Hans Holbein the Younger Vol 1 of 2 by Arthur B Chamberlain

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Title: Hans Holbein the Younger, Volume 1 (of 2)

Author: Arthur B. Chamberlain

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Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER, VOLUME 1 (OF
2) ***

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER

VOL. I., FRONTISPIECE

HANS HOLBEIN

Self-Portrait

Drawing in Indian ink and coloured chalks, washed with water-colour

Basel Gallery

HANS HOLBEIN

THE YOUNGER

BY

ARTHUR B. CHAMBERLAIN

ASSISTANT KEEPER OF THE CORPORATION ART GALLERY, BIRMINGHAM

WITH 252 ILLUSTRATIONS, INCLUDING 24 IN COLOUR

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I

NEW YORK

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY

1913

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.

at the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh

TO MY WIFE

PREFACE

N this book the writer has endeavoured to give as complete an account as possible of the life and
career of the younger Holbein, together with a description of every known picture painted by him,
and of the more important of his drawings and designs. The earlier books devoted to the subject—
such as Wornum’s Life and Works, 1867, and Dr. Woltmann’s two volumes—although they must
always remain of the utmost help to the student, are now in some respects out of date. The second

edition of the latter’s great work, in which he modified and corrected many passages in the earlier issue, has never been
fully translated into English; while the latest book of importance on the subject published in this country, Hans Holbein
the Younger, by Mr. Gerald S. Davies, M.A., 1903, is mainly devoted to the art of the painter, and does not profess
to give complete biographical details of his life. In recent years many new facts as to Holbein’s career have been
discovered, and fresh pictures by him unearthed, while modern criticism has reversed some of the earlier conclusions
respecting the authorship of a certain number of works at one time attributed to him. Much valuable information upon
the subject has been published at home and abroad, largely in periodicals devoted to such matters and in the
transactions of artistic and learned societies, by various well-known students of the master in Germany and Switzerland,
chief among whom must be mentioned Dr. Paul Ganz, the director of the Public Picture Collection in Basel, now
recognised as the leading authority on Holbein, together with Dr. Hans Koegler, Dr. Emil Major, H. A. Schmid, and
other writers too numerous to mention here; while in England equally valuable contributions to our knowledge have
been made from time to time by such critics as Mr. Lionel Cust, M.V.O., Sir Sidney Colvin, Mr. Campbell Dodgson,
Sir Claude Phillips, Miss Mary F. S. Hervey, and a number of others, in the pages of the Burlington Magazine and
elsewhere. Much valuable information is also to be found in two recently-published volumes—Dr. Curt Glaser’s Hans
Holbein der Ältere, 1908, and Dr. Willy Hes’ Ambrosius Holbein, 1911.

The writer has availed himself as fully as possible of the newer facts and conclusions embodied in such papers and

communications, the source of information in all cases being fully acknowledged. A very careful study of the Calendars
of Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, extending over a number of years, has
enabled him to add some fresh items of information about the painter and certain of his sitters, and of several of the
artists who were his contemporaries in England. He has dealt at some length, though necessarily in a condensed form,
with the chief painters and craftsmen, both English and foreign, who were at work in London under Henry VIII, much
of the information thus brought together having been hitherto scattered about in a variety of publications not always
conveniently accessible to the student. He thus hopes that the book will to some extent serve the purpose for which it is
primarily intended—the provision, in as concise a form as possible, of a complete biography of the painter, embodying
all the more recent discoveries; and he trusts that it may be of some small service to those who are interested in
Holbein, but have neither the time nor the opportunity to avail themselves of the many scattered sources of information
which he has attempted to bring together within the covers of a single book.

By the gracious permission of His Majesty the King, the writer has been allowed to include among the illustrations,

