gerster was almost as much at home in the ,city of ,ambassadors as in his own1 and the ,dean or ,probst of the ,solothurn ,cathedral--the ,cathedral of ,st4 ,ursus and ,st4 ,victor--became not only his spiritual director1 but one of his most intimate friends4 ,many circumstances which cannot be given here make it pretty evident that in #aebb ,gerster1 probably under the advice of the ,probst1 the ,coadjutor ,nicholas von ,diesbach1 made this picture an expiatory offering for some secret sin of grave proportions4 ,there are hints that point to treachery to the ,basel troops1 in the ,imperial interests1 sympathy with which finally cost him1 as well as his friend ,meyer zum ,hasen1 his official position4 ,gerster himself was not a native of ,basel1 although his wife1 ,barbara ,guldenknopf1 was4 ,be this as it may1 it is apparently in direct connection with this confessed sin that the sinner's saint1 ,st4 ,martin of ,tours1 is chosen as ,intercessor for ,gerster1 wearing the prescribed chasuble for this office4 ,and it seems likely that the addition to his mitre of the figure of ,st4 ,nicholas was ,gerster's wish1 in order to specially associate the name-saint of his friend--,nicholas von ,diesbach--with this intercession4 ,it is assumed by those who have patiently unearthed these details of circumstantial evidence1 that the beggar is introduced to mark the identity of the boundlessly charitable ,bishop of ,tours4 ,but ,i venture to suggest still another reason3 this is1 that in the uplifted1 pleading face of the mendicant1 whose expression of appeal and humility is a striking bit of realism in these ideal surroundings1 we may have the actual portrait of the donor1 ,hans ,gerster himself4 ,that this should be so would be in strict accord with the methods of the period4 ,there is a striking parallel which will occur to all who are familiar with the ,st4 ,elizabeth in the ,st4 ,sebastian altar-piece at ,munich4 ,here the undoubted portrait of ,hans ,holbein the elder is seen as the beggar in the background4 ,it is1 as has been said1 a marvellous story by which this glorious painting1--in which the introduction of the patron-saint of ,solothurn proves that it was created for one of her own altars1--was completely lost to her1 and to the very histories of ,art1 and then returned to the city for which it was originally destined2 all by a chain of seemingly unrelated accidents4 ,but only the skeleton of that story can be given here4#d ,in all probability this ,madonna was executed for the altar of the ancient ,lady ,chapel of the ,solothurn ,cathedral4 ,a hundred and twenty-six years after it was painted1 this chapel was pulled down1 to be replaced by a totally different style of architecture2 and as the picture was then smoke-stained and old-fashioned it would in all likelihood drop into some lumber-room4 ,at all events1 it must have become the property of the ,cathedral choirmaster1--one ,hartmann1--after another five-and-thirty years4 ,for at this time he built1 and soon after endowed1 the little village church of ,allerheiligen1 on the outskirts of the industrial town of ,grenchen1 which lies at the southern foot of the ,jura4 ,facilis descensus6 ,another turn of the centuries' wheel and the gift of this chapel's founder was once again thought unworthy of the altar to which it had been presented4 ,when ,herr ,zetter of ,solothurn first saw it in the queer little ,allerheiligen chapel1 it hung high up on the choir wall2 blackened1 worm-eaten1 without a frame1 suspended by a string passed through two holes which had been bored through the painted panel itself4 ,yet his acute eye was greatly interested by it4 ,and when1 during an official visit in #ahfd1 he heard that the chapel was undergoing a drastic renovation1 he was concerned for the fate of the discoloured old painting4 ,at first it could not be discovered at all4 ,finally he found it1 face downward1 spotted all over with whitewash1 under the rough boards that served for the workmen's platform4 ,a few hours later and it1 too1 would have been irrevocably gone2 carted away with the old rubbish6 ,he examined it1 made out the signature1 knew that this might mean either any one of a number of painters who used it1 or a clumsy copy or forgery1 yet had the courage of his conviction that it was ,holbein's genuine work4 ,he bought it of the responsible authority1 who was glad to be rid of four despised paintings1 for the cost of all the new decorations4 ,he had expert opinion1 which utterly discouraged his belief2 but stuck to it1 took the risks of having it three long years 7so rotten was its whole condition7 under repairs which might at any moment collapse with it1 yet leave their tremendous expenses behind to be settled just the same2 and finally found himself the possessor of a perfectly restored chef-d'oeuvre of ,holbein's brush1 which1 from the first1 ,herr ,zetter devoted to the ,museum 7now a fine new one7 of ,solothurn4 ,to-day this work1 which some forty years ago no one dreamed had ever existed1 smiles in all the beauty of its first painting2 a monument to the insight and generous enthusiasm of the gentleman whose name is rightly connected with its own in its official title--,the ,zetter-,madonna of ,solothurn4 ,and it smiles with ,holbein's own undebased handiwork throughout4 ,pace ,woltmann's blunder1--its network of fine cracks1 even over the ,virgin's face1 attests that it has suffered no over-painting4 ,the work has been mounted on a solid back1 the greatest fissures and the holes filled up to match their surroundings1 the stains and defacements of neglect cleared away1 and the triumph is complete4 ,it might well be the swan song of a veteran artist at such work4 ,whatever the mistakes of ,eigener's career1 the restoration of the ,solothurn ,madonna was a flawless achievement for himself and his associates4 ,this work1 too1 is the most precious of all that have come down to us of ,holbein's imaginative compositions1 from the fact that his first-born1 ,philip1 who was born about #aebb1 was the model for the ,child1 and that a portrait of ,elsbeth1 his wife1 served as a study for the ,virgin4 ,this portrait is an unnamed and unsigned drawing in silver-point and ,indian ink1 heightened with touches of red chalk1 now in the ,louvre ,collection4 7,plate #ac47 ,illustration3 ,,plate #ac ,,unnamed ,,portrait-,,study3 ,,not ,,catalogued ,,as ,,holbein',s ,silver-point and ,indian-ink4 ,louvre ,collection ,believed by the writer to be ,holbein's drawing of his wife before her first marriage1 and the model for the ,solothurn ,madonna ,that this is a portrait of ,holbein's wife any careful comparison with her portrait at ,basel must establish4 ,feature for feature1 allowing for the changes of sufficient years1 the two faces are one and the same4 ,the very line of the shoulder1 setting of the head1 and even the outline of the fashion in which the low dress is cut1 is alike in both4 ,and equally unmistakable is the relation between this ,louvre drawing and the ,madonna of ,solothurn4 ,yet ,i am unable to accept ,woltmann's theory that the drawing was made in #aebb for the ,virgin4 ,he assumes that the lettering which borders the bodice in this drawing--,,als4 ,,in4 ,,ern4 ,,als4 ,,in4444--and the braids in which the hair is worn are simply some fancy dress4 ,but surely if ever hair bore the stamp of unstudied1 even ugly custom1 it does so here4 ,then1 too1 ,woltmann himself1 as are all who adopt this explanation1 is unable to reconcile the oldest age which can be assigned to this sitter with the youngest that can be assumed for the ,basel painting of #aebi upon a hypothesis of only seven years' interval4 ,temperament and trouble can do much in seven years2 but not so much as this4 ,i say temperament advisedly2 because all the evidence of ,holbein's life substantiates the assertion of ,van ,mander1 who had it from ,holbein's own circle of contemporaries1--that the painter's life was made wretched by her violent temper4 ,we shall find him far from blameless in later years2 but though it may not excuse him1 his unhappy home must largely explain his alienation4 ,yet that it can explain such an alteration as that between the ,louvre drawing and the ,basel portrait ,i do not believe4 ,nor could ,i persuade myself either that any married woman of the sixteenth century wore her hair in that most exclusive and invariable of ,teuton symbols--maiden plaits2--or that any husband ever thought it necessary to advertise upon a picture of his wife that he held her in all honour4 ,myself1 ,i must believe1 then1 that this portrait was made years before #aebb2 probably in the young painter's first months in ,basel1 in #aeae2 and thus some fourteen years before the ,basel group of #aebi was painted4 ,it may well have been that some serious misunderstanding between them was at the bottom of that otherwise inexplicable departure in #aeag1 and the two years' absence in ,lucerne and still more southern cities4 ,of course this is mere guesswork2 so is every hypothesis until it is proved4 ,but all the simple commonplaces of first love1 estrangement1 separation1 and a renewed betrothal after ,elsbeth's early widowhood with one child1 could easily have run a natural course between #aeae and their marriage1 somewhere about #aebj4 ,as for the inscription1--it is a detail that ,woltmann thinks represents a repetition of the one phrase1 and that ,i imagine to have suggested what for some reason ,holbein did not wish to proclaim3--,in all honour4 ,in all love4 ,but nothing can shake my conviction that in it we hear the faint far-off echoes from some belfry in ,holbein's own city of s4 ,the realities of that chime are buried1--whether well or ill1--four hundred years deep in the seas that roll over that submerged world of his youth and passion4 ,but living emotion1 we may be sure1 went to the writing and the treasuring of this pledge to ,elsbeth or himself2 a pledge redeemed when she became his wife4 ,thus for the altar-piece of #aebb there would be this portrait of ,elsbeth in her girlhood ready to his hand4 ,but even so1 see how he has idealised it1 made a new creature of it1 all compact of exquisite ideals6 ,he has eliminated the subtle sensuousness which has its own allure in the drawing4 ,every trait is refined1 purified1 vivified1 raised to another plane of character4 ,genius has put the inferior elements into its retort1 and transmuted them to some heavenly metal far enough from ,holbein's home-life4 ,throughout all these years1 as has been said1 he was busy for the printers also4 ,in #aebb he drew the noble title-page for ,petri's edition of ,luther's ,new ,testament1 with the figures of ,st4 ,peter and ,st4 ,paul at either side1 of which mention has been made4 ,and in ,thomas ,wolff's edition of #aebc there is a series of his designs4 ,his alphabets1 borders1 illustrations of all sorts1 continued to enrich the ,basel press from this date1 and were often borrowed by printers in other cities4 ,in #aebc there came to ,basel that masterly wood-cutter who has been already referred to1--,hans ,ltzelburger4 ,and from this time on1 therefore1 ,holbein's designs may be seen in their true beauty4 ,he had painted1 besides portraits of ,froben and others1 at least three portraits of ,erasmus by #aebd4 ,for in ,june of this year the latter writes to his friend ,pirkheimer1 at ,nrnberg1 to say that he has sent two of these portraits by the most accomplished painter to ,england2 while the artist himself1 he adds1 has conveyed still a third to ,france4 ,the smaller of the two sent to ,england1 two-thirds the size of life1 is probably the one now in the ,louvre 7,plate #ad74 ,it is a masterpiece of penetration and technique4 ,erasmus is here seen in the most unaffected simplicity of dress and pose2 in profile against a dark-green tapestry patterned with light green1 and red and white flowers4 ,the usual scholar's cap covers his grey hair4 ,the blue-grey eyes are glancing down at his writing4 ,studies for the marvellously painted hands are among the ,louvre drawings4 ,the very ,self of the man--the lean1 strong1 thinking countenance1--the elusive smile1 shrewd1 ironical1 yet kindly1 stealing out on his lips1--is alive here by some necromancy of art4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #ad ,,erasmus ,oils4 ,the ,louvre ,the portrait now in the ,basel ,museum1 in oils on paper1 afterwards fastened to the panel1 is in all likelihood that third portrait which ,erasmus told ,pirkheimer the painter himself had taken to ,france4 ,so that ,holbein must have painted it for1 and carried it to1 ,bonifacius ,amerbach1 who was then1 in #aebd1 finishing a renewed course of study at ,avignon4 ,probably it was during this visit to ,france1 too1 that he made the spirited sketches of monuments at ,bourges4 ,in that case it would seem that he struck across by way of ,dijon to the ,cathedral ,city1 in connection with some matter not now to be discovered1 and from there took the great highway to ,avignon by way of ,lyons2 carrying with him the gift of his sketches from the monuments of ,duke ,jehan of ,berri and his wife4 ,these were treasured in ,amerbach's collection4 ,whatever the reason that sent him abroad on this journey1--whether unhappiness at home or the troubled state of public affairs during the ,peasants' ,war of #aebd and #aebe1--or whether he simply had business in ,france which delayed him there for a year or two--at all events1 all records fail as to his wanderings or work in this long interval4 ,and many circumstances go to show that it was at this time that he entered upon the immortal work which was published at ,lyons1 by the ,trechsel ,brothers1 many years later2--those ,images of ,death which have borrowed the old name in popular parlance1 and are generally called ,holbein's ,dance of ,death4 ,just why the ,trechsels did not issue the publication until #aech it is impossible to say4 ,as one of the largest ,catholic publishing-houses of ,france1 they would be governed by circumstances entirely outside of ,holbein's history or control4 ,but more than one circumstance presses the conclusion that the designs were made between #aebc and #aebf4 ,and there is a certain amount of evidence for the belief that they may have been first struck off in ,germany1 possibly by some one of the multifarious connections of the ,trechsels1 as early as #aebg4 ,but this is a large subject1 not to be dealt with as an aside4 ,all the world knows these wonderful designs2 their beauty of line1 power of expression1 and sparkling fancy4 ,among them all there are only two where ,death is a figure of violence2 and but one1--the knight1 transfixed by one fell1 malignant stroke from behind--where ,death exhibits positive ferocity4 ,in both of these1--the ,count1 beaten down by his own great coat-of-arms1 is the other1--it is easy to read a reflection of the actualities of the ,peasants' ,war then raging4 ,for the rest1 the grim skeleton wears no unkind smile2 though that he is ,death makes it look a ghastly-enough pleasantry4 ,but toward the poor and the aged he is better than merry2 he is kind4 ,his fleshless hand is raised in benediction over the aged woman2 and the bent patriarch leans on his arm1 listening to ,death's attendant playing the sweet old melodies of ,long-,ago as he stands on the verge of the great ,silence4 ,but where a selection must be made1 there are two drawings with their own special claim to consideration4 ,these are the ,ploughman and the ,priest 7,plates #ad and #ae74 ,the former has been cited by ,ruskin as an example of a perfect design for wood-engraving2 but even higher than its art1 to my thinking1 is its feeling4 ,to the labourer of this sort1--poor1 patient1 toilworn1--,holbein's heart is very gentle4 ,and so is ,death--who muffles up his harsh features and speeds the heavy plough with a step like that of ,hope4 ,and at the end of the long1 last uphill furrow1 see how the setting sun shines on ,god's ,acre6 ,illustration3 ,,plate #ae ,,the ,,ploughman ,images of ,death ,woodcut series ,,the ,,priest ,images of ,death ,woodcut series ,the second selection1 the ,priest1 is its own proof1 if any were needed1 of how sharply ,holbein distinguished cloth from cloth4 ,in it1 nearly a decade after he had pointed ,erasmus's satire on the unworthy prelate or the unclean friar1 may plainly be read that reverence for the true priest which ,holbein shared with all his best friends4 ,in the quaint1 quiet street this solemn procession is too familiar a sight to draw any spectator from the hearth where the fire of the ,living is blazing so cheerily4 ,the good ,father1 very lovingly drawn1 casts his kind glance around as he passes on his ,office with the veiled ,pyx carried reverently4 ,before him goes ,death1 his ,server1 hastening the last mercy with eager steps4 ,under his arm is the tiny glass that has measured the whole of a mortality2 the sands have lost their moving charm1 and all their dazzle makes but a little shadow now4 ,in his hand is the bell that sounds ,take heed1 ,take heed1 to the careless2 and ,pardon1 ,peace1 to dying ears that strain to hear it4 ,but largest of all his symbols is the lamp in his right hand2 his own lamp1 the lamp that dissipates ,earth's last shadows--the ,light of ,death4 ,holbein must have had his own solemn memories of the ,last ,office as he drew this picture of the good parish priest4 ,for it was just about this time that the ,viaticum must have been administered to his father4 ,in #aebf the then ,burgomaster of ,basel wrote to the monastery at ,issenheim1 where ,hans ,holbein the ,elder had left his painting implements behind him years before1 in which he recalls to the ,fathers how vainly and how often our citizen1 ,hans the ,younger1 had applied to get these costly materials restored to their owner during his life2 or to himself as his father's heir afterwards4 ,this application was no more successful than ,holbein's own1 apparently2 and the painter was told to seek his father's gold and pigments among the peasants who had pillaged the monastery4 ,by #aebf ,holbein was back in ,basel2 but two works of this year would go to show that he was little less separated from his wife in ,basel than when away4 ,the first