THE KRATZER PORTRAIT
Holbein’s first sojourn in England extended from 1526 to 1528, in which year he returned to Basle. It must have been shortly before his departure that he painted the Portrait of Nicolas Kratzer, Astronomer to King Henry VIII. (No. 2713); it is an unquestionably authentic work, although it has been so extensively repainted that little is now left of the original, save the general disposition of the design and the instruments placed on the table and hung on the wall, which are executed with all the loving care that Holbein was wont to bestow upon such accessories. Still, even in its present condition, the portrait is a thoroughly convincing likeness of “a man who is brimful of wit, jest, and humorous fancies”—as Kratzer is referred to by one of his contemporaries. A sheet of paper on the left of the table appears to be inscribed:—
Imago ad vivam effigiem expressa
Nicolai Kratzeri monacensis qui bavarus erat
Quadragessimum annum tempore illo complebat.
1528.
PLATE XXIV.—HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER
(1497–1543)
GERMAN SCHOOL
No. 2715.—PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS
(Portrait de Didier Érasme)
The Humanist is seen at half length and in forefile to the left, before a table at which he is writing. He wears a fur-lined coat and a dark cap. A green figured curtain forms the background.
Painted in oil on panel.
1 ft. 4¾ in. × 1 ft. 0¾ in. (0·42 × 0·32.)
Although decidedly superior to another version of the same picture at Lambeth Palace, the Portrait of William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury (No. 2714), which bears the inscription,
ANNO. Dm. MDXXVII. ETATIS. SVE, LXX.,
cannot without hesitation be accepted as an original work. It lacks, at any rate, the finesse of the beautiful drawing at Windsor Castle, upon which it is evidently based.
To the same year belongs the Portrait of Sir Richard Southwell (No. 2719), to whose treacherous accusation was due the execution of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. But this picture, again, is only a replica, by an inferior hand, of the magnificent portrait in the Uffizi Gallery (No. 765). An inscription in the background, at both sides of the head, reads:
on the left: x.o ivlii. anno.
h. viii. xxviii.
and on the right: etatis svæ
anno xxxiii.
It would thus appear that the picture was painted in 1537, the twenty-eighth year of Henry viii.’s reign. The Portrait of a Man holding a Carnation and a Rosary (No. 2720) is a picture of poor quality and has no connection whatever with Holbein.