reproductions, in some instances in colour, of a number of pictures and drawings by Holbein in the royal collections;
and he has to thank the Lord Chamberlain and Mr. Lionel Cust, M.V.O., Surveyor of the King’s Pictures, for the kind
assistance they rendered him in obtaining such permission. He has also to express his grateful acknowledgments to a
number of owners and collectors for similar permission to reproduce works by the master in their possession, among
them Her Majesty the Queen of Holland, who has graciously allowed the inclusion of the beautiful miniature of an
Unknown Youth; the Duke of Devonshire, G.C.V.O.; Earl Spencer, G.C.V.O.; the Earl of Radnor; Lord Leconfield;
the Earl of Yarborough; Sir John Ramsden, Bt.; Sir Hugh P. Lane; the late Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan; Major Charles
Palmer; and the Barber-Surgeons’ Company. Special thanks are due to Lord St. Oswald for permitting the large
“More Family Group” at Nostell Priory to be photographed for the purposes of this book, and for allowing the writer
to take notes from a very interesting manuscript containing a description of the various versions of the Family picture
compiled by his grandfather, Mr. Charles Winn. He has also to record his great indebtedness to Mr. Ayerst H. Buttery
for giving him the privilege of reproducing the recently discovered portrait of an Unknown English Lady, formerly in the
possession of the Bodenham family at Rotherwas, near Hereford. His thanks also are due to Senhor José de
Figueiredo, director of the National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon, for permission to include the elder Holbein’s
“Fountain of Life” among the illustrations, as well as to the directors of a number of galleries and museums, including the
Public Picture Collection, Basel; the National Gallery, British Museum, and Wallace Collection; the Kaiser Friedrich
Museum, Berlin; the Imperial Gallery, Vienna; the Louvre, Paris; the Royal Picture Gallery, The Hague; the
Metropolitan Museum of New York; the Royal Hermitage Gallery, St. Petersburg; and the Galleries of Dresden,
Munich, Hanover, Rome, Florence, Solothurn, and elsewhere.

In addition, he has the pleasure of recording his great indebtedness to Mr. Lionel Cust, M.V.O., for kind assistance

and advice; to Mr. Maurice W. Brockwell, for much valuable help in many directions; to Mr. Campbell Dodgson, who
was good enough to assist in the selection of woodcuts from the British Museum Collection for the purposes of
reproduction; to Dr. George C. Williamson, through whose kindness the writer has been able to make use of his
Catalogue of the late Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan’s Collection of Miniatures; to the Editors of the Burlington Magazine of
Fine Arts for permission to include the writer’s paper on Holbein’s visit to “High Burgony”; to Mr. James Melville for
transcribing from the Balcarres MSS. a long letter from the Duchess of Guise referring to that visit; to Herr F. Engel-
Gros for information about the interesting roundel in his possession, which possibly represents the painter Lucas
Hornebolt; and to Dr. James H. W. Laing, of Dundee, to whom he is deeply indebted for most generously undertaking

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x

the very onerous task of reading the whole of the proofs. He wishes also to offer his grateful thanks to his publishers,
and in particular to Mr. Hugh Allen, for the great care and trouble they have spent upon the book, and for their hearty
co-operation in attempting to make it as complete a record as possible of the great master to whom it is devoted.

A. B. C.

Birmingham, August 1913.

CONTENTS

CHAP.

PAGE

I.
HANS HOLBEIN THE ELDER AND HIS FAMILY
1

II.
YOUTHFUL DAYS IN AUGSBURG
23

III.
FIRST YEARS IN SWITZERLAND
32

IV.
WORK IN LUCERNE AND THE VISIT TO LOMBARDY
57

V.
CITIZEN OF BASEL
82

VI.
THE HOUSE OF THE DANCE AND THE WALL-PAINTINGS IN THE BASEL TOWN

HALL

116

VII.
DESIGNS FOR PAINTED GLASS AND OTHER STUDIES
135

VIII.
PORTRAITS OF ERASMUS AND HIS CIRCLE
162

IX.
DESIGNS FOR BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS
187

X.
THE “DANCE OF DEATH” AND OLD TESTAMENT WOODCUTS
204

XI.
THE MEYER MADONNA AND THE DEPARTURE FOR ENGLAND
232

XII.
NATIVE AND FOREIGN ARTISTS IN ENGLAND DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY

VIII

256

XIII.
THE FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND: PORTRAITS OF THE MORE FAMILY
288

XIV.
THE FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND: OTHER PORTRAITS AND DECORATIVE WORK
311

XV.
THE RETURN TO BASEL (1528-1532)
338

Postscript to Chapter XIV. A NEWLY-DISCOVERED PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN ENGLISH

LADY

353

FOOTNOTES FOR ALL CHAPTERS
359

xi

ILLUSTRATIONS

HANS HOLBEIN: SELF-PORTRAIT
Frontispiece

Reproduced in colour.