of these1 about one-third life-size1 is a portrait of a woman with a child beside her who grasps an arrow to suggest the ,goddess of ,love attended by a wingless ,cupid 7,plate #af74 ,the little red-haired child does not do much to realise the ideal2 but the woman1 though not an ideal ,venus1 might nevertheless well pose as a man's goddess4 ,a fair woman in more senses than her colouring4 ,her dark-red velvet dress slashed with white2 wide sleeves of dusky gold-coloured silk2 her close-fitting black head-dress embroidered with gold2 the soft seduction of her look2 the welcoming gesture of that pretty palm flung outward as if to embrace2 these are all in keeping4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #af ,,dorothea ,,offenburg ,,as ,,the ,,goddess ,,of ,,love ,oils4 ,basel ,museum ,this was a lady whose past career might have warned a lover that whatever she might prove as a goddess1 she could play but a fallen angel's part4 ,the annals of ,basel knew her only too well4 ,this was ,dorothea1 the daughter of a knight of good old lineage1--,hans von ,offenburg4 ,but the knight died while she was quite young1 and her mother1 better famed for looks than conduct1 married the girl to a debauched young aristocrat1--,joachim von ,sultz4 ,his own record is hardly less shameless than ,dorothea's soon became1--though the latter is chiefly in archives of the unspeakable sort4 ,at the time when this picture was painted she must have been about two-and-twenty4 ,unhappy ,holbein1 indeed6 ,the temper of ,xantippe herself1 if she be but the decent mother of one's children1 might work less havoc with a life than this embroidered cestus4 ,but the ,german ,apelles was no ,greek voluptuary1 ambitious in heathen vices1 such as that other ,apelles whose painting of ,venus was said to be his masterpiece4 ,and when ,holbein inscribed his second portrait of ,dorothea with the words ,,la,s ,,corinthiaca1 the midsummer madness must have been already a matter of scorn and wonder to himself4 ,his whole life and the works of his life are the negation of the groves of ,corinth4 ,the paint was not long dry on the ,goddess of ,love--at any rate1 her dress was not worn out--before he had seen her in her true colours2 the daughter of the horse-leech1 crying ,give1 ,give4 ,and so he painted her in #aebf 7,plate #ag72 to scourge himself1 surely1 since she was too notoriously infamous to be affected by it4 ,as if in stern scorn of every beauty1 every allure1 he set himself to record them in detail3 something in the spirit with which ,macaulay set himself1 by the blessing of ,god1 to do full justice to the poems of ,montgomery4 ,las is far more beautiful1 and far more beautifully painted1 than ,venus4 ,no emotion has hurried the painter's hand or confused his eye this time4 ,in vain she wears such sadness in her eyes1 such pensive dignity of attitude1 such a wistful smile on her lips4 ,he knows them1 now1 for false lights on the wrecker's coast4 ,no faltering2 no turning back4 ,he can even fit a new head-dress on the lovely hair1 and add the puffed sleeves below the short ones4 ,he is a painter now2 not a lover4 ,and lest there should be one doubt as to his purpose1 he flings a heap of gold where ,cupid's little hand would now seem desecrated1 and inscribes beneath it the name that fits her beauty and his contempt4 ,the plague was raging in ,basel all through that spring and summer1 but ,i doubt if ,holbein shuddered at its contact as at the loveliness he painted4 ,the brand he placed upon it is proof of that--,las ,corinthiaca1 the infamous mistress of the ,greek ,apelles4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #ag ,,dorothea ,,offenburg ,,as ,,la,s ,,corinthiaca ,oils4 ,basel ,museum ,but in #aebf men sat among the ashes of far goodlier palaces and larger interests than personal ones4 ,the party in power was not friendlier to ,art than to the ,church of ,rome4 ,in ,january the ,painters' ,guild had presented a petition to the ,council1--humbly praying that its members1 who had wives and children depending on their work1 might be allowed to pursue it in ,basel6 ,and so hard was ,holbein himself hit by the fanatical excitement of the time that the ,council's account-books show the paltry wage he was glad to earn for painting a few shields on some official building in the borough of ,waldenburg4 ,small wonder that an artist such as ,holbein should feel his heart grow sick within him1 and should turn his thoughts with increasing determination to some fresh field4 ,even without the bitterness that now must have edged the tongue of a wronged wife1 or the bitterer taste of ,dead ,sea fruit in his own mouth1--he must have been driven to try his luck elsewhere4 ,and of all the invitations urged upon him1 the chances which ,erasmus's introductions could give him in ,england would probably offer the greatest promise4 ,but before he set out with these letters1 in the late summer of #aebf1 he executed yet one more great commission for his old friend1 ,jacob ,meyer zum ,hasen1 now leader of the ,catholic party in opposition4 ,this was the work known now to all the civilised world as ,the ,meyer ,madonna4 ,for centuries the beautiful picture which bears this name in the ,dresden ,gallery has been cited by every expert authority and critic as this work4 ,but since the mysterious appearance of the ,darmstadt painting1 which suddenly turned up in a ,paris art collector's possession1 from no one knows where in #ahbb1 the tide of belief has slowly receded from the ,dresden painting4 ,until now there are only a few judges who do not hold--especially since the public comparison of the two works at ,dresden in #ahga--that the ,dresden picture is a copy by an inferior hand4 ,unquestionably the painting now in the ,schloss at ,darmstadt is the earlier version4 ,and unquestionably1 too1 the changes introduced in the ,dresden copy1--the elevated architecture1 slenderer figures1 and less happy ,child1--are so great as to lend weight to the arguments of those who still claim that no copyist would ever have made them4 ,but1 as has been said1 the contention that the ,dresden work is a replica by ,holbein of the older ,darmstadt altar-piece1 is now maintained by only a very small minority of judges4 ,the painting of the ,darmstadt work is admitted by all to be more uniformly admirable1 more completely carried out2 the details more finished 7except in the case of the ,virgin71 and the colours richer and more harmonious4 ,yet both works should be studied to appreciate fully their claims and differences 7,plates #ah and #ai74 ,illustration3 ,,plate #ah ,,the ,,meyer-,,madonna ,oils4 ,grand ,ducal ,collection1 ,darmstadt ,illustration3 ,,plate #ai ,,the ,,meyer-,,madonna ,later ,version4 ,held by many to be a copy ,oils4 ,dresden ,gallery ,in the ,darmstadt work the ,virgin's dress is wholly different in tone from her robe at ,dresden2 otherwise the colouring aims to be the same in each4 ,here1 in the original altar-piece1 it is a greenish-blue4 ,the lower sleeves are golden1 a line of white at the wrist1 and a filmier one within the bodice4 ,her girdle is a rich red2 her mantle a greenish-grey4 ,over this latter her fair hair streams like softest sunshine4 ,above her noble1 pity-full face sits her crown of fine gold and pearls4 ,the woman kneeling nearest to the ,madonna is commonly believed to be ,meyer's first wife1 who had died in #aeaa1 the mother of one child--a daughter--by a previous husband4 ,between this stepdaughter and ,meyer there was considerable litigation over her property4 ,the younger woman1 whose chin-cloth is dropped in the painting though worn like the others in the drawing for her portrait1 is ,meyer's second wife1 ,dorothea ,kannegiesser1 whom he married about #aeab1 and with whom he was painted by ,holbein in #aeaf4 ,the sombre garments of both women are echoed by the black of ,meyer's hair and coat1 the latter lined with light-brown fur4 ,meyer's face1 in its manly intensity of devotional feeling1 is a wonderful piece of psychology in the ,darmstadt picture4 ,in the drawing for the young girl1 ,anna ,meyer1 who kneels beside her mother with a red rosary in her hands1 she has her golden-brown hair hanging loose down her back1 as befits a girl of thirteen4 ,but in the painting it is coiled in glossy braids beneath some ceremonial head-dress2 this is richly embroidered with pearls1 with red silk tassel and a wreath of red and white flowers above it4 ,this head-dress is painted with much more beautiful precision in the older work1 and the expression of the girl's face is much more deeply devout2 her hands1 too1 are decidedly superior to those of the ,dresden work4 ,this is true also of the carpet1 patterned in red and green1 with touches of white and black1 on a ground of deep yellow4 ,the ,dresden carpet is conspicuously inferior in finish and colour to that of ,darmstadt1 so much so that ,waagen and others1 who believe the former a replica1 think a pupil or assistant may have been responsible for this and other details1 which for some reason ,holbein himself was unable to finish4 ,the elder boy1 with the tumbled brown hair1 dressed in a light-brown coat trimmed with red-brown velvet1 and hose of cinnabar-red1 with decorations of gold clasps and tags on fine blue cords1 has a yellowish-green portemonnaie1 with tassels of dull blue hanging from his girdle4 ,all the carnations are superb1 and in the ,darmstadt picture the infant ,christ wears a sweet and happy smile4 ,in that of ,dresden ,he looks sad and ill2 a fact which has given rise to the theory ,ruskin adopted--that the ,virgin had put down the divine ,child and taken up ,meyer's ailing one4 ,but the absence of wonder on the faces of ,meyer's family1 and1 indeed1 the familiar affection of the elder boy1 would of itself negative this theory4 ,i have my own ideas as to this point1 but it would serve no useful purpose to go into them in this place4 ,of these two sons of ,meyer there is no other record4 ,anna alone survived her mother1 who married again after ,meyer's death4 ,anna's daughter married ,burgomaster ,remigius ,fsch1 or ,fesch1 whose grandson--,remigius ,fsch1 counsellor-at-law--was the well-known art collector whose collection and manuscript are also in the ,basel ,museum1 where there is an oil-copy of the ,dresden ,meyer-,madonna4 ,even the cool eye of ,walpole was warmed by this great work of #aebf1 as he saw it in the ,dresden painting then hanging in the ,palazzo ,delfino at ,venice4 ,for the colouring1 he exclaims1 it is beautiful beyond description2 and the carnations have that enamelled bloom so peculiar to ,holbein1 who touched his works till not a touch remained discernible4 ,twenty years earlier ,edward ,wright had written of ,meyer's youngest boy--,the little naked boy could hardly have been outdone1 if ,i may dare to say such a word1 by ,raphael himself4 ,and in our own day that fine and measured critic1 ,mrs4 ,jameson1 has spoken for generation upon generation who have thought the same thought before the ,meyer-,madonna of ,dresden1 when she says of it3 ,in purity1 dignity1 humility and intellectual grace this exquisite ,madonna has never been surpassed2 not even by ,raphael4 ,the face1 once seen1 haunts the memory4 ,when ,wright and ,walpole saw this ,dresden work at ,venice1 it was supposed to be the family of ,sir ,thomas ,more--,meier having slipped into ,more in the course of centuries1 which had retained only the vivid impression of ,holbein's association with the latter1 and knew that the painter had drawn him in the midst of his family4 ,that living association was now1 late in the summer of this year1 about to begin4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,chances ,,and ,,changes #aebf-aecj ,first visit to ,england--,sir ,thomas ,more2 his home and portraits--,the ,windsor drawings--,bishop ,fisher--,archbishop ,warham--,bishop ,stokesley--,sir ,henry ,guildford and his portrait--,nicholas ,kratzer--,sir ,bryan ,tuke--,holbein's return to ,basel--,portrait-group of his wife and two eldest children2 two versions--,holbein's children1 and families claiming descent from him--,iconoclastic fury--,ruined arts--,death of ,meyer zum ,hasen--,another ,meyer commissions the last paintings for ,basel--,return to ,england--,description of the ,steelyard--,portraits of its members--,george ,gysze--,basel ,council summons ,holbein home--,the ,ambassadors at the ,national ,gallery2 accepted identification--,coronation of ,queen ,anne ,boleyn--,lost paintings for the ,guildhall of the ,steelyard2 the ,triumphs of ,riches and ,poverty--,the great ,morett portrait2 identifications--,holbein's industry and fertility--,designs for metal-work and other drawings--,solomon and the ,queen of ,sheba4 ,two years earlier ,erasmus had evidently thought that ,london was the true stage for such a genius as ,holbein's1 and ,more had written that he would gladly do all he could to further the painter's success if he should decide to visit ,england4 ,more himself called ,holbein a marvellous artist for his portrait of ,erasmus1 and could not but be delighted with the beautiful little woodcut which opened ,froben's edition of his own ,utopia4 ,this illustration represents ,more and his only son seated with gidius1 or ,peter ,gillis1 in the latter's own garden at ,antwerp1 listening to the tale of ,utopia from the ancient comrade of ,amerigo ,vespucci4 ,and very likely ,holbein himself sat in this garden1 in the late summer of #aebf1 when he was passing through ,antwerp to ,england4 ,he had a letter of introduction from ,erasmus to gidius1 as also to the host who was expecting him in ,england--,sir ,thomas ,more4 ,van ,mander says that long before this the ,earl of ,arundel1 when pausing at ,basel1 had been so much pleased with ,holbein's works in that city that he had urged the painter to forsake it for ,london4 ,but it would pretty surely have been the promise of ,more's influence which actually induced him to try his fortune so far afield4 ,and by the autumn of #aebf he was one of that happy company which the genial soul of ,more drew around him in his new home in ,chelsea ,village1 where ,beaufort ,row now has its north end4 ,here the master's love of every art1 and aptitude in affairs1 filled his hospitable mansion with wit and music and joyous strenuousness4 ,here he was the idol of his family1 as well as the ,king's friend4 ,henry himself must surely have shuddered could he have pictured that face1 over which thought and humour were ever chasing one another like sun and shadow on the lawn1 black above ,london ,bridge and flung at last from it into the ,thames only a few years hence4 ,now it turned to his own all life and loyalty1 as he laid his arm around ,more's shoulders while they wandered between the garden beds of ,chelsea4 ,early in #aebg1 probably1 ,holbein had finished the fine portrait of his host1 which is now in ,mr4 ,huth's collection4 ,the study for this oil painting is among the ,windsor drawings 7,plate #bj71 as also one for the large family picture now lost1 if indeed it was ever completed by ,holbein2 a matter of some doubt1 notwithstanding ,van ,mander's account of it in the possession of the art-collector ,van ,loo4 ,an outline sketch of it1 or for it1 he certainly made4 ,and that precious pen-and-ink outline1--with the name of each written above or below the figure in ,more's hand1 and notes as to alterations to be made in the final composition in ,holbein's hand1--is now in the ,basel ,museum2 having come into ,amerbach's possession as the heir of ,erasmus4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #bj ,,sir ,,thomas ,,more ,chalks4 ,windsor ,castle ,in ,mr4 ,huth's oil portrait ,more is wearing a dark-green coat trimmed with fur1 and showing the purple sleeves of his doublet beneath4 ,his eyes are grey-blue4 ,he never wore a beard1 made the fashion by ,henry ,,viii4 at the same time that the head was polled1--a singularly ugly combination1--until he was in the ,tower and grew that beard which he smilingly swept away from the path of the executioner's axe4 ,it1 he said with astonishing self-possession1 could be accused of no treason4 ,in #aebg1 however1 no shadow of tragedy seemed possible unless the suspicion of it slept in ,more's own heart when he said to his son-in-law1 in answer to some flattering congratulation on the ,king's favour1 ,son ,roper1 if my head could win him a castle in ,france1 my head should fall4 ,but for these superb drawings in the ,royal ,collection at ,windsor1 we should know nothing at all of many a portrait ,holbein painted--all among the immediate friends of ,more and ,erasmus on this first visit to ,england2 nor1 for that matter1 of many a portrait painted in later years4 ,and how little these can be trusted to tell the whole tale of achievement is shown by the fact that they include no studies for a number of oil paintings that are still in existence4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #ba ,,john ,,fisher1 ,,bishop ,,of ,,rochester ,chalks4 ,windsor ,castle ,of the drawings which represent a lost painting1 there is a noble one of ,bishop ,fisher1 whose execution preceded ,more's by only a few weeks4 ,a literally venerable head it was 7,plate #ba71 to be the shuttlecock of papal defiance and royal determination not to be defied with impunity4 ,for assuredly if the life of the ,bishop of ,rochester hung in the balance1 as it did1 in ,may1 #aece1 it was ,paul ,,iii4's mad effrontery in making him a ,cardinal while he was actually in the ,tower under his sovereign's displeasure which heated the ,king's anger to white-hot brutality4 ,let the ,pope send him a hat1 he thundered1 but ,i will so provide that he shall wear it on his shoulders1 for head he shall have none to set it on6 ,and on the #agth of that ,june he made good the savage oath4 ,yet the painter1 after all1 has been more potent than the ,king4 ,for here lives ,fisher4 ,bishop or ,cardinal this is the man1 as ,more loved him4 ,a striking and richly painted oil portrait of ,erasmus's ,mcenas1 ,archbishop ,warham1 is in the ,louvre2 of which there are a number of copies1 as well as a replica1 at ,lambeth ,palace4 ,the latter was exhibited at ,manchester in #aheg4 ,the study for