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

1.
THE BAPTISM OF ST. PAUL
11

Left-hand panel of the “Basilica of St. Paul” altar-piece. By Hans Holbein the Elder.

Museum, Augsburg.

2.
THE ST. SEBASTIAN ALTAR-PIECE
15

Central panel. By Hans Holbein the Elder.

Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

3.
(1) ST. BARBARA. (2) ST. ELIZABETH
16

Inner sides of the wings of the “St. Sebastian” altar-piece. By Hans Holbein the

Elder.

Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

4.
THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE
17

By Hans Holbein the Elder.

National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon. Reproduced by kind permission of the

Director, Senhor José de Figueiredo.

5.
STUDY FOR THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY OF AUGSBURG
21

Silver-point drawing. By Hans Holbein the Elder.

British Museum.

6.
AMBROSIUS AND HANS HOLBEIN
25

Silver-point drawing. By Hans Holbein the Elder (1511).

Royal Print Room, Berlin.

7.
VIRGIN AND CHILD (1514)
33

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

8.
(1) HEAD OF THE VIRGIN MARY. (2) HEAD OF ST. JOHN
37

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

9.
THE LAST SUPPER
40

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

10.
THE SCOURGING OF CHRIST
41

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

11.
HOLBEIN’S EARLIEST TITLE-PAGE
45

First used in 1515.

From a copy of More’s “Utopia” in the British Museum.

12.
MARGINAL DRAWINGS IN A COPY OF THE “PRAISE OF FOLLY”
48

(1) Folly Leaving the Pulpit.

(2) Penelope at her Loom.

(3) The Pope.

(4) The Cardinal.

(5) The Bishop.

(6) Nuns Kneeling before an Altar-piece.

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

13.
MARGINAL DRAWINGS IN A COPY OF THE “PRAISE OF FOLLY”
49

(1) The Basket of Eggs.

(2) Nicolas de Lyra.

(3) King Solomon.

(4) Young Nobleman.

(5) Folly and his Puppet.

(6) Erasmus at his Desk.

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(7) “A Fat and Splendid Pig from the Herd of Epicurus.”

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

14.
THE TWO SIDES OF A SCHOOLMASTER’S SIGN-BOARD (1516)
51

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

15.
DOUBLE PORTRAIT OF JAKOB MEYER AND HIS WIFE, DOROTHEA

KANNENGIESSER (1516)

52

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

16.
(1) HEAD OF JAKOB MEYER. (2) HEAD OF DOROTHEA KANNENGIESSER
55

Drawings in black and coloured chalks. Studies for the double portrait of 1516.

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

17.
ADAM AND EVE (1517)
56

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

18.
PORTRAITS OF TWO BOYS
60

By Ambrosius Holbein.

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

19.
STUDY OF A YOUNG GIRL NAMED “ANNE” (1518)
61

Silver-point and red chalk drawing. By Ambrosius Holbein.

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

20.
THE FOUNDING OF BASEL
61

Design for painted glass. By Ambrosius Holbein.

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

21.
PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN YOUNG MAN (1518)
61

By Ambrosius Holbein.

Royal Hermitage Gallery, St. Petersburg.

22.
ILLUSTRATION TO SIR THOMAS MORE’S “UTOPIA”
62

By Ambrosius Holbein.

From a woodcut in the British Museum.

23.
DESIGNS FOR THE WALL-PAINTINGS OF THE HERTENSTEIN HOUSE, LUCERNE
68

(1) Leæna and the Judges.

(2) Architectural Decoration of the Ground Floor.

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

24.
PORTRAIT OF BENEDIKT VON HERTENSTEIN (1517)
72

Metropolitan Museum, New York.

25.
THE LAST SUPPER
75

Central panel of a Triptych.

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

26.
THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL AS WEIGHER OF SOULS
79

Drawing.

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

27.
MINERS AT WORK
80

Drawing in Indian ink, pen, and bistre.

British Museum.

28.
BONIFACIUS AMERBACH (1519)
85

Reproduced in colour.

Public Picture Collection, Basel.

29.
(1) ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS. (2) ADORATION OF THE KINGS
88

Inner sides of the wings of the Oberried altar-piece.

University Chapel, Freiburg Minster.

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