these portraits is among the ,windsor drawings4 ,the painting in the ,louvre has more vividness in the carnations1 and the impasto is thicker than at ,lambeth2 otherwise the two are identical4 ,but for myself ,i find a more seizing quality in the chalk drawing than in either4 ,there is something in its sunken fading eyes that speaks of the majesty of office as well as its burdens4 ,holbein painted a prelate of a very different sort in the oil portrait of ,john ,stokesley1 ,bishop of ,london1 which is preserved at ,windsor ,castle4 ,and yet he dared to paint the ,truth--now as always4 ,the painting is a masterpiece of modelling and soft transparency of light and shade4 ,but the truculent1 lowering countenance leaves small doubt that the sitter was a gentleman pre-eminently gey ill to live wi'4 ,there is another oil painting at ,windsor which has not escaped the injuries of time1 but is none the less a splendid survival of #aebg4 ,this is the portrait of ,sir ,henry ,guildford1 ,master of the ,horse to ,henry ,,viii41 and holder of many another office of trust 7,plate #bb74 ,it has sometimes been thought that the yellow tone of the complexion was due to over-painting1 but the chalk drawing shows that it was a personal peculiarity4 ,sir ,henry1 a warm friend to both ,more and ,erasmus1 was forty-nine when he sat for this portrait4 ,under his black fur-trimmed surcoat he wears a doublet of gold brocade4 ,in his hand is the wand of office as ,chamberlain1 and he is decorated with the collar and badge of the ,garter4 ,he was always a great favourite with the ,king from the time when the latter came to the throne and young ,guildford1 then twenty1 was one of the gayest1 bravest1 most loyal spirits about it4 ,always as ready for a real battle as a mimic one2 as clever at writing plays for the ,king's amusement as at acting in them2 as good in a revel as at a piece of diplomacy2 it is not much wonder that his knighthood in #aeab should but have been the prelude to a long series of promotions4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #bb ,,sir ,,henry ,,guildford ,oils4 ,windsor ,castle ,the affection of master and man1 too1 was singularly sincere for a court4 ,sir ,henry loyally supported the ,king's demand for a divorce1 but he was by no means ready to support a second marriage without the papal preliminary4 ,hence he was not a persona grata to ,anne ,boleyn4 ,nor would he stoop to curry favour at the expense of an honest conviction4 ,when ,anne warned him that he was likely to lose his office as soon as she became ,queen1 he promptly replied that he would spare her all concern about that1 and went straight to the ,king to resign the office of ,controller4 ,the latter showed the depth of his affection by urging ,sir ,henry1 twice1 to reconsider his determination4 ,but he wisely preferred to quit his apartments under the ,king's roof1--without1 however1 breaking the bond of mutual attachment4 ,five years after this picture was painted he died2 in ,may1 #aecb4 ,holbein also painted ,lady ,guildford's portrait2 an oil painting in ,mr4 ,frewer's collection4 ,and ,sir ,henry selected him as one of the chief artists commissioned to decorate the interior of the ,banqueting ,hall specially erected for the celebration of the ,french ,alliance in #aebg4 ,by all of which it would seem that in securing a new patron the painter had once more made a friend4 ,erasmus had asked gidius to assist ,holbein's success in any way he could4 ,and it was probably owing to a letter from the ,antwerp scholar that a friendship of many years sprang up between the painter and ,nicholas ,kratzer of ,munich1 then ,astronomer-,royal at the ,court of ,henry ,,viii4 ,it began with what was once a fine portrait4 ,but the oil painting1 now in the ,louvre 7,plate #bc71 has suffered such severe injuries as to be but a poor ghost of what it was originally4 ,only the composition1 and the fidelity with which all his friend's scientific instruments are drawn attest ,holbein4 ,he never adds a detail for merely pictorial purposes2 and never shuffles one that concerns the personality of a sitter4 ,no biographer with his pen sets every straw to show the winds of character and circumstance more deliberately than does this historian with his brush4 ,something of ,kratzer's shrewd wit1--for he was a character--can still be read in his half-destroyed picture4 ,years later we shall see the intimate friend of both him and his painter writing of the astronomer as a man brim-full of humour and fancy4 ,and once1 we may be sure1 it sparkled in the eyes of ,kratzer's portrait as brilliantly as in his own4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #bc ,,nicholas ,,kratzer ,oils4 ,the ,louvre ,in the ,munich ,gallery there is another portrait in oils which has undergone1 if possible1 still more atrocious treatment than ,kratzer's2 yet1 like it1 still keeps enough of its original charm to rivet attention in any company4 ,this latter is one of the most striking of the half-dozen portraits of ,sir ,bryan ,tuke1 which all claim1 with more or less of probability1 to be paintings by ,holbein4 ,and certainly in the years when ,sir ,bryan was ,treasurer of the ,king's ,household it would be natural that the painter1 whose salary he regularly disbursed1 should gladly oblige him to his utmost4 ,but the ,munich portrait also shows a far deeper bond of interests than one of money4 ,the undercurrent of their natures ran in a groove of more than common sympathy2 and to an analyst1 such as ,holbein was1 the reflections behind these inscrutable eyes were full of unusual attraction4 ,myself1 ,i feel convinced1 for more than one reason1 that it is a work of some years later4 ,but as a consensus of authorities places it during this visit1 the picture is noticed here4 ,it gains rather than loses by reproduction2--since the painting now shows a strange disagreeable colour most unlike the carnations of ,holbein4 ,but the composition is unmistakable 7,plate #bd74 ,between the sitter and the green-curtained background stands perhaps the ghastliest of all ,holbein's skeletons1--one hand on his scythe1 the other grimly pointing at the nearly-spent sands of the hour-glass4 ,below the latter is a tablet on which1 in ,latin1 are the words of ,job3 ,my short life1 does it not come to an end soon8 and the signature without the date4 ,sir ,bryan wears a fur-trimmed doublet with gold buttons2 the gold-patterned sleeves revealed by the black silk gown1 also trimmed with fur4 ,on a massive gold chain he wears a cross of great richness1 enamelled with the pierced ,hands and ,feet4 ,fine lawn is at throat and wrists2 and in one hand he holds his gloves4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #bd ,,sir ,,bryan ,,tuke ,oils4 ,munich ,gallery 99 99 99 99 99 ,before the researches of ,eduard ,his1 it used to be sometimes said that ,holbein had virtually deserted his family when he left ,basel in #aebf4 ,we know now1 however1 that whatever were the moral wrongs which he suffered or committed1 he never forsook the duty of providing for his wife and children in no ungenerous proportion to his means4 ,the records show that the fruit of his two years' industry was used to acquire a comfortable home which remained the property of his wife4 ,and the inventory of its contents at ,elsbeth's death1 some six years after ,holbein's death1 proves that this home was to the full as well furnished and comfortable as was usual with people of similar condition4 ,in the summer of #aebh the painter bade farewell for ever to ,sir ,thomas ,more's gracious ,chelsea home4 ,he took with him the pen-and-ink sketch for a large picture of ,more in the midst of his family1 which has been already referred to4 ,this was for ,erasmus1 who had temporarily abandoned ,basel1--now so utterly unlike the ,basel of former years1--and had sought the more sympathetic atmosphere of ,freiburg4 ,bonifacius ,amerbach1 from the same causes1 was here with ,erasmus for some time4 ,so that something like the old ,froben days must have seemed still about them as the three friends sat together and talked of all that had come and gone4 ,but by the latter part of ,august ,holbein was back in that now sadly-altered ,basel whence his best friends were reft by trouble or death4 ,and on the #bith of ,august1 #aebh1 he bought the house next to ,froben's ,buchhaus1 the deed attesting that he did so in person1 in company with ,elsbeth4 ,the price1 #cjj guldens or florins1 was by no means the small one it now seems1 nor could the painter pay the whole sum at once4 ,he paid down one-third1 and secured the rest by a mortgage4 ,the site of this house is now occupied by #bb ,st4 ,johann ,vorstadt4 ,three years later1 ,march #bhth1 #aeca1 ,holbein bought out a disagreeable neighbour2 and thus added to his two-storied house overlooking the ,rhine the little one-storied cottage which cost him only seventy guldens4 ,the factory at ,no4 #bj now partially covers this latter site4 ,fifty years ago both of the original houses were still standing2 quaint1 crumbling1 affecting monuments of days when ,holbein's voice and ,holbein's step rang through their rooms1 when ,frau ,elsbeth swept and garnished them2 and when four children added their links to the chain of a marriage which ,holbein was now manfully trying to make the best of4 ,it must have been in the year after the purchase of the larger house that he painted the group of his wife and the two children she had then borne him4 ,this life-size group1 done in oils on paper1 is now in the ,basel ,museum 7,plate #be74 ,the stoical sincerity with which they are represented1 and the hard outline produced by cutting out the work to mount it on its wood panel1 makes a somewhat repellent impression at the first glance4 ,and this is in no way dispersed by studying ,elsbeth's traits4 ,but the painting itself is a tour-de-force4 ,by sheer ,quality ,holbein has invested these portraits1--a middle-aged1 coarse-figured1 unamiable-looking woman1 a very commonplace infant1 and a bright-faced boy1--with the prestige inseparable from an achievement of a high order4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #be ,,elsbeth1 ,,holbein',s ,,wife1 ,,with ,,their ,,two ,,eldest ,,children ,oils4 ,basel ,museum ,clearly ,elsbeth ,holbein was not one to give up the costume of her youth simply because she would have been well advised to do so2 and the cut and fashion of her dress remains almost identical with the drawing in the ,louvre4 ,her lustreless light-brown hair is covered with a gauzy veil and a reddish-brown cap4 ,her brown stuff upper garment1 trimmed with thin fur1 shows a dark-green dress beneath it4 ,the baby wears a gown of undyed woollen material1 and the boy a jacket of dark bluish green4 ,out of such unpromising materials has the painter made a picture that would challenge attention among any4 ,if we knew nothing as to the identity of this woman1 sitting oblivious of the children at her knee1 wrapped in her own dark thoughts1 we should certainly want to know something of her story and of the story of the little fellow whose eyes are breathlessly intent upon some purer1 sweeter vision4 ,there is at ,cologne1 in a private collection1 a deeply interesting duplicate of this work2 also on paper afterwards mounted on wood1 but not cut out4 ,unfortunately this latter has suffered such irremediable injuries that it is quite impossible now to pronounce upon its claim to be either the earlier example or a replica2 but good judges have believed it to be by ,holbein4 ,its chief interest1 however1 from a biographical point of view1 may be said to lie in the sixteenth-century writing pasted on at the top4 ,literally translated1 this runs-- ,love towards ,god consists in ,charity4 ,who hath this love can feel no hate4#e ,it is difficult to see on what grounds ,woltmann1 who was inclined to accept the picture as genuine1 should hold the inscription to have been added by someone desirous of increasing the value of the work by representing it to be an allegorical picture of ,charity4 ,there was never a time when the allegory1 if accepted1 could have carried the same value as the portraits4 ,and surely the second line is utterly inconsistent with the theory4 ,original or not1 it has a very startling likeness to a plea which ,holbein himself must have urged more than once1 to soften a bitterness his own errors could not have tended to cure4 ,when the ,basel painting was cut out to be mounted1 the last numeral was lost2 so that it now stands dated #aeb-4 ,but all the other facts put it beyond question that the picture could not have been done before #aebi4 ,the baby of #aebb was now the boy of seven1 and his successor would seem to have been born during the first months of its father's visit to ,england1 and to be now some eighteen months old4 ,it may be as well to say here1 once for all1 as much as need be said of ,holbein's family4 ,as already stated1 his wife survived him by six years1 dying at ,basel in #aedi4 ,by her first marriage she had one son1 ,franz ,schmidt--who seems to have been a worthy and successful man of trade4 ,she was the mother of four children by her marriage with ,holbein2--,philip1 born #aebb2 ,katharina1 #aebg2 ,jacob1 about #aecj2 and ,knegoldt1 about #aecb4 ,some years before the painter's death he took ,philip ,holbein to ,paris1 and there apprenticed him to the eminent goldsmith1 ,jerome ,david1 with whom he remained until a couple of years after ,holbein's death4 ,later1 he somehow drifted to ,lisbon1 where he followed his trade until he settled in the old home of his grandfather and great-grandfather1 ,augsburg4 ,in #afaa his son1 ,philip ,holbein1 junior1 then ,imperial ,court ,jeweller at ,augsburg1 petitioned the ,emperor ,matthias for letters patent to confirm his right to certain noble arms4 ,the claims put forward in this document are utterly at variance with the received belief in ,holbein's humble ,augsburg origin4 ,yet the most expert investigators who have carefully studied this subject agree in thinking that this grandson based the genealogical tree on mythical foundations1 and therefore planted it remote from ,augsburg itself4 ,but be this as it may--and it seems hard to reconcile such discrepancies within a century of the time when both ,hans ,holbein the ,elder and his son were well-known citizens of ,augsburg1--the application was successful4 ,mechel says that this ,philip1 who claims descent from the renowned painter of ,basel1 lived in ,vienna during his later years2 and that a descendant of his again got their patent confirmed in #agef1 with the right to carry the surname of ,holbeinsberg2 also that this latter descendant was made a ,knight of the ,empire in #aghg1 as the noble von ,holbeinsberg4 ,so much for the eldest branch1 that of ,philip ,holbein4 ,the younger boy1 ,jacob1 was a goldsmith in ,london after ,holbein's death4 ,the evidence seems to show that he was never here previous to that event1--which of itself may have first occasioned his coming1 though hardly at the time1 as ,jacob was not more than thirteen at his father's death4 ,a document in existence proves that he also died in ,london1 about #aeeb1 and apparently unmarried2 at which time his elder brother1 ,philip1 was still in ,lisbon4 ,katharina1 the elder daughter1 the baby of the ,basel painting1 seems to have left no descendants4 ,she married a butcher of ,basel and died in #aeij4 ,and in the same year1 very likely from one of the frequent epidemics so fatal to ,basel1 died ,knegoldt1 ,elsbeth's youngest child4 ,the ,merian family of ,frankfurt-am-,main claims an hereditary right to the artistic gifts of its famous copper-engraver1 ,mathew ,merian1 as descendants of ,holbein through this daughter ,knegoldt1 who1 when she died1 was the wife of ,andreas ,syff1 a miller1 of ,basel4 ,according to the greatest authority on this subject1 ,eduard ,his1 to whose exhaustive researches we owe almost all that is known of ,holbein's family1 the ,merian claims have not1 so far1 been proved by actual archives2 but he is of opinion that there is considerable circumstantial evidence to support their claim to be lineal descendants of ,holbein through the female line4 ,but in #aebi1 when the family group was painted1 neither ,jacob nor ,knegoldt were yet born2 and the painter was much more concerned with the anxieties of a living father than with the shadowy cares of an ancestor4 ,and dark enough was the outlook in ,basel1 where the ,lutheran agitation had1 as ,erasmus said1 frozen the arts4 ,before ,holbein came back from ,england many churches had abjured all pictures4 ,the tide of religious antagonism had1 as we know1 driven both ,erasmus and ,bonifacius ,amerbach for a time to a ,catholic stronghold2 and had driven their old friend ,meyer to do literal battle on behalf of the ,church4 ,altar paintings were out of the question4 ,and ,holbein could but devote himself to designs for the printers and for goldsmiths4 ,many beautiful compositions for both crafts remain to testify of his matured powers and constant industry4 ,the exquisite designs for dagger-sheaths1 in particular1 are rightly counted among the treasures of art4 ,but in the summer of #aecj came a commission for the painter's last great work in ,basel4 ,this was the long-delayed order for the decoration of that vacant wall in the ,council ,hall1 which adjoined the house zum ,hasen4 ,oddly enough1 this commission also came officially through a burgomaster1 ,jacob ,meyer4 ,but the ,meyer of #aecj1 ,meyer of-the-,stag 7zum ,hirten71 had neither blood nor sentiments in common with the ,meyer under whom ,holbein had done his first work in the ,rathaus4 ,each headed a party at deadly issue4 ,for the past year ,meyer-of-the-,hare had vainly tried to turn back the clock or to stay the iconoclastic fury of the hour4 ,religious fanaticism had wrecked him as well as every beautiful piece of art on which it could lay its hands4 ,and now at last it mattered nothing any more so far as he was concerned4 ,the dreadful harvests that had brought virtual famine1 the earthquake shocks which had unsettled many a mental as well as material foundation1 the flooding devastations of the ,birsig1 the rage of ,canton against ,canton1 the ,civil ,war ready to begin1 ,pope or ,luther come by his own1--it was all one at last to ,meyer zum ,hasen1 who died just as his protg of earlier years was commissioned to paint the blank wall4 ,but something of his spirit1 something of what he himself had been preaching to ,basel in warning and threat for years1 seems to have passed on into the pictures ,holbein set before the ,council4 ,the paintings1 alas6 are no more4 ,but a fragment or two and the drawings for them show how truly grand the two works were which ,holbein had probably already intended should be his swan-song as ,holbein ,basiliensis4 ,he chose for his subjects ,rehoboam's answer to the suffering ,israelites3 ,my little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins2 my father hath chastised you with whips1 but ,i will chastise you with scorpions2 and ,samuel prophesying to ,saul how dearly he shall learn that ,rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft1 and stubbornness as an iniquity and idolatry4 ,both subjects are treated in the ,great manner4 ,rehoboam1 leaning forward from his throned seat with flashing eyes1 and his little finger seeming actually to quiver in the air1 is wonderfully conceived4 ,but the meeting of ,samuel and ,saul 7,plate #bf7 most splendidly demonstrates how far ,holbein towered above mere portraiture when he had the opportunity4 ,to picture this drawing in all the beauty of colour is to realise what we have lost1 and what his just fame has lost1 with the utter destruction of such works4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #bf ,behold to obey is better than sacrifice ,,samuel ,,denouncing ,,saul ,washed ,drawing4 ,basel ,museum ,not the greatest of the ,italians could have improved upon the distribution and balance of this composition4 ,the blazing background1 the sense of a densely crowded host beyond what the eye can grasp1 of captives and captors--all the stupendous crackle and roar and shout and sudden strained silence of ,saul's immediate followers--is amply matched by those two typical protagonists1 just then repeating the old drama with varying fortunes on the world's new stage4 ,the ,secular ,arm has been short in the service of ,god1 as interpreted by his ,vicar2 it has thought1 in ,saul's person1 to win the cause1 yet spare its enemies4 ,vain is it for him to run with humility1 to tell what he has won and what overcome and done4 ,he has not destroyed ,all--root and branch4 ,for reasons of personal policy1 he has given quarter4 ,and the ,priest1 for ,god1 will have none of his well-meaning excuses1 of his good intentions1 his policy1 his burnt offerings of half-way measures2--,behold to obey is better than sacrifice1 begins his fierce anathema1 and to hearken than the fat of rams4 ,doubtless the ,protestant party read its own meanings into these texts1 when once the pictures were painted and paid for with seventy-two good guldens4 ,but two very significant facts form their own commentary4 ,one is that the only employment he received from the ,council afterward was to redecorate the old ,lllenknig monstrosity on the bridge6--and the other1 that as soon as ,holbein got his pay for this disgraceful commission1 a pay he was now much too hard pressed to refuse1 he quietly slipped away from ,basel without taking the ,council into his confidence4 ,judging from his after conduct to his family1 he probably left the seventy-two guldens to support his wife and children--now four little ones--until such time as he could send them more from ,england2 and took his way once more1 in the late autumn of #aeca1 with knapsack and paint-brushes for the journey1 to a city that might give him few walls to cover1 but would certainly not set him to painting the town clock4 99 99 99 99 99 ,things had changed in ,london also1 and gravely1 ,holbein found1 since he had quitted ,sir ,thomas ,more's home at ,chelsea with the sketch for ,erasmus1 in the summer of #aebh4 ,he had barely settled himself1 in the ,city this time1 before the struggle between ,henry ,,viii4 and the ,english ,clergy ended in that ,convocation when the latter made its formal ,submission4 ,and in the same month that this took place1 ,sir ,henry ,guildford died4 ,then the three great ,acts of ,parliament1 which swept away the crying abuses of ,benefit of ,clergy1 resurrected the dead lands 7so called because perpetually aliened in mortmain7 by restoring them to the national circulation of the ,sovereign-,will1 and turned the rich stream of ,annates or ,first-,fruits of the bishoprics from the ,pope's coffers to the ,king's1--were passed in this year4 ,this legislation was followed by the solemn protest and then the death of ,archbishop ,warham4 ,so that now of that great and close quartet of friends1--,colet1 ,warham1 ,more1 and ,erasmus1--there were two on either shore of the last crossing4 ,and ,more could already see the dark river ahead4 ,his eye marked the consequences of the ,acts as keenly as his aged friend ,warham had discerned them on his death-bed2 and shortly after the ,submission1 ,more resigned his great office as ,chancellor4 ,these seem matters too high to twist the threads of a poor painter's life4 ,but in reality ,holbein's career was shaped1 from many a year back1 by such events as rarely touch the humble individual directly4 ,all his friends and all his patrons in this country were carried far out of reach by #aecb2 and he must sink or swim1 as they in darker waters1 according to his own powers4 ,that under such unexpected ill-fortune he did not immediately sink was due to two things--the greatness of his powers1 and the circumstance that a trading-company of ,continentals1 chiefly ,german1 was seated in ,london with immense wealth and immense influence at its disposal1 and that they were men who knew how to appreciate ,holbein at his worth4 ,the roots of the ,steelyard 7,stahlhof71 or ,stilyard1 as it is often called in early dramatists1 go far back to the legendary centuries of ,english history4 ,from before the time of ,alfred the ,great1 traders from ,germany had clustered together on the bank of the ,thames1 close to where ,cannon ,street ,station now stands4 ,amalgamation with the ,hanseatic ,league1 and the necessities and gratitude of more than one king of ,england--but especially of ,edward ,,iv4--had made of the ,steelyard a company such as only the ,east ,india ,company of later centuries may be compared to4 ,with the world's new geography and new commercial conditions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries1 its methods and its monopoly of the seas were gradually superseded by the great seamen of the ,elizabethan era4 ,but in ,holbein's time1 though already some of the ,hanseatic ships were too overgrown to pass ,london ,bridge and cast anchor at their own docks just above it1 there was scarce a cloud upon the colossal prosperity of the ,steelyard4 ,its walled and turreted enclosure1 able to withstand the fiercest assaults of ,wat ,tyler's men1 stretched from the river northward to ,thames ,street1 and from ,allhallows ,street on the east to ,dowgate ,street on the west2 and it might well have been described as a ,german city and port situated in the heart of the ,city of ,london4 ,its massive front in ,thames ,street1 where were its three portcullised and fortified gateways with ,german inscriptions above and the ,imperial ,double-,eagle high over all1 was one of the sights of ,london4 ,and the ,steelyard ,tavern was a famous resort4 ,when ,holbein knew it well the greatest prelates and nobles and all the ,court crowd1--which stretched its gardens and great houses from the stream of the ,fleet1 just west of the ,city wall1 to ,westminster ,abbey1--used to flock to this ,thames ,street corner of the ,steelyard to drink ,rhenish wine and eat smoked reindeer-tongue and caviar4 ,within the gates stood the big ,guildhall1 which answered both for its councils and its noted banquets4 ,the high carved mantelpieces and wainscotting served admirably to display the glittering plate and strange souvenirs of every known land and sea4 ,on the walls which ,holbein's works were so to enrich hung portraits of eminent members of the ,guild4 ,the ,hall was flanked by the huge stone kitchen and by a strong-tower for the safeguarding of special valuables4 ,in the open space between the ,hall and the west wall of the enclosure was the garden1 where trees and flowers and a greenery of vines had been planted in exact imitation of the gardens of the ,fatherland4 ,and here sat ,holbein among the ,associates1 many a time1 over their good cheer1--as in the old ,basel gardens of the ,blume or the ,stork in other years1 and heard only the ,german tongue or the songs of home around him4 ,away down to the docks ran the lanes of warehouses2 shops and booths where every ,german trader or craftsman in ,london had his place2 and where the merchandise of the world--the greater part of it destined for ,lbeck as a centre of ,european distribution--might be sampled4 ,here were choicest specimens of the then costly spices of ,cathay1 or the famous falcons of ,norway and ,livonia1 for which ,english sportsmen were willing to pay fabulous prices4 ,as in other guilds1 the government of this cosmopolitan beehive was that of a despotic democracy4 ,all the inmates of the precincts were subjected to a rule little short of monastic in its strict discipline4 ,the penalties for any infringement1 for drunkenness or dicing or even for an abusive epithet1 were very severe4 ,the civic duties of the corporation1 too1 were sharply defined4 ,in case of war every member had his appointed post in the defence of ,london4 ,every master had to keep the prescribed accoutrements and arms ready for immediate use1 and the repairs and maintenance of the ,bishop's ,gate were at the sole cost of the ,steelyard4 ,no chapel was erected within its enclosure1 the ,guild preferring to be incorporated with the adjoining parish of ,allhallows4 ,whether or not there is any truth at the bottom of the ancient tradition that this church had been originally founded by ,germans1 the ,guild maintained its own altar in it in ,holbein's time1 where ,masses were said on its own special days and festivals4 ,so far are the facts from the common supposition that the doctrines of ,luther would find natural favour in such a community1 that the latter only gradually came into the ,church of ,england by the same slow processes which transformed the whole parish around it4 ,and when ,more1 who was anything but ,utopian himself in the practice of tolerating heresy during his chancellorship1 headed a domiciliary visit in search of ,lutheran writings1 he could find nothing but orthodox ,german ,prayer-books and the ,scriptures1 whose use among laymen he always strenuously advocated2 while every member of the community was able to make honest and hearty oath at ,st4 ,paul's ,cross that no heretic or heretical doctrine would be tolerated amongst them4 ,here1 then1 in this staunch citadel of his own faith1 ,holbein naturally found a new circle of friends among whom it must have been strangely easy to fancy himself back in the ,fischmarkt of his young years1 with ,froben and ,erasmus and ,amerbach and ,meyer zum ,hasen4 ,the curtain rings up on his work for the ,steelyard1--work which covered many years and more fine paintings than could even be enumerated here--with a superlative exhibition of all his powers4 ,the oil portrait of ,georg ,gyze1 or ,george ,gisze1 as it is often written1 now in the ,berlin ,gallery 7,plate #bg71 inscribed #aecb1 has called forth the enthusiastic eulogies of every competent judge4 ,by a piece of rare good fortune it is in perfect preservation4 ,the black of the surcoat alone has lost a little of its first lustre2 all the rest is as though it had left the easel but the other day4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #bg ,j,,rg 7,,or ,,george7 ,,gyze ,oils4 ,berlin ,museum ,the young merchant is seated among his daily surroundings in the ,steelyard4 ,he is in the act of leisurely opening a letter addressed1 ,to the hand of the honourable ,jrg ,gyze1 my brother1 in ,london1 ,england 7,dem ersamen herrn ,jrg ,gyzen zu ,lunden in ,engelant meinem broder to henden74 ,the merchant's motto1 ,no pleasure without care1 is chalked up in ,latin on the background1 with his signature beneath it4 ,written on a paper stuck higher up is a ,latin verse in praise of the portrait2 also the date1 and the sitter's age--thirty-four4 ,on the racks and shelves are documents1 books1 keys1 a watch and seals1 and a pair of scales4 ,a gold ball is hanging from above with a lovely chasing in blue enamel2 a miracle of painting in itself1 to say nothing of the exquisite ,venetian glass1 filled with water and carnation-pinks4 ,this flower has its own meaning1 and is introduced in more than one of ,holbein's portraits4 ,on the rich oriental table-cloth are writing materials also1 with account-books1 seal and scissors4 ,gyze himself is a fair-haired man1 wearing a brilliant red silk doublet beneath his black cloak4 ,and the amazing thing is that amidst this bewildering array of pictures--for every article is such in itself1 owing to the perfection of its painting--,gyze is not lost or overridden for a moment4 ,it is unmistakably his picture2 and he dominates the accessories as much as he did in reality4 ,the man1 the whole man1 is there2 and the things are there around him2 that is all4 ,but that the eye recognises this is the demonstration of the painter's own mastership4 ,it is as much ,holbein's peculiar secret as are the cool shadows1 the luminous glow1 the astounding elaboration1 all made to express the dignity of one1 and but one1 theme4 ,as has been said1 the ,steelyard portraits are too many to even catalogue here1 covering many years4 ,but ,gyze's may be taken as their high-water mark4 ,for that matter it could not1 in its own way1 be surpassed by any portrait4 ,holbein himself greatly surpassed it in the matter of subtle and noble simplicity1 in his two greatest extant pieces of portraiture--the ,morett of ,dresden and the ,duchess of ,milan1 now in our ,national ,gallery4 ,but in technical powers1 and the power of subordinating their very virtuosity to the requirement of a true picture1 this was a superlative expression of his matured method4 ,in the midst of all his fresh ,london successes came a summons from ,basel1 which must have made the painter smile a little grimly4 ,it had slowly dawned on the ,council that ,holbein--whose renown they well knew was a feather in ,basel's cap--was proposing to make a prolonged absence4 ,the result was a decision which the ,burgomaster officially conveyed to him4 ,jacob ,meyer zum ,hirten wrote to say that ,holbein was desired to return immediately to resume the duties of a citizen-artist1 and that the ,council1 anxious to assist him in the support of his family1 had resolved to allow him an annuity of thirty guldens yearly until something better could be afforded4 ,whether he replied in evasive terms1 or whether he let the ,lllenknig speak for him1 is not on record4 ,by the time ,holbein received this letter1 written late in the autumn of #aecb1 he was plunged into a year of almost incredible activity4 ,the whole of it would hardly seem too long for one such painting as the life-size double portrait--his largest extant portrait-painting--that now belongs to the ,national ,gallery3 ,the ,ambassadors 7,plate #bh74 ,at the extremities of a heavy table1 something like a rude dinner-waggon1 are two full-length figures which show a curious reflection of his early defect in their want of sufficient height4 ,at the spectator's left stands a richly-costumed individual1 whose stalwart proportions1 ruddy complexion1 and boldly ardent eye denote the perfection of vigorous health1 and are in striking contrast to the physique1 colouring1 and expression of his companion4 ,the former wears a black velvet doublet1 which reveals an under-garment of gleaming rose-red satin4 ,over all is a black velvet mantle lined and trimmed with white fur4 ,on his black cap is a silver brooch which displays a skull4 ,he wears a gold badge exhibiting a mailed figure spearing a dragon suspended by a heavy gold chain4 ,the hilt of his sword is seen at his left hand1 and his right grasps a gold-sheathed dagger4 ,on this latter is the inscription3 ,t4 ,,sv4 #bi2 and from it depends a massive green-and-gold silk tassel1 incomparably painted4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #bh ,,the ,,ambassadors ,oils4 ,national ,gallery ,as has been noted1 the complexion of the man at our right is singularly pallid2 the eyes mournfully listless2 the skin of his knuckles drawn into the wrinkles of wasting tissues4 ,he wears a scholar's cap and gown2 the latter of some chocolate-brown pile1 richly patterned1 and lined with brown fur4 ,he holds his gloves in his right hand and leans this arm on a closed book1 on the edges of which is the lettering3 ,,tatis ,,sv #be4 ,an oriental cover is spread on the table1 and upon it are a number of the scientific instruments common to astrology and to the uses of astronomers like ,kratzer1 in whose portrait at the ,louvre they are also to be seen4 ,on the lower shelf are mathematical and musical instruments and books4 ,the two latter are opened to display their text conspicuously4 ,near the man at our left1 and kept open by a ,t-square1 is the ,arithmetic which ,peter ,apian1 astronomer and globe-maker1 published in #aebg4 ,it is opened at a page in ,division1 with its ,german text plainly legible and identical with the actual page1 as seen in the ,british ,museum's copy of this edition4 ,the book nearest the man at our right1 lying beneath the lute1 has been also identified as ,luther's ,psalm-book with music1--in which the ,german text is by himself and the music by ,johann ,walther--first published in #aebd4 ,mr4 ,barclay ,squire has shown that the two hymns could not1 however1 have faced each other in reality1 as they do in the painting1 without the intervening leaves having been purposely suppressed to gain this end4 ,these hymns are ,come ,holy ,ghost 7,kom ,heiliger ,geyst ,herregott7 and ,mortal1 wouldst thou live blessedly8 7,mensch wiltu leben seliglich74 ,in each case the entire verse is given4 ,the background is a green-diapered damask curtain most significantly drawn aside to show a silver crucifix high up in the left-hand corner1 above the man with the dagger and sword4 ,on the beautiful mosaic pavement is an ugly object that looks like some dried fish4 ,but experiments have shown that the ,french ,sale-,catalogues in which this work first appears in the eighteenth century--first1 that is1 so far as we can trace it by any records now known--were right in calling this a skull in perspective2 i4e4 a skull painted as seen distorted in a convex mirror4 ,some hint of its true character can be gathered1 though not much1 by looking at this object from the lower left-hand corner of the painting1 when the exaggerated length will be seen to be reduced to something more nearly approaching the height of the usual ,death's ,head4 ,according to the views which are now officially accepted by the ,national ,gallery1 the persons of this picture are two ,french ,catholics4 ,the one at our left is ,jean de ,dinteville1 ,seigneur of ,polisy1 ,bailly of ,troyes and ,knight of the ,french ,order of ,st4 ,michael1 of which he wears the badge without the splendid collar--as was permitted1 by a special statute1 to persons in the field1 on a journey1 or in a privacy that would not require the full dress of a state occasion4 ,jean de ,dinteville was ,french ,ambassador at the ,court of ,henry ,,viii4 in #aecc2 born in #aejd1 he was then twenty-nine4 ,he died in #aeee4 ,the man in the scholar's cap and gown is ,george de ,selve1 privately associated with de ,dinteville's mission for a few weeks in the spring of #aecc4 ,he was born in #aejh1 nominated ,bishop of ,lavaur in #aebf1 and confirmed in that office in #aebi1 in which year he was ,french ,ambassador at the ,court of ,charles ,v4 ,he was twenty-five in #aecc1 and died in #aeda4 ,for myself1 holding convictions concerning these portraits utterly at variance with any published opinions--and that in more than one vital respect--,i am compelled to limit my account to the bare record of its appearance and catalogued description1 until prepared to submit other facts and conclusions to a verdict4 ,two portraits in the ,hague ,gallery1 each with a falcon hooded on the wrist1 show to how much purpose ,holbein had studied these birds in the ,steelyard4 ,the one of ,robert ,cheseman1 done in this year1 is especially fine1 with a strange1 elusive suggestion of something kindred in the nature of man and bird4 ,in #aecc1 also1 the ,steelyard placed its contribution to the celebration of ,anne ,boleyn's coronation in the painter's hands4 ,and the result was1 as ,stow tells us1 a costly and marvellous cunning pageant by the merchants of the ,stilyard1 wherein was the ,mount ,parnassus1 with the ,fountaine of ,helicon1 which was of white marble2 and four streams without pipe did rise an ell high and mette together in a little cup above the fountaine2 which fountaine ran abundantly with ,rhenish wine till night4 ,on the mountaine sat ,apollo1 and at his feet sat ,calliope2 and on every side of the mountaine sate four ,muses1 playing on severell sweet instruments4 ,but of more importance to his living fame were the two large oil paintings--the ,triumph of ,riches and the ,triumph of ,poverty--which he executed for the ,hall of the ,steelyard4 ,in their day they were renowned far and wide2 but they also have slipped into some abyss of oblivion1 perhaps to be yet recovered as miraculously as was the ,solothurn ,madonna4 ,when the ,guild was compelled to abandon the ,steelyard1 in ,queen ,elizabeth's reign1 the ,hall stood so long unguarded and uncared for that when it regained possession1 under ,james ,i41 everything was in a sad state of neglect4 ,and when the association finally dissolved not long after1 the ,hanseatic ,league agreed to present these paintings to ,henry ,prince of ,wales1 known1 like ,charles ,i41 to be a lover of ,art4 ,if they passed to the possession of the latter1 he must have exchanged them with1 or presented them to1 the ,earl of ,arundel4 ,for in #afbg ,sandrart saw them in the collection of the latter1 like his father an enthusiastic admirer of ,holbein's work4 ,after this1 one or two vague notices suggest that they somehow drifted to ,flanders1 and thence to ,paris4 ,but there every trace of them is lost4 ,federigo ,zucchero thought they yielded to no work of the kind1 even among ,italian masters2 and copied them from pure admiration4 ,holbein's drawing for the ,triumph of ,riches is in the ,louvre ,collection4 ,that he ever painted ,anne ,boleyn1 unless in miniature1 seems doubtful4 ,the portrait among the ,windsor drawings which has been labelled with her name agrees with no description of her in any single respect4 ,but in #aecd he painted one whose destiny was closely linked to hers--,thomas ,cromwell1 then ,master of the ,jewel ,house4 ,and it was probably about this time that he painted what is in some respects the greatest of all his portraits--one of the galaxy of supreme works of all portraiture--the oil painting of ,morett1 or ,morette1 so long regarded as a triumph of ,leonardo da ,vinci's art4 ,the world knows it well in the ,dresden ,gallery 7,plate #bi74 ,the figure is life-size4 ,the pose1 even the costume in its feasible essentials1 strikingly repeats the ,whitehall portrait of ,henry ,,viii41 as copies show this to have been completed in the wall painting4 ,the background is a green curtain4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #bi ,,the ,,morett ,,portrait ,oils4 ,dresden ,gallery ,the sitter wears neither velvet nor cloth-of-gold1 nor ,order of any sort2 but his costume is rich black satin1 the sleeves puffed with white1 the broad fur collar of sable4 ,in his cap is a cameo brooch4 ,his buttons are gold2 and a gold locket hangs from a plain1 heavy chain of the same metal4 ,his right hand carries his gloves1 his left rests on the gold sheath of the dagger that hangs from his waist4 ,his auburn hair and beard is streaked with grey4 ,no words1 no reproduction1 can hope to express the qualities of such a painting4 ,neither can show the mastery or the spell by which the green background1 the hair1 the cool transparent flesh-tones1 the fur1 the satin1 the gold1 are all woven into a witchery as virile as it is penetrating4 ,this is another work which has undergone more than one transformation in the course of its records4 ,as late as #afeg it was correctly ascribed to ,holbein in the ,modena ,collection4 ,but the first syllable of the sitter's name has been its only constant4 ,in time ,morett slipped into ,moretta1 and then--like ,meier in the ,madonna picture--into ,morus4 ,so far it seems to have clung to some ,english tradition4 ,but when ,morus got changed to ,moro it was but natural for an ,italian to think of ,ludovico ,sforza1 ,il ,moro4 ,long before this ,holbein had become ,olbeno2 and thereafter a puzzle4 ,when the portrait was labelled ,sforza1 however1 who could its obviously great painter be but ,leonardo8 ,et voil6 ,thus the work passed to the ,gallery and ,catalogue of the ,royal ,collection at ,dresden4 ,and thus it long remained1 as if to attest the true level of ,holbein's genius4 ,but when the ,gallery also acquired the drawing of the ,arundel ,collection1 labelled ,mr4 ,morett in ,hollar's engraving from it1 the painting was held to be unquestionably identified by it as ,hubert ,morett1 goldsmith to ,henry ,,viii4 ,nor is there anything incongruous in this belief4 ,such a master goldsmith was no tradesman1 in our sense of the word4 ,he was often much more like one of our merchant princes4 ,the merchants of the ,steelyard were frequently the royal bankers1 and many times were employed on high and delicate diplomatic missions to other courts4 ,neither is there anything in the sitter's dress to forbid it to a man of this stamp1 even after the sumptuary laws of ,henry ,,viii4 were passed2 while there is much1 very much1 to suggest an ,english origin4 ,on the other hand1 ,m4 ,larpent has now shown that the ,arundel drawing was down in a catalogue of #agdf-g as3 ,one ,holbein1 ,sieur de ,moret1 one of the ,french hostage in ,england2 and also that a ,chas4 sieur de ,morette is recorded among the four ,french hostages sent to ,england in #aeai4 ,it would thus appear that the painting is a portrait of ,charles de ,solier1 seigneur de ,morette2 an eminent soldier and diplomatist of ,france2 born in #adhj1 ,ambassador to ,england more than once1 and finally1 in #aecd4 ,besides all the portraits of ,holbein's ,english period1 many of them scattered throughout the collections of all ,europe1 and many others now lost1 it must not be forgotten that he was at the same time pouring forth miniature paintings1 designs for engraving1 designs for the goldsmith1 and conceptions of every sort--from a carved chimney-piece to a woman's jewelled trinket2 and all designed with the same exquisite precision and felicity4 ,in the ,british ,museum as on the ,continent these drawings are an education in themselves4 ,and besides the portrait studies in the ,windsor ,collection there is a sketch for a large painting which1 if ever executed1 is lost3 ,the ,queen of ,sheba visiting ,king ,solomon4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,painter ,,royal #aecf-aedc ,queen ,jane ,seymour--,death of ,erasmus1 and title-page portrait--,the ,whitehall painting of ,henry ,,viii4--,munich drawing of ,henry ,,viii4--,birth of an heir and the ,jane ,seymour ,cup--,death of the ,queen--,christina1 ,duchess of ,milan--,secret service for the ,king--,flying visit to ,basel and arrangements for a permanent return--,apprentices his son ,philip at ,paris--,portrait of the ,prince of ,wales and the ,king's return gift--,anne of ,cleves--,thomas ,howard1 ,duke of ,norfolk--,catherine ,howard--,lapse of ,holbein's ,basel citizenship--,irregularities--,provision for wife and children--,residence in ,london--,execution of ,queen ,catherine ,howard--,marriage of ,catherine ,parr--,dr4 ,chamber--,unfinished work for the ,barber-,surgeons' ,hall--,death of ,holbein--,his will--,place of burial--,holbein's genius2 its true character and greatness4 ,these were years of pleasant friendships1 too1 as well as work and cares4 ,nicholas ,bourbon1 scholar and poet1 after his sojourn in ,london1 writes back in #aecf3 ,greet in my name as heartily as you can all with whom you know me to be connected by intercourse and friendship4 ,and after mentioning high dignitaries who had followed the ,king's example of showing special courtesies to ,bourbon1 he adds3 ,mr4 ,cornelius ,heyss1 my host1 the ,king's ,goldsmith2 ,mr4 ,nicolaus ,kratzer1 the ,king's ,astronomer1 a man who is brimful of wit1 jest1 and humorous fancies2 and ,mr4 ,hans1 the ,royal ,painter1 the ,apelles of our time4 ,i wish them from my heart all joy and happiness4 ,this little pen-picture of ,holbein's intimate circle is a beautiful break in the mists of centuries--and shows us what manner of men they were among whom he had made for himself an honoured place4 ,we could ill spare it from the few and meagre records of his life4 ,it is also the very earliest documentary evidence of his being in the ,king's immediate service4 ,it was in this very year1 #aecf1 that he received his commission to paint ,anne ,boleyn's successor1 ,jane ,seymour1 then on the throne the block had left vacant4 ,the ,vienna ,gallery possesses this painting1 of which another version is at ,woburn ,abbey1 and the chalk drawing at ,windsor 7,plate #cj74 ,illustration3 ,,plate #cj ,,queen ,,jane ,,seymour ,oils4 ,vienna ,gallery ,the ,queen was noted for her milk-white fairness1 and ,holbein has borrowed the pearly shadows of the lily in rendering it4 ,the figure is a little under life-size4 ,her head-dress and robes of silver brocade and royal velvet are studded with splendid rubies and pearls to match the jewels on her neck and breast4 ,the hands are as full of character as of art4 ,the ,queen's portrait may properly be said to belong to the great wall painting which ,holbein finished in #aecg for the ,royal ,palace at ,whitehall4 ,but before that date the painter's inner life had suffered one more great wrench4 ,at midnight of ,july #abth1 #aecf1 ,erasmus died in the home that had been his own1 except for the ,freiburg interval1 ever since ,john ,froben's death in #aebf2 a death that had probably had much to do with ,holbein's first departure from ,basel4 ,that event had uprooted the scholar from the old house zum ,sessel1 in the ,fischmarkt1 and transplanted him to the home of ,froben's son1 ,hieronymus4 ,the latter house1 then known as zum ,luft1 is now ,no4 #ah1 ,bumleingasse4 ,and it was here that ,erasmus passed away1 his mind keeping to the last its humour and its interests in all around him4 ,but no one1 remembering how ,fisher and ,more had died in the preceding year1 can doubt but that the good old man was very willing to be gone1 away from changed faces and changed ways--though ,bonifacius ,amerbach and young ,froben were as sons to him4 ,basel1 for all her differences with him1 buried ,erasmus with great honours4 ,but no tablet could so commemorate him as the noble monument which ,holbein built to him in the title-page he designed for ,hieronymus ,froben's edition of ,erasmus's ,works1 published in #aedj4 ,it is a woodcut of extraordinary beauty4 ,the full-length figure of the scholar stands in cap and gown1 with one hand resting lightly on the bust of the god ,terminus 7the god of immovable boundary lines1 significantly conjoined to ,erasmus's chosen motto3 ,concedo nulli7 and the other calling attention to this significant emblem of fixed convictions4 ,not even the ,louvre oil painting expresses the whole ,erasmus quite so completely or so nobly as this little drawing of the man whom ,holbein had loved and revered for twenty years2 and to whom he owed1 in the first place1 the splendid opportunities of his career in ,england4 ,and as he drew it1 what ghosts of his own ,past must have clustered around the lean little figure6 ,what echoes and visions6 ,the ,rhine1 the gardens1 the clang of the press1 the ,fischmarkt1 the friendly smiles at ,froben's and ,meyer's firesides2 his marriage2 the stars and dews and perfume of all his dreams in the years--those matchless years of a man's young manhood--when he had walked with angels as well as peasants1 had seen the ,way of the ,cross1 the ,christ in the ,grave1 and the ,risen ,lord even more clearly than the faces of flesh and blood4 ,eheu fugaces6 ,god help thee1 ,elia1 how art thou sophisticated4 99 99 99 99 99 ,ah1 well6 ,those years1 and the darker1 sadder years that had led far from them1 were now like his oldest friends--dead and buried4 ,the ,holbein of #aecg was painting the ,king of ,england on the wall of his ,privy ,chamber4 ,there was a place for honest pride as well as for honest regret in his thoughts4 ,this painting perished with the palace in the fire of #afih4 ,charles ,,ii41 however1 had a small copy of it made by ,leemput4 ,and a portion of ,holbein's original cartoon 7,plate #ca7 in chalk and ,indian ink1 is in the possession of the ,duke of ,devonshire--the face much washed out by cleaning1 and the outline pricked for transferring to the wall4 ,the figures are life-size1 but ,walpole has already noticed how the massive proportions and solidly-planted pose of the ,king heighten the illusion of a ,colossus4 ,behind him stands the admirably contrasted figure of ,henry ,,vii4 ,the whole composition consisted of four portraits2 ,queen ,jane ,seymour opposite her husband1 and the ,king's mother opposite to1 and on a level with1 ,henry ,,vii41 who stands on the elevation of the background4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #ca ,,king ,,henry ,,viii ,,and ,,his ,,father 7,fragment of ,cartoon used for the ,whitehall ,wall-,painting7 ,duke of ,devonshire's ,collection ,the pose and costume of ,henry ,,viii4 in the cartoon were1 as ,leemput's copy shows1 faithfully carried out in the painting2 but in the latter the face was afterwards turned to the full front view familiar to us in the many copies of the ,king's portrait which so long passed as works of ,holbein1 on the strength of reproducing his own painting4 ,there is no evidence that he ever again painted ,henry ,,viii4 or that he executed any replica of this portrait4 ,the old copy at ,windsor ,castle serves1 however1 to recall its details of costume2 such as his brown doublet stiff with gold brocade and scintillating with the gleams of splendid jewels1 his coat of royal red embroidered with gold thread and lined with ermine to match the wide collar2 his plumed and jewelled cap2 as also the huge gems on collar1 pendant1 rings1 and the gold-hilted dagger in its blue velvet sheath4 ,but ,holbein's own portrait of ,henry ,,viii4--as shown by the original chalk study from life now in the ,munich ,gallery 7,plate #cb7--may in all sobriety of speech be called a stupendous work4 ,looking at this marvellous drawing and picturing to one's self those cheeks informed with pulsing blood1 those lips with breath1 those eyes with blue gleams1--it is easy to understand that ,van ,mander was using no hyperbole when he said that the painting on the wall of the ,privy ,chamber made the stoutest knees to tremble4 ,it was literally1 as he said1 a terrible painting1 of which none of the stupidly-heavy copies that have for the most part travestied ,holbein's work give any true conception4 ,many a man could paint cloth-of-gold and gems2 but only once and again in the centuries comes a man who can thus paint1 not alone the mane and stride of the lion1 but the fires that light his glance1 the roar rushing to his lips4 ,to look long into these eyes that ,holbein had the genius to read and the firmness to draw1 is to feel one's self in the grip of an insatiable1 implacable1 yet leonine soul2 a being who1 to borrow the matchless description of ,burke's political career1 is parted asunder in his works like some vast continent severed by a convulsion of nature2 each portion peopled by its own giant race of opinions1 differing altogether in features and language1 and committed in eternal hostility with one another4 ,and so long as the great drama of ,tudor ,england enthrals the minds of men1 hard by ,shakespeare's supreme name must be read the name of the painter in whose pages the actors in that drama have been compelled themselves to declare themselves4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #cb ,,king ,,henry ,,viii 7,life-study2 probably for the ,whitehall ,painting7 ,chalks4 ,munich ,collection ,to crown the ,king's pride1 and to the no less intense delight of the whole nation which saw in this event the rainbow of every promise1 at ,hampton ,court1 on the #abth of ,october1 #aecg1 ,queen ,jane ,seymour gave birth to the son who was to reign so briefly as ,edward ,,vi4 ,and it was doubtless in connection with this happy circumstance that the ,king commissioned ,holbein's design for a truly royal piece of goldsmith's work4 ,this drawing1 generally known as the ,jane ,seymour cup1 is at ,oxford1 in the ,bodleian ,library 7,plate #cc74 ,no sketch of the artist's powers would be even barely complete without a realising sense of their versatility4 ,and in this design ,holbein has more than equalled the highest achievement of his great contemporary1 ,benvenuto ,cellini1 at this time in the service of the ,french ,court4 ,the initials of the ,king and ,queen1 ,h4 and ,j41 and the exceedingly judicious motto of the latter--,bound to obey and to serve--are recurring devices4 ,but it is in the originality and unflawed beauty of the whole--the springing grace of outline1 the taste and cunning with which flowers of gold naturally bloom into gems and pearls1 the combination of freest1 richest fancy with every restraint of a pure taste--that the perfection of this little masterpiece consists4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #cc ,,design ,,for ,,the ,,jane ,,seymour ,,cup ,bodleian ,library ,in the midst of all the public rejoicings1 the ,te ,deums1 feasts1 and bonfires1 came the thunderclap of the young mother's death4 ,some negligence had permitted her to take cold1 and on the twelfth day after his coveted heir was born1 ,henry ,,viii4 was once again a widower4 ,the ,court went into deepest mourning until the #crd of ,february4 ,but ,thomas ,cromwell was very shortly authorised to take secret steps to ascertain what ,princess might most suitably fill the late ,queen's vacant place and strengthen the assurance of an unbroken succession4 ,choice fell at first on a ,roman ,catholic--,christina1 the sixteen-year-old widow of ,francis ,sforza ,duke of ,milan1 who had died in the autumn of #aece4 ,the upshot of private inquiries was that ,holbein was sent over to ,brussels in ,march1 #aech1 to bring back a portrait of this daughter of ,christian of ,denmark and niece of ,charles ,v4 ,and although the painter had but three hours in which to do it1 he did make what ,hutton described as her very perffight image2 besides which1 said the envoy1 the portrait previously despatched1 though painted in all her state finery1 was but slobbered4 ,from this perffight painting1 which could not have been more than one of his portrait studies1 he afterwards completed that full-length oil painting which is worthy to rank with his great ,morett portrait4 ,by the kindness of the ,duke of ,norfolk1 who has lent it1 this beautiful work is now in the ,national ,gallery 7,plate #cd74 ,but unhappily for its best appreciation1 to my thinking at least1 it hangs at one side and in too close proximity to the bold colouring of ,the ,ambassadors2 so that its own subtle1 yet reticent superiority is well-nigh shouted down by its lusty neighbour4 ,it is a picture to be seen by itself2 as it must stand by itself in the usual inane gallery of women's portraits4 ,hutton tells us that the painter who slobbered ,christina's portrait had painted her in full dress4 ,but ,holbein's eye was quick to recognise the values of her everyday dress--the widow's costume of ,italy--in enhancing the distinction of her face and the stately slenderness of her figure4 ,and so he drew her as she stood1 with a hint of bending forward1 her gloves being restlessly fingered in a shy yet proud embarrassment1 in the first moments when he saw her4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #cd ,,christina ,,of ,,denmark1 ,,duchess ,,of ,,milan ,oils4 ,national ,gallery ,lent by the ,duke of ,norfolk ,the portrait is nearly life-size4 ,over a plain black satin dress she wears a gown of the same material1 lined with yellow sable4 ,her hair is entirely concealed by a black hood4 ,at her throat and wrists are plain cambric frills4 ,the ranging scale of tawny tones--in the floor1 the gloves1 the fur1 the golden glint in her brown eyes--and the one ruby1 on her hand1 are the only colours1 except those of her fresh young lips and skin and the black and white of her costume4 ,she is not so white as the late ,queen1 wrote ,hutton1 but she hath a singular good countenance1 and when she chanceth to smile there appeareth two pits in her cheeks and one in her chin1 the which becometh her excellently well4 ,it is easy to believe that they did1 but her dimples did not chance for ,henry ,,viii4 ,whether she really sent him1 along with her picture1 the witty refusal credited to her--that she had but one head2 had she two1 one should be at ,his ,majesty's service--or whether it was the ,emperor's doing entirely that his niece married the ,duke of ,lorraine instead of the man whose first wife had been ,charles ,v4's aunt1 there is1 at all events1 a soft lurking devil in the demure little face which seems to whisper that the answer was one which she could have made an' she would4 ,van ,mander heard from ,holbein's circle a story which modern pedantry is inclined to flout4 ,this is1 that when an irate nobleman wanted the painter punished for an affront1 the ,king hotly exclaimed3--,understand1 my lord1 that ,i can make seven earls out of as many hinds1 any day2 but out of seven earls ,i could not make one such painter as this ,holbein4 ,an eminently ben-trovato story1 at all events4 ,and certain it is that the painter stood sufficiently high in the royal favour to be despatched on some special private mission for the ,king in the summer of #aech1 of which the secret was so well kept that nothing beyond the record of payment for it has ever transpired4 ,from this date ,holbein's name is regularly down in the ,royal ,accounts4 ,the amounts drawn total1 it has been computed1 about #cfj in present value1 and would make an agreeable annual addition to his other earnings4 ,so that it is little wonder he was not tempted by the small sum offered by the ,basel ,council in #aecb4 ,but in #aech the ,council greatly increased the old offer1 and was so anxious to have him among her citizens that the painter seized the opportunity of his secret mission to ,upper ,burgundy1 whatever it was1 to pay a flying visit to ,basel in the interests of his family4 99 99 99 99 99 ,his old companions of the ,guild of ,st4 ,johann ,vorstadt made this visit--when ,holbein was back among them1 as was noted1 in silk and velvet--the occasion of a grand banquet in his honour4 ,but the real motive for his visit was to arrange upon what terms he could meet the ,council's wishes4 ,the terms were far from ungenerous1 as is shown by the contract which followed him back to ,london4 ,in this the ,council bound itself1 in consideration of the great honour of retaining in their city a painter famous beyond all other painters on account of the riches of his art1 and in further consideration of his promise to make no absence from ,basel more prolonged than should be really necessary to carry his foreign commissions to their destination and receive his pay for them--to give him an annuity of fifty guldens1 equally whether ,holbein should be ill or well1 but only during his own life4 ,in addition to this1 they granted him permission to make short visits to specified art-centres1 of which ,milan was one1 once1 twice1 or thrice1 every year4 ,and recognising the impossibility of his freeing himself from his ,english engagements in less than two years1 they also granted him this interval before he need resume his residence at ,basel2 and engaged to pay forty guldens yearly to his wife1 on his behalf1 for each of these two years4 ,there is every probability that ,holbein himself took a goodly sum to ,basel to invest for his family's permanent benefit in one way and another4 ,for it could only have been as a part of this gleaning for them that he drew--as the ,account ,books show that he did just at this juncture--a whole year's salary in advance from the ,royal ,exchequer2 seeing that the same books prove that he was liberally paid for all his own expenses on the ,king's service1 in addition to his regular salary4 ,part of the sum he collected to take with him was doubtless used to apprentice his son ,philip1 now sixteen1 to the goldsmith's trade4 ,and that the father chose ,paris for this purpose1 where he left ,philip on his return journey1 might well be due either to his own estimation of ,jerome ,david1 to whom ,philip was indentured1 or to the fact that ,benvenuto ,cellini's presence at ,paris afforded some advantage2 or that his own promised return to ,basel would make it preferable to have the lad on the same side of the ,channel as all his family4 ,and that ,holbein fully intended to make the necessary and obvious sacrifice involved in exchanging ,london for ,basel is also proved by a contemporary account4 ,his intention was1 says his fellow-townsman1 had ,god lengthened his life1 to paint many of his pictures again at his own expense1 as well as the hall in the ,rathaus4 ,the paintings on the ,haus zum ,tanz he pronounced 'pretty good4' ,but it was not to be4 ,his ,new ,year's offering to the ,king on the opening of #aeci was a portrait1 probably the oil painting in the ,hague ,gallery1 of the infant ,prince of ,wales4 ,it was a spirited picture of the royal baby with his gold rattle in his chubby little fist1 such as might have delighted a father less doting than ,henry ,,viii41 whose return gift is recorded3 ,to ,hans ,holbyne1 paynter1 a gilte cruse with a cover1 weighing x oz4 #a quarter4 ,the cruse was made by a friend of the painter2 that ,cornelius ,hayes1 goldsmith1 whom ,bourbon's letter mentioned in connection with him in #aecf4 ,all these months the negotiations for the hand of the ,duchess of ,milan had fluctuated with the varying fortunes of the ,king's relations with her uncle1 ,charles ,v4 ,but at last they had altogether collapsed with what seemed to ,henry ,,viii4 the threatening attitude assumed by the ,emperor and the ,pope4 ,hereupon followed that historical chapter1 so full of fatal consequences to ,cromwell1 and no less big with shame for the ,king's own story3 the pitiful chapter of ,anne of ,cleves4 ,her brother1 the ,duke of ,cleves1 was at this time a troublesome foe to the ,emperor2 while the fact that she was a ,protestant was a ,roland for the ,imperial and ,papal ,oliver4 ,so ,holbein was again posted off to bring back a counterfeit of ,anne1 and to carry to her a miniature of the ,king4 ,and by the #ast ,september he had acquitted himself of the new mission4 ,there is not an iota of historical or other evidence for that ,flanders mare anecdote1 which seems to have had a gratuitous as well as spontaneous origin in ,bishop ,burnet's seventeenth-century brain1 to the effect that the ,king was the victim of a flattering portrait by ,holbein1 and cruelly undeceived by the actual looks of his bride4 ,in the first place his agents wrote to him frankly that the ,princess was of no great beauty1 though not uncomely1 and never from the ellebowe of the ,ladye ,duchesse her ,mother1 who was said to be most unwilling to part with her 7as a mother might well be1 for the husband in question74 ,the ,king was also told that she was quite unskilled in languages or music1 and held1 with her mother1 that it was for a rebuke and an occasion of lightenesse that great ,ladyes shuld be lernyd or have enye knowledge of musike4 ,and in the next place even a superficial knowledge of ,holbein would disprove any tradition of flattery from his unflinching1 almost brutally truthful brush4 ,it was hardly likely that the painter who would not stoop to flatter ,bishop ,stokesley1 or ,henry ,,viii4 himself1 would be swerved from his good faith by ,anne of ,cleves4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #ce ,,anne ,,of ,,cleves ,oils4 ,the ,louvre ,on the contrary1 the painting1 in oils on vellum and mounted on a panel1 now in the ,louvre 7,plate #ce71 is the very embodiment of contemporary accounts of this ,princess4 ,her fair-skinned1 commonplace1 yet not uncomely face looks out placidly at you from the quaint ,flemish head-dress of fine gauze and jewelled cloth-of-gold4 ,her inert hands 7,holbein's hands belong to his truth-telling revelations71 jewelled even on the thumb1 are listlessly clasped upon each other2 her crimson-velvet dress is heavily banded with gold and pearl embroidery4 ,no ,venus certainly1 and perhaps somewhat heavily handicapped by the maternal elbowe4 ,but still perfectly in keeping with her descriptions and making no denial to the ,french ,ambassador's statement that she was the gentlest and kindest of queens2 or to an ,english eye-witness who writes that at her coronation the people all applauded her for being so fayre a ,ladye1 of so goodly a stature and so womanly a countenance1 and in especial of so good qualities4 ,the fact is that the ,king's very cruelty to this poor girl--torn from her mother's side and her ,protestant home in ,drren to be the pawn of an unscrupulous diplomacy--was based on grounds1 at least1 less infamous than that of a slave-buyer4 ,after both ,cromwell and ,holbein had been well rewarded for their services1 the former lost his head and the ,queen her crown on considerations that took no more account of her looks than her feelings4 ,the ,catholic glass had risen2 the ,king himself was not ashamed to avow it2 and the ,protestant alliance was therefore an incubus4 ,after some two months of a queen's and wife's estate1 poor ,anne of ,cleves was bid to pack her belongings and take up a separate establishment as an unmarried woman4 ,no wonder she fainted when first informed of such an infamy4 ,but there was no law in ,england save the fiat of ,henry ,,viii4 ,the marriage was pronounced null and void1 and ,anne retired into private life1 on the rigid condition that she would make no attempt to ever quit ,england1 with an allowance of #c1jjj a year1 and the formal title of the ,king's sister4 ,there was no help for her4 ,never again for her would there be the austere joys of ,drren--her mother's side1 her own timid dreams of other companionship1 and never the price at which she had lost them4 ,at the head of the triumphant anti-,protestant1 anti-,cromwell party stood ,thomas ,howard1 third ,duke of ,norfolk1 whose portrait1 in the ,royal ,collection at ,windsor1 ,holbein painted about this time 7,plate #cf74 ,the lean face and the figure clothed in red stand out strikingly from the plain green background1 although the painting has suffered not a little injury4 ,the robe is lined and trimmed with ermine1 and over it is the collar and badge of the ,order of the ,garter4 ,in his right hand he holds the gold baton of his office as ,earl ,marshal1 and in his left the ,white ,staff of the ,lord ,chamberlain4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #cf ,,thomas ,,howard1 ,,third ,,duke ,,of ,,norfolk ,oils4 ,windsor ,castle ,according to ,roper1 ,norfolk1 then ,earl of ,surrey1 was a great friend of ,sir ,thomas ,more4 ,but it would be hard to imagine a greater contrast than the records of the two men4 ,the latter a pattern of personal purity and lofty ideals2 the former as venal as the ,king's ,parliaments1 and as unscrupulous in pursuit of his passions as the ,king himself4 ,norfolk's star of influence had already waxed and waned with the evil destinies of one niece1 before it arose anew with the fortunes of another only to plunge sharply after them into the gulf of ruin4 ,for the present he and ,gardiner1 restored to favour with him1 were all-powerful4 ,their calculations seemed to prosper1 too1 beyond their most ambitious dreams1 when1 instead of ruling through a rival to ,anne who should be the ,king's mistress1 they were to rule through a legal successor4 ,for the ,king was nothing if not technically correct2 and from the moment when the fatal royal glance flamed on ,catherine ,howard when ,gardiner was entertaining him1 nothing would do but she should become his wife4 ,and thus once more the wild wheel of ,fortune was to make ,norfolk uncle to a ,queen of ,england4 ,anne was divorced on the #abth of ,july1 #aedj1 and on the #bhth of the same month1 on the very day when ,thomas ,cromwell was beheaded1 the ,king married ,anne ,boleyn's cousin1 ,catherine ,howard4 ,on the #hth of ,august she was proclaimed ,queen1 and on the #aeth of that month she was publicly prayed for as such in all the churches of the realm4 ,well might she be6 ,dry your outraged tears1 ,anne of ,cleves1 and give thanks to ,god that you are well out of it6 ,there is a miniature in the ,windsor ,collection now believed to be ,holbein's portrait of ,catherine ,howard4 ,until recently it was held to be the portrait of ,catherine ,parr4 ,but there is a larger portrait of the former among the ,windsor drawings1 a study evidently made for an oil painting 7,plate #cg74 ,by this it seems that she had auburn hair1 hazel eyes1 a fair complexion1 and a piquant smile4 ,there is a painting which accords with this drawing in the ,duke of ,buccleuch's collection1 but it is said to be by a ,french artist4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #cg ,,catherine ,,howard ,chalk ,drawing4 ,windsor ,castle ,in the autumn of this year1 #aedj1 the two years of absence expired which had been granted to ,holbein by his contract with the ,basel ,council4 ,but he had now formed ties which were too powerful to yield to ,basel's4 ,those plans of painting again the walls by which coming generations would judge him1 the resolve to try again if he and ,elsbeth might not manage to live in peace under one roof where the children1 who were strangers to him1 should come to know and be known by him in something more than name1 were all relinquished4 ,they must certainly have been relinquished on some definite mutual understanding1 and at a compensation agreed upon between him and ,elsbeth and his step-son1 ,franz ,schmidt2 because it must have been ,holbein himself who enabled ,franz1 acting on his mother's behalf1 to take over as he did the entire legacy--a snug little competency in itself--to which ,holbein fell heir in this autumn by the bequest of his uncle1 ,sigmund ,holbein1 citizen of ,berne4 ,philip having been launched by his father in the goldsmith's craft1 there only remained the second son and two daughters at home4 ,thus so far as mere money went1 ,holbein might now think himself discharged from the support of his family1 and free to divert his future earnings from them4 ,and1 as has been said1 the ,will and ,inventory proved at ,elsbeth's death1 six years after her husband's1 that he had made no bad provision for them in the matter of material comforts1 however remiss his conduct in its moral aspects4 ,the ,royal ,accounts break off in #aeda1 but the ,subsidy ,roll for the ,city of ,london has a very precious item for ,holbein's biography in the ,october of this year4 ,this announces that ,hanns ,holbene is among the straungers then residing in the ,parisshe of ,saint ,andrew ,undershafte1 and that he is assessed as such4 ,not only the ,windsor chalk drawings1 but the paintings at ,vienna1 ,berlin1 and other ,continental galleries1 show the pressure1 as well as the high level of quality1 at which he was now working4 ,these portraits are among almost his very best1 while the one shortly to be mentioned is quite among them4 ,by the summer of #aedb the tragedy of ,catherine ,howard was over4 ,that ,royal ,progress1 like more than one of its forerunners1 had become the royal shame4 ,this time it was a shame so black and so wide that within two years1 after madness and death had purged the complicity of many1 there still remained so many more involved in the sins and follies of ,norfolk's niece that the ordinary prisons were unable to contain all that were arraigned2 a shame so bitter that when the proofs of it were first laid before ,henry ,,viii4 the ,privy ,council quaked to see him shed tears4 ,it was1 they said with awe1 a strange thing in his courage6 ,the guilty woman had her own tears to shed in expiation2 but in the dawn of ,february #abth1 #aedb1 she walked to the block as full of wilful1 cheerful audacity1 and as careful of her toilet1 as she had ever gone to meet her royal lover4 ,and so the auburn head of the ,king's fifth wife rolled from the axe that had severed her guilty cousin's4 ,on ,july #abth1 #aedc1 the next year as it then began1 the ,king married ,catherine ,parr4 ,she had been twice widowed and was about to marry ,sir ,thomas ,seymour when the ,king interfered1 and she became his wife instead2 though one can well credit the story that she tremblingly told him1 ,it were better to be his mistress4 ,she was a good woman1 a generous stepmother1 and a good wife4 ,but there is plenty of probability for the assertion that her own death had been debated with the ,king when her wit delayed it1 and his death set her free to marry at last the man from whom the ,king had snatched her4 ,it was formerly believed1 as has been said1 that ,holbein had painted her miniature--the one at ,windsor1 now declared to be the portrait of ,catherine ,howard4 ,about this time he must have painted the great portrait of which mention has been made4 ,this is the oil portrait of ,dr4 ,chamber1 the ,king's physician1 now in the ,vienna ,gallery 7,plate #ch74 ,the sitter was1 as the inscription shows1 eighty-eight years old2 and the strong1 stern face is full of that inward look which comes to the faces of men whose meat and drink has been a lifetime of heavy responsibilities4 ,he had been associated with the ,charter of the ,college of ,physicians in #aeah1 and was also instrumental in that of the ,guild of ,barbers and ,surgeons1 in #aeda4 ,and it was probably through him and ,dr4 ,butts1 another physician to the ,king whom ,holbein had painted and who was likewise a ,master of the new ,guild1 that he undertook to paint a large work for their hall--,henry ,,viii4 granting their ,charter to the ,master-,surgeons kneeling before him4 ,illustration3 ,,plate #ch ,,dr4 ,,chamber ,oils4 ,vienna ,gallery ,this work ,holbein did not live to finish2 and it is to-day exceedingly doubtful as to how much of the smoke-blackened painting is by him4 ,the very drawing has a woodenness foreign to his compositions1 and much of the painting is by an evidently inferior hand4 ,but good judges hold some of the heads to be undoubtedly his work4 ,however this may be1 with the autumn of #aedc ,holbein's life came to a sudden close4 ,van ,mander1 wrong as to the date by eleven years which have fathered a host of spurious ,holbeins on the ,histories of ,art1 is apparently right as to the cause of death--the ,plague4 ,by the great discovery of ,hans ,holbein's ,will1 found by ,mr4 ,black in #ahfa among the archives of ,st4 ,paul's ,cathedral1 it is proved that the painter made his ,will on ,october #gth1 and must have died between this and ,november #bith1 #aedc1 when administration was granted to one of his executors 7the other would seem to have perished1 meanwhile1 from the same epidemic74 ,this surviving executor was an old friend of the artist1 whose portrait1 in the ,windsor ,gallery1 he had painted eleven years before--,hans of ,antwerp1 a master-goldsmith of the ,steelyard4 ,the ,will bears about it evident signs of having been made in great haste and mental disturbance4 ,but it accomplished all that ,holbein probably had at heart2 that is1 the ensuring that whatsoever moneys could be collected from his accounts1 or by the sale of all my goodes and also my horse1 should first be applied to clear a couple of specified debts1 and the rest be managed for the sole benefit of my two chylder which be at nurse4 ,from the very fact that nothing as to the identity or whereabouts of these babies is mentioned1 it is clear that ,holbein relied on the verbal instructions which he had given to his trusted friends and to their complete understanding of all the circumstances as well as of his wishes4 ,he was only concerned1 apparently1 that such small means as could thus be saved for them should not be permitted to pass to his legal heirs4 ,no other heirs are mentioned2 no other legacy is made4 ,from the ,will alone one who did not know otherwise would suppose that he had no other family or relatives in existence4 ,the ,plague left no man in its neighbourhood much leisure for explanations4 ,stowe records that the one of that autumn was such a great death that the ,law ,courts had to be transferred to ,st4 ,albans4 ,but two things seem to speak in this curt document4 ,first1 that by the transference of his uncle ,sigmund's little fortune to ,franz ,schmidt 7as trustee for ,elsbeth and the children of her marriage with ,holbein71 which the archives prove took place three years earlier1 and by his other arrangements for his family at ,basel and for ,philip at ,paris1 ,holbein held himself free of any further responsibility for their support1 and1 indeed1 determined that they should not obtain possession of the residue in ,london4 ,secondly1 that if the mother of his two illegitimate children had lived with him in ,london as his wife1 she must have just died--perhaps in childbed1 perhaps of the ,plague4 ,she is not in any way referred to4 ,and there is something in the very signs of confusion and distress throughout the wording of the ,will which seems to exhale a far-away anguish--sudden parting1 sad apprehensions1 keenest anxiety for my two chylder which be at nurse4 ,there comes before the eye a picture of the five grave men--,holbein1 his two executors1 the one a goldsmith1 the other an armourer1 and his two witnesses1 a merchaunte and a paynter--hurrying along the plague-infected streets to get this document legalised as some protection for two motherless babies1 in the event of their father's death4 ,no man knew whose turn would come within the hour4 ,and by ,november #bith ,holbein's had come1 and one executor's also1 apparently4 ,the ,latin record of administration on this date is that it has been consigned to ,john ,anwarpe 7,johann or ,hans of ,antwerp71 and accepted by him in accordance with the last will of ,john1 alias ,hans ,holbein1 recently deceased in the parish of ,saint ,andrew ,undershaft4 ,it would seem probable1 then1 that the painter was buried in this church rather than in the closely adjoining church of ,saint ,catharine-,cree to which tradition assigned his body4 ,but the horrors of such an epidemic as that in which the painter was swept suddenly away make it easy to understand how even such a man as he had now become could die unnoticed and be buried in an unrecorded grave4 ,when the ,earl of ,arundel1 a few years later1 sought to learn where he might set up a monument to one he so greatly admired1 there was only this vague and uncorroborated rumour that the painter was buried in ,saint ,catharine-,cree4 ,and so no monument was built to mark the spot where ,holbein's measure of sliding sand had been spilled at last4 ,but1 as they ran1 those sands had measured more than a great portrait-painter4 ,they had measured ,greatness2 greatness which is not to be delimited by the wanton outrages of man or the accidents of time4 ,both have had their share in the judgments of generations that have lost all his greatest and nearly all his imaginative creations4 ,and what the ,spoiler has spared1 the self-styled ,restorer has too often ruined4 ,self-love1 on the other hand1 and family pride have been engaged to preserve those portraits by which it is now the fashion to mulct him of his far larger dues4 ,of his mysticism1 of the symbolism in which his ,journal ,intime is written in his own firm cipher1 this little book is not the place to speak2 though for those who have once come to know the true ,holbein these have a spell1 a stern1 inexhaustible enchantment all their own4 ,but study the few fortunate survivals of his imaginative works1 study even more the wrecks and skeletons of his loftier conceptions1 and ask yourself if it could be by only a quick eye and a clever hand 7and he had both1 assuredly7 that ,holbein caught up the dying ember of the ,van ,eycks' torch and fanned it by his originality1 his fancy1 his winged realism1 until its light lit up the dim ways of ,man with a clairvoyance far beyond theirs4 ,this eye1 this mind1 flung its gleaming penetration into every covert of the soul and deep1 deep1 deep into the most shrouded1 the most shuddering secrets of ,mortality4 ,was it by virtue of a mere portrait-painter's powers that the son of the ,augsburg ,bohemian came to lay his finger upon the very core and composition of perhaps the haughtiest1 the subtlest1 the most dread despot since the ,csars8 ,henry ,,viii4 and ,fisher2 the ,las ,corinthiaca1 the ,duchess of ,milan1 his brooding wife2 dancing children1 and dancing ,death2 ,christ on the ,cross1 ,christ in the ,grave1 ,christ ,arisen2 lambs in the fields1 woods and hills1 gaping peasants1 wild battle2--put them side by side1 the poor ghosts of them left to us1 and compute the range of art--the majestic range that framed them all4 ,let us be just4 ,let us forget for a moment the chirp of the family housekeeper over her gods4 ,let us gather up the broken fragments that are more than the meal1 and humbly own the ,miracle that created them4 ,it is idle to argue with the intelligence that can see a want of imagination in ,holbein4 ,but we can find proof and to spare that it is not so2 that his so-called limitations--apart from method1 which is a matter of ,epoch--are due to a creed we may or may not agree with1 but surely must respect4 ,the creed that ,beauty is the framework1 the ornament1 rather than the substance of things2 the pleasure1 not the purpose of this mortal2 and that the sweetest flower that blows is but an exquisite moment of transfigured clay4 ,he smells the mould above the rose2 yet how he draws the rose6 ,the brazen arrogance of pomp1 the pearl on a woman's neck1 the shimmer of a breaking bubble1 the wrinkles in a baby's foot1 the beauty of life1 the pathos of life1 the irony and the lust of life1--he has painted them all1 as he saw them all1 in the phantasmagoric ,procession of ,being betwixt garret and throne4 ,he has painted each1 too1 with that genius for seizing the essential quality which is the thing1 that never forsook him from ,augsburg to ,saint ,andrew's ,undershaft2 that singular1 vivid1 original genius which can well afford to let his grave be forgotten1 whose works build for him1 as ,hans ,holbein-- ,one of the few1 the immortal names ,that were not born to die4 ,,footnotes4 #a3 ,the name used thus1 without further identification1 is to be taken throughout these pages to mean ,hans ,holbein the ,younger4 #b3 ,variously written ,meyer1 ,meier1 ,mejer1 ,meiger1 or ,megger4 ,br is also written ,ber1 or ,berin4 #c3 ,i am deeply indebted to the personal kindness and trouble of ,sir ,martin ,gosselin1 ,k4,c4,m4,g41 ,british ,minister at the ,court of ,portugal1 for greatly facilitating my own study of this interesting picture4 #d3 ,i am indebted to the personal kindness of the discoverer's son1 ,herr ,direktor ,zetter-,collin of the ,solothurn ,museum1 for these details4 ,but the whole story1 as well as ,herr ,zetter-,collin's contributions to the history of the work1 should be read in his own absorbingly interesting monograph3--,die ,zetter'sche ,madonna von ,solothurn4 74447 ,ihre ,geschichte1 etc4 #aijb4 #e3 ,die ,liebe zu ,gott ,heist charite4 ,wer ,liebe hat der ,tragt kein ,hass4 ,a ,,catalogue ,,of ,,the ,,principal ,,existing ,,works ,,of ,,hans ,,holbein ,,the ,,younger ,,arranged1 ,,so ,,far ,,as ,,can ,,be ,,known1 ,,in ,,chronological ,,sequence 9999 signifies--,superlative qualities4 99 signifies--,of some particular importance4 8 signifies--,authorities differ4 ,held by some 7and by the writer7 to have been1 in its original condition1 the work of ,holbein's own hand4 ,i4 ,,earliest ,,individual ,,works 7,,before ,,going ,,to ,,basel7 8 ,st4 ,elizabeth of ,hungary and ,st4 ,barbara4 ,oils4 7,wings of the ,st4 ,sebastian altar-piece47 ,munich ,gallery4 ,virgin and ,child4 ,oils4 ,basel ,museum4 7,earliest signed work known4 ,dated #aead47 ,,ii4 ,,first ,,basel ,,period 7#aeae1 #aeaf1 #aeai-aebf7 ,illustrations to ,erasmus's ,praise of ,folly4 ,eighty-two pen-and-ink sketches on the margins4 ,original copy1 ,basel ,museum4 ,portrait of an unknown young man4 ,oils4 ,grand-,ducal ,museum1 ,darmstadt4 ,jacob ,meyer zum ,hasen and his second wife1 ,dorothea ,kannegiesser4 ,plates #d and #e4 ,oils4 ,basel ,museum4 ,bonifacius ,amerbach4 ,plate #f4 ,oils4 ,basel ,museum4 ,portrait of himself4 ,frontispiece4 ,coloured ,chalks4 ,basel ,museum4 99 ,studies from ,nature4 7,a bat outspread and a lamb47 ,drawings in water-colour and silver-point4 ,basel ,museum4 ,designs for armorial windows4 7,more especially those with ,landsknechte and one with three peasants gossiping47 ,washed ,drawings4 ,basel ,museum and ,print ,cabinet1 ,berlin4 ,landsknechte in a hand-to-hand fight4 ,plate #g4 ,washed ,drawing4 ,basel ,museum4 ,others in various collections4 ,design for the wings of an organ-case4 ,washed ,drawings4 ,basel ,museum4 ,head of ,st4 ,john the ,evangelist4 ,oils4 ,basel ,museum4 ,the ,last ,supper4 7,on wood2 ruined fragment47 ,oils4 ,basel ,museum4 ,the ,nativity ,plate #h4 and ,the ,adoration4 ,oils4 ,freiburg ,cathedral4 7,wings of a lost altar-piece47 ,holy ,family4 ,washed ,drawing4 ,basel ,museum4 7,also other drawings of the ,virgin and ,child47 ,the ,passion4 ,eight-panelled altar-piece4 ,plate #i4 ,oils4 ,basel ,museum4 7,utterly ruined by over-painting47 99 ,the ,passion4 ,a series of ten designs for glass-painting4 ,washed ,drawings4 ,basel ,museum4 7,a set of seven reversed impressions in the ,british ,museum47 ,the ,man of ,sorrows and the ,mater ,dolorosa4 ,oils1 in tones of brown4 ,basel ,museum4 ,christ borne to the ground by the weight of the cross4 ,a ,washed ,drawing and a 99 ,woodcut 7unique impression74 ,basel ,museum4 99 ,christ in the grave4 ,plate #aj4 ,oils4 ,basel ,museum4 8 ,the risen ,christ and ,mary ,magdalen at the sepulchre4 ,plate #aa4 ,oils4 ,hampton ,court ,gallery4 7,very much injured47 ,st4 ,george4 ,oils4 ,kunsthalle1 ,karlsruhe4 ,st4 ,ursula4 ,oils4 ,kunsthalle1 ,karlsruhe4 8 ,portrait of a young girl4 ,plate #ac4 ,drawing in chalk and silver-point4 ,jabach ,collection4 ,the ,louvre4 9999 ,the ,solothurn ,madonna4 ,plate #ab4 ,oils4 ,solothurn ,museum4 7,die ,zetter'sche ,madonna von ,solothurn1 of which the remarkable history is given in the text2 together with the evident relationship of ,plate #ac and the hypothesis of the present writer in that connection47 9999 ,portrait of ,erasmus4 ,plate #ad4 ,oils4 ,the ,louvre4 ,a ,citizen's ,wife1 and others1 in the dress of the time4 ,washed ,drawings4 ,basel ,museum4 ,the ,table of ,cebes4 ,border for title-page4 ,woodcut4 ,royal ,print ,cabinet1 ,berlin4 ,st4 ,peter and ,st4 ,paul2 on the title-page of ,adam ,petri's reprint of ,luther's translation of the ,new ,testament4 ,alphabet of ,the ,dance of ,death4 ,woodcuts4 ,proof-impressions in the ,basel ,museum1 the ,british ,museum1 and the ,dresden ,royal ,collection4 ,bible ,pictures3 illustrating ,old ,testament4 ,woodcuts4 9999 ,images of ,death4 ,two shown at ,plates #ad and #ae4 ,proof-impressions1 some sets incomplete1 in the ,basel ,museum1 ,british ,museum and the ,national ,print ,collections of ,paris1 ,vienna1 ,berlin1 ,dresden1 ,karlsruhe1 and the ,bodleian ,library4 7,this is the immortal series of ,woodcuts1 often called ,the ,dance of ,death1 done for the ,trechsel ,brothers of ,lyons1 but not published there until many years later47 ,dorothea ,offenburg as the ,goddess of ,love4 ,plate #af4 ,oils4 ,basel ,museum4 ,the above as ,las ,corinthiaca4 ,oils4 ,basel ,museum4 9999 ,the ,meyer ,madonna4 ,plates #ah and #ai4 ,oils4 ,grand-,ducal ,collection1 ,darmstadt 7superbly restored72 and 8,dresden ,gallery4 7,notwithstanding the many and eminent authorities who hold this to be a copy1 there still remain a sufficiency of no less eminent authorities to warrant the present writer in her unshaken opinion that1 at any rate in its first estate and in the main1 this ,dresden version--revered for more than one century as such by the highest authorities--was the creation of ,holbein's own hand47 ,,iii4 ,,first ,,london ,,period 7#aebf-aebh7 ,portrait of ,sir ,thomas ,more4 ,oils4 ,mr4 ,huth's ,collection4 ,chalk ,drawing at ,windsor4 ,plate #bj4 7,also a drawing of ,sir ,john ,more1 father of the above47 9999 ,john ,fisher1 ,bishop of ,rochester4 ,plate #ba4 ,chalk ,drawing4 ,windsor ,castle4 7,another in the ,british ,museum47 ,archbishop ,warham4 ,oils4 ,the ,louvre1 and ,lambeth ,palace4 8 ,john ,stokesley1 ,bishop of ,london4 ,oils4 ,windsor ,castle4 ,sir ,henry ,guildford4 ,plate #bb4 ,oils4 ,windsor ,castle4 ,lady ,guildford4 ,oils4 ,mr4 ,frewen's ,collection4 ,sir ,thomas ,godsalve and his son ,john4 ,oils4 ,dresden ,gallery4 ,chalk ,drawing of ,sir ,john ,godsalve4 ,windsor ,castle4 ,nicholas ,kratzer1 ,astronomer ,royal to ,king ,henry ,,viii4 ,plate #bc4 ,oils4 ,the ,louvre4 ,sir ,henry ,wyat4 ,oils4 ,the ,louvre4 ,sir ,bryan ,tuke1 ,treasurer of the ,household to ,king ,henry ,,viii4 ,oils4 ,munich ,gallery4 ,plate #bd4 ,also at ,grosvenor ,house4 7,as stated in the text1 the writer holds that the portraits of ,sir ,bryan ,tuke should properly be classed with those of a later period4 ,but they are given here in accordance with opinions which obtain at present47 ,,iv4 ,,last ,,basel ,,period 7#aebh-aeca7 9999 ,portrait group of ,holbein's wife1 ,elsbeth1 and his two eldest children4 ,plate #be4 ,oils1 on paper4 ,basel ,museum4 7,outline hard from having been cut out and mounted47 ,king ,rehoboam replying to his people1 and 9999 ,samuel denouncing ,saul4 ,plate #bf4 ,two ,washed ,drawings4 ,basel ,museum4 7,these are the designs for the back wall of the ,basel ,council ,chamber47 ,portrait of an ,english ,lady 7unknown74 ,chalk ,drawing4 ,basel ,museum4 9999 ,portrait of an unknown young man in a broad-brimmed hat4 ,chalk ,drawing4 ,basel ,museum4 7,this is one of the most beautiful of ,holbein's portrait studies4 ,there is a soft1 yet virile1 witchery about it which haunts the memory47 ,round ,portrait of ,erasmus4 7,bust1 #c_/d view47 ,oils4 ,basel ,museum4 ,designs for dagger-sheaths and other goldsmith's work4 ,washed ,drawings4 ,basel ,museum1 ,british ,museum1 etc4 7,more especially the ,dance of ,death2 a chef-d'oeuvre47 ,a ship making sail4 ,washed ,drawing4 ,stdel ,institut4 ,frankfurt4 ,v4 ,,last ,,period2 ,,london 7#aeca-dc7 9999 ,portrait of ,jrg ,gyze4 ,plate #bg4 ,oils4 ,berlin ,gallery4 ,portrait of an unknown man4 ,oils4 ,schnborn ,gallery1 ,vienna4 ,johann or ,hans of ,antwerp4 ,oils4 ,windsor ,castle4 7,holbein's friend and executor47 ,derich ,tybis of ,duisburg4 ,oils4 ,imperial ,gallery1 ,vienna4 ,derich ,born4 ,oils4 ,munich ,gallery1 and ,windsor ,castle4 ,derich ,berck4 ,oils4 ,petworth4 ,unknown ,man4 ,oils4 ,prado ,gallery1 ,madrid4 ,the ,triumph of ,riches4 ,drawing4 ,the ,louvre4 7,copies of this and the pendant design1 ,the ,triumph of ,poverty1 in the ,british ,museum and in the ,collection of ,lady ,eastlake47 ,the ,queen of ,sheba before ,solomon4 ,washed ,drawing1 heightened with gold and colours4 ,windsor ,castle4 ,robert ,cheseman1 with falcon4 ,oils4 ,hague ,gallery4 99 ,the ,ambassadors4 ,plate #bh4 ,oils4 ,national ,gallery4 7,a double portrait1 life size4 ,formerly supposed to be ,sir ,thomas ,wyatt and a scholar2 now officially held to be ,jean de ,dinteville1 ,bailli de ,troyes1 and ,george de ,selve1 ,bishop of ,lavaur4 ,as stated in the text1 the present writer differs from any identification of either figure yet published1 but is not prepared to put forward her own views for the present47 ,nicholas ,bourbon de ,vandoeuvre1 scholar and poet4 ,chalk ,drawing4 ,windsor ,castle4 7,an intimate friend of ,holbein1 ,kratzer1 and their circle4 ,recently identified as the man in the scholar's gown1 in ,the ,ambassadors1 and so given by ,mr4 ,lionel ,cust1 in the ,dictionary of ,national ,biography1 in his article upon ,holbein47 9999,the ,morett ,portrait4 ,plate #bi4 ,oils4 ,dresden ,gallery4 7,long believed to be a triumph of ,leonardo da ,vinci's art1 and the portrait of ,ludovico ,sforza1 ,il ,moro4 ,at one time held to be ,henry ,brandon1 ,duke of ,suffolk4 ,afterwards established and catalogued as ,hubert ,morett1 goldsmith to ,king ,henry ,,viii4 ,following ,m4 ,larpent's suggestion1 however1 it is now supposed to be the portrait of ,charles ,solier1 ,sieur de ,morette4 ,but as to this the last word may yet remain to be said4 ,the drawing which the majority of authorities hold to be the study for this painting now hangs near it47 ,thomas ,cromwell4 ,oils4 ,tittenhanger4 9999 ,miniature portrait of ,henry ,brandon1 son of the ,duke of ,suffolk4 ,windsor ,castle4 ,title-page used in ,coverdale's ,bible4 ,woodcut4 ,q4 ,jane ,seymour4 ,plate #cj4 ,oils4 ,imperial ,gallery1 ,vienna4 9999 ,portrait of ,erasmus1 full length1 in scholar's robes1 with his hand on the head of the god ,terminus4 ,woodcut4 ,frontispiece to ,hieronymus ,froben's edition of ,erasmus's ,works1 published in #aedj4 7,commonly known as ,erasmus in a surround1 or niche47 ,fragment of the ,cartoon ,plate #ca used for the four royal portraits in the wall-painting at ,whitehall4 ,the fragment shows only the figures of ,king ,henry ,,viii4 and his father4 ,hardwick ,hall4 7,remigius van ,leemput's copy of the wall-painting shows that the position of the ,king's head was changed1 in the completed work1 to the full-face view so familiar in the oil-painting at ,windsor ,castle4 ,the latter is one of the many copies of ,holbein's original portrait of ,henry ,,viii4 which long passed muster as genuine ,holbeins47 9999 ,portrait study of the face of ,king ,henry ,,viii4 ,plate #cb4 ,chalk ,drawing4 ,royal ,print ,cabinet1 ,munich4 7,probably the ,life-study for the ,whitehall painting4 ,if nothing else remained1 this mask alone would incontestably rank ,holbein among the ,masters of all time4 ,to the writer's thinking1 at any rate1 it stands among the very few works of art which it would be difficult to match1 and impossible to surpass in its own colossal qualities47 9999 ,design for the ,jane ,seymour ,cup4 ,plate #cc4 ,bodleian ,library4 9999 ,christina of ,denmark1 ,duchess of ,milan4 ,plate #cd4 ,oils4 ,national ,gallery2 lent from ,arundel ,castle4 ,edward ,,vi41 when infant ,prince of ,wales4 ,oils4 ,hanover ,gallery1 and ,lord ,yarborough's ,collection4 ,anne of ,cleves4 ,plate #ce4 ,oils on ,vellum4 ,the ,louvre4 ,thomas ,howard1 third ,duke of ,norfolk4 ,plate #cf4 ,oils4 ,windsor ,castle1 and ,arundel ,castle4 ,catherine ,howard4 ,plate #cg4 ,chalk ,drawing4 ,windsor ,castle4 7,the ,miniature at ,windsor ,castle1 formerly said to be ,holbein's portrait of ,catherine ,parr1 is now said to be ,catherine ,howard4 ,if so1 it is somewhat difficult to reconcile it with the drawing1 which latter seems much more in keeping with the descriptions of her traits47 ,title-page used in ,cranmer's ,bible4 ,woodcut4 7,this is the title-page from which ,cromwell's ,arms are erased in the second edition47 ,sir ,nicholas ,carew4 ,oils4 ,dalkeith ,palace4 ,chalk ,drawing4 ,basel ,museum4 ,simon ,george of ,cornwall4 ,oils4 ,stdel ,institut1 ,frankfurt4 ,miniature portrait of ,charles ,brandon1 son of the ,duke of ,suffolk4 ,windsor ,castle4 ,lady2 unknown4 ,oils4 ,imperial ,gallery1 ,vienna4 ,also a fine portrait of an unknown man4 ,oils4 ,same ,gallery4 ,sir ,richard ,southwell4 ,oils4 ,uffizi ,gallery1 ,florence4 ,chalk ,drawing4 ,windsor ,castle4 ,john ,reskymeer4 ,oils4 ,hampton ,court ,gallery4 ,nicholas ,poyntz4 ,oils4 ,de la ,rosire ,collection1 ,paris4 ,chalk ,drawing4 ,windsor ,castle4 ,sir ,john ,russell4 ,oils4 ,woburn ,abbey4 ,chalk ,drawing4 ,windsor ,castle4 ,three portraits2 men unknown4 ,oils4 ,berlin ,gallery4 ,designs for jewelry1 ornamental panels1 clocks1 chimney-piece1 etc41 etc4 ,washed ,drawings4 ,british ,museum1 ,basel ,museum1 etc4 ,many fine portraits of which no versions in oils are known4 ,chalk ,drawings4 ,windsor ,castle4 ,among these one of ,edward ,,vi4 as boy ,prince of ,wales1 the ,duchess of ,suffolk1 ,sir ,thomas ,wyatt1 etc41 etc4 ,dr4 ,john ,chamber1 or ,chambers4 ,oils4 ,imperial ,gallery1 ,vienna4 ,also many other oil-portraits1 more or less genuine1 in various ,collections4 ,,references ,the ,literature of ,holbein's ,life1 much more of his ,works1 is far too extensive to admit of a ,bibliography in a volume of this sort4 ,but the following ,list will be found to contain 7or themselves refer the reader to7 all that is of essential importance to even the most complete study of this ,master4 ,carel van ,mander1 ,het ,schilder-,boeck1 etc41 #afjd4 ,the above translated into ,french1 and admirably edited by ,m4 ,henri ,hyman4 #b tom41 #ahhd4 ,alfred ,woltmann1 ,holbein und seine ,zeit4 ,zweite umgearbeitete ,auflage1 #ahgd4 #b ,bde4 ,there is an ,english translation of the ,first ,edition of #ahga1 by ,f4 ,e4 ,bunntt2 but unfortunately its views on many vital points are reversed by ,woltmann himself in his latest edition4 ,r4 ,n4 ,wornum1 ,some ,account of the ,life and ,works of ,hans ,holbein1 #ahfg4 ,corrected in many respects by the author in a monograph on ,the ,meier ,madonna1 #ahia4 ,paul ,mantz1 ,hans ,holbein4 ,paris1 #ahgi4 ,h4 ,knackfuss1 ,holbein4 ,leipzig1 #ahii4 ,english translation of the above by ,mr4 ,campbell ,dodgson4 ,eduard ,his1 ,die ,basler ,archive ber ,hans ,holbein den ,jungern4 ,in ,zahn's ,jahrbcher fr ,kunstwissenschaft1 #ahgj4 ,francis ,douce1 ,the ,dance of ,death1 #ahcc4 ,j4 ,r4 ,smith1 ,holbein's ,dance of ,death1 #ahdi4 7,especially fine reproductions47 ,h4 ,n4 ,humphreys1 ,holbein's ,dance of ,death1 #ahfh4 ,g4 ,th4 ,fechner1 ber die ,deutungsfrage der ,holbein'schen ,madonna4 ,die lteste historische ,quelle ber die ,holbein'sche ,madonna4 ,both in ,archiv fr die zeichnenden ,knste1 #ahff1 ,i41 #d4 ,these give all the known facts of the history of the ,meyer ,madonnas of ,darmstadt and ,dresden4 ,s4 ,larpent1 ,sur le portrait de ,morett4 ,christiania1 #ahha4 ,mary ,f4 ,s4 ,hervey1 ,holbein's ,ambassadors1 #aijj4 ,this volume also embodies1 and gives the references to1 the original identifications of ,professor ,sidney ,colvin1 and the suggested identifications of ,mr4 ,c4 ,l4 ,eastlake2 as well as to the contribution concerning the hymn-book by ,mr4 ,barclay ,squire4 ,w4 ,f4 ,dickes1 ,holbein's ,ambassadors ,unriddled1 #aijc4 ,f4 ,a4 ,zetter-,collin1 ,die ,zetter'sche ,madonna von ,solothurn4 ,ihre ,geschichte aus ,originalquellen1 etc4 ,in ,festschrift des ,kunst-,vereins der ,stadt ,solothurn1 #aijb4 ,artur ,seeman1 ,der ,brunnen des ,lebens1 von ,h4 ,holbein4 ,in ,zeitschrift fr bildende ,kunst4 ,mai1 #aijc4 ,with a superb illustration in colour4 ,,index ,adoration1 painting1 #ga ,ambassadors1 ,the1 painting1 #ade-i1 #aic ,amerbach1 ,basilius1 #ff ,bonifacius1 #be1 #df-ej1 #ii1 #abe ,johann1 #dh1 #fa ,anne1 of ,cleves1 ,queen1 #aga-d ,antwerp1 ,johann or ,hans of1 #ahc ,arundel1 ,henry ,fitzalan1 ,earl of1 #ahd ,thomas ,howard1 ,earl of1 #aea ,william ,fitzalan1 ,earl of1 #aae ,augsburg1 #aj1 #aa1 #af ,br1 ,hans1 #bd1 #be ,magdalena1 first wife of ,meyer zum ,hasen1 #ca ,barber-,surgeons1 ,guild of1 #ahj ,basel1 description of1 #eh-fd decoration of the ,rathhaus by ,holbein1 #hc-e1 #acb1 #ace1 #agj decoration of the ,lllenknig by ,holbein1 #ace offers of an annuity to ,holbein1 #ade1 #afh1 #afi1 #agf1 #agg ,basel1 banquet to ,holbein1 #afh ,beatus ,rhenanus1 #fh ,berne1 #ab ,bible1 translations before the ,reformation1 #bc1 #bd ,boleyn1 ,anne1 ,queen1 #aej1 #aea ,bourbon1 ,nicholas1 #aef1 #aeg1 #aic ,bourges1 #ii ,burgkmair1 ,hans1 #aa ,butts1 ,sir ,william1 #ahj ,cellini1 ,benvenuto1 #afi-gj ,chamber1 ,john1 #ahj ,cheseman1 ,robert1 #aej ,christ in the ,grave1 painting1 #gh-hj ,christ in ,holbein's ,art1 #gg-hc ,christina1 ,duchess of ,milan1 #add1 #afd-g ,colet1 ,john1 ,dean of ,st4 ,paul's1 #bb1 #acg ,cromwell1 ,thomas1 ,earl of ,essex1 #aeb ,dance of ,death1 #ajj-ajc ,darmstadt1 ,meyer-,madonna at1 #ajh-ac ,david1 ,gerard1 #ec ,david1 ,jerome1 #afi ,diesbach1 ,nicholas von1 #hi1 #ij ,dinteville1 ,jean de1 #adi ,dresden1 ,meyer-,madonna at1 #ajh-ac ,drer1 ,albrecht1 #bb ,edward ,,vi41 ,king1 #afc1 #agj ,elizabeth of ,york1 ,queen1 #afa ,erasmus1 ,desiderius1 #ag-ba1 #abe1 #acg1 #aeh ,portraits of1 #ih1 #ii1 #aei ,eyck1 ,h4 and ,j4 van1 #ae1 #ahe ,fsch1 ,remigius1 #aaa ,fisher1 ,john1 ,bishop of ,rochester1 #aah ,fountain of ,life1 painting1 #ec1 #ed ,froben1 ,hieronymus1 #aeh ,froben1 ,johann1 #ae1 #cd1 #ce1 #fc1 #fd1 #fh1 #ih ,gardiner1 ,stephen1 ,bishop of ,winchester1 #age ,gerster1 ,hans1 #hi1 #ij ,glass-painting1 designs for1 #ed1 #ee ,goddess of ,love1 painting1 #ajd ,gold-work1 designs for1 #afc ,graf1 ,urs1 #fe1 #ff ,guildford1 ,sir ,henry1 #aai-ba ,lady1 #aba ,gyze1 ,georg1 #adb-dc ,hayes1 ,cornelius1 #agj ,henry ,,vii41 ,king1 portrait1 #afa ,henry ,,viii41 ,king1 portrait1 #afj-fc1 #aie ,new ,year present to ,holbein1 #agj ,henry1 ,prince of ,wales1 #aea ,hertenstein1 ,jacob von1 #dc ,holbein1 ,ambrose1 #aj1 #ab1 #ac1 #ag ,bruno1 #ab ,elsbeth1 #eh1 #id-g1 #ajd1 #aje1 #ajg1 #abf-i1 #agg-hb ,hans1 the ,elder1 #i1 #aj1 #ab1 #ac1 #af1 #ia the ,younger1 birth 7#adig71 #af at ,basel 7#aeae-ag71 #bd at ,lucerne 7#aeag-ah71 #da1 #db a citizen of ,basel 7#aeai-bf71 #eh-aac marriage1 #eh wife and children1 #ajd-g1 #abd1 #abi-ca1 #afi1 #agj1 #ahb first visit to ,england 7#aebf-h71 #aae-be last years in ,basel 7#aebh-ca71 #abe-cf purchase of ,basel ,house 7#aebh71 #abe1 #abf final return to ,london 7#aeca71 #acf mention of1 by ,nicholas ,bourbon1 #aeg official income1 #afg will and death1 #ahj-hc place of interment1 #ahd illegitimate children1 #ahc as a designer and engraver1 #ce-g greatness of1 #ahd-g religious ideals and sympathies1 #ba-d1 #gg-hc ,jacob1 #abh-cj ,katharina1 #abh-ca ,knegoldt1 wife of ,andreas ,syff1 #abi-ca ,michael1 #aa ,philip1 son of ,hans the ,younger1 #hf1 #id1 #abi1 #afi1 #agj ,philip1 grandson of ,hans the ,younger1 #acj ,sigmund1 #ab1 #agg ,howard1 ,catherine1 ,queen1 #age ,thomas1 ,duke of ,norfolk1 #age ,hutten1 ,ulrich von1 #ga ,hyss1 ,cornelius1 #aeg ,jane ,seymour ,cup1 #afc ,kratzer1 ,nicholas1 #aba1 #abb1 #aeg ,las ,corinthiaca1 painting1 #aje1 #ajf ,landsknechte1 drawings1 #eg1 #eh ,last ,supper1 paintings1 #ej-eb ,leemput1 ,remi von1 #afj ,leonardo da ,vinci1 #dj1 #ej ,lisbon1 painting1 the ,fountain of ,life at1 #ec1 #ed ,lucerne1 #da1 #db ,ltzelburger1 ,hans1 #cf1 #ih ,lystrius1 ,gerard1 #fh ,mantegna1 ,andrea1 #dj1 #da1 #ej ,mary ,magdalen at the ,sepulchre1 painting1 #hj-hc ,merian1 family of1 at ,frankfurt1 #aca ,meyer1 ,anna1 #aaj1 #aaa ,dorothea1 ne ,kannegiesser1 #ca-d1 #aji ,jacob zum ,hasen1 #ca-d1 #ge1 #hi1 #ajg ,jacob zum ,hirten1 #acb1 #acc ,magdalena1 ne ,br1 #ca ,meyer-,madonna 7,darmstadt and ,dresden71 #ajh-ac ,milan1 #dj ,monasticism and ,art1 #e-h ,more1 ,sir ,thomas1 #aab1 #aad-ag1 #acg ,morett1 ,hubert1 or ,morette1 ,charles de ,solier1 portrait1 #add1 #aed1 #aid ,nativity1 paintings1 #ga-d ,oberriedt1 ,hans1 #gb1 #ge ,oporinus1 ,joannes1 #fg1 #fh ,paracelsus1 #fg ,parr1 ,catherine1 #agf1 #agi ,passion1 eight-panelled altar-piece1 #ge-gg drawings1 #gg1 #gh ,plague 7in #aedc71 #ahb ,saint ,andrew ,undershaft1 ,london1 #agh1 #ahc1 #ahd ,saint ,catharine ,cree1 ,london1 #ahd ,schmidt1 ,franz1 #agg1 #ahb ,schoolmaster's ,sign-board1 paintings1 #be1 #bf ,selve1 ,georges de1 ,bishop of ,lavaur1 #adi ,seymour1 ,jane1 ,queen1 #aeg1 #aeh1 #afa1 #afc1 #afd ,sheba1 ,queen of1 visiting ,solomon1 drawing1 #aee ,solier1 ,charles de1 ,seigneur de ,morette1 #aed ,solothurn ,madonna1 painting and its history1 #hf-ig ,steelyard1 the1 ,london1 #ach-db ,stokesley1 ,john1 ,bishop of ,london1 #aai ,sultz1 ,dorothea von1 ne ,offenburg1 #ajd-f ,title-pages1 woodcuts1 #fe1 #ih1 #aae1 #aei ,triumph of ,riches and of ,poverty1 drawings1 #aej ,tuke1 ,sir ,bryan1 #abb1 #abc ,ulm1 #aa ,utopia1 woodcut title-page1 #aae ,virgin and ,child1 drawings1 #ee paintings by ,holbein1 #hf-ig1 #ajh-ac ,warham1 ,william1 ,archbishop of ,canterbury1 #aah1 #aai1 #acg ,wilhelm ,meister1 ,school of1 #h ,windsor1 portrait1 drawings at1 #aag ,zetter1 ,madonna at ,solothurn1 #hf-ig ,,little ,,books ,,on ,,art ,demy #afmo4 #bs4 #f;d4 net4 ,,subjects ,,miniatures4 ,alice ,corkran ,,bookplates4 ,edward ,almack ,,greek ,,art4 ,h4 ,b4 ,walters ,,roman ,,art4 ,h4 ,b4 ,walters ,,the ,,arts ,,of ,,japan4 ,mrs4 ,c4 ,m4 ,salwey ,,jewellery4 ,c4 ,davenport ,,christ ,,in ,,art4 ,mrs4 ,h4 ,jenner ,,our ,,lady ,,in ,,art4 ,mrs4 ,h4 ,jenner ,,christian ,,symbolism4 ,h4 ,jenner ,,illuminated ,,mss4 ,j4 ,w4 ,bradley ,,enamels4 ,mrs4 ,nelson ,dawson ,,furniture4 ,egan ,mew ,,artists ,,romney4 ,george ,paston ,d,,rer4 ,l4 ,jessie ,allen ,,reynolds4 ,j4 ,sime ,,watts4 ,miss ,r4 ,e4 ,d4 ,sketchley ,,hoppner4 ,h4 ,p4 ,k4 ,skipton ,,turner4 ,frances ,tyrrell-,gill ,,hogarth4 ,egan ,mew ,,burne-,,jones4 ,fortune ,de ,lisle ,,leighton4 ,alice ,corkran ,,rembrandt4 ,mrs4 ,e4 ,a4 ,sharp ,,velasquez4 ,wilfrid ,wilberforce and ,a4 ,r4 ,gilbert ,,vandyck4 ,m4 ,g4 ,smallwood ,,david ,,cox4 ,arthur ,tomson ,,holbein4 ,beatrice ,fortescue ,,corot4 ,ethel ,birnstingl and ,mrs4 ,a4 ,pollard ,,millet4 ,netta ,peacock ,,claude4 ,e4 ,dillon ,,greuze ,,and ,,boucher4 ,eliza ,f4 ,pollard ,,raphael4 ,a4 ,r4 ,dryhurst ,,plymouth ,,william ,,brendon ,,and ,,son ,,printers ,,transcriber',s ,,note ,contemporary spellings have generally been retained even when inconsistent4 ,a small number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected and some names regularised2 missing punctuation has been silently added4 ,advertising material has been moved to the end4 ,the following additional changes have been made3 to away with him to do away with him and in ,pope ,leo's hands for a and would remain in ,pope ,leo's year yet for a year yet ,die zetter'schen ,madonna ,die ,zetter'sche ,madonna vow ,solothurn von ,solothurn that ,i imagine it to have that ,i imagine to have ,mecnas ,mcenas at ,basel 7#aeae-gg7 at ,basel 7#aeae-ag7