Work was begun on the 15th January, 1527, and about a dozen painters were employed for the next three weeks, at wages ranging from 6d. to 12d. a day. Only one of them, Robert Wrytheoke, received a shilling a day. He was a maker of moulds and casts, and supplied the plaster figures and ornamental pillars. On Friday, the 8th February, the following entry appears for the first time:—
“Master Nycolas at the kyngs plessyer.
“Master Hans the day iiii.s.”[[701]]
This entry is repeated, with only four days’ interval, until Saturday the 3rd of March. According to Mr. Nichols, the same distinction between the terms of the two painters’ employment is kept up throughout all the entries, the meaning of which appears to be that while Holbein’s payment was fixed by agreement at 4s. a day, the remuneration of Master Nycolas was left to be subsequently settled at the discretion of his employers.
In the course of the work Holbein came in contact with many of the chief English painters and a number of the foreign artists in Henry’s service, and it is interesting to note, as some indication of the estimation in which he was already held by certain of the court officials, that he was more highly paid than any of his associates. Among those who assisted in the work were John Browne, the King’s serjeant-painter, who supplied much of the material; “Vincent Vulp and Ellys Carmyan, Italian painters,” who received 20s. a week; John Demyans (Giovanni da Maiano) and the “Italian painters and gilders, Nicholas Florentine, at 2s., and Domyngo (Domenico), at 16d. day and night.” This Nicholas of Florence was probably the same man as the Master Nycolas mentioned above as associated with Holbein. Among the casters of lead employed were two other Italians, Archangell and Raphael, while John Rastall supplied “divers necessaries bought for the trimming of the Father of Heaven, lions, dragons, and greyhounds holding candlesticks.” A number of other names are included, chiefly English mercers, embroiderers, saddlers, plumbers, hosiers, and other tradesmen.
Detailed accounts of the materials used are given, and frequent entries occur of colours “spent by Master Hans and his company on the roof”—“Mr. Hans and the painters on the four cloths”—“Black collars for Mr. Hans, 3s. 4d.”—and so on. These extracts seem to show that Holbein was employed to direct all the painters and gilders engaged, and no doubt the decorations were largely of his design. It has been impossible, so far, to identify Master Nycolas, then in the King’s service, who worked with him. He cannot have been Nicolas Bellin, who was occupied at Fontainebleau at this period, and did not visit England until some ten years later. The only other Italian named Nicolas mentioned in the State Papers was Nicolas Lasora, who, in 1532, was employed on the decoration of Westminster Palace.[[702]]
“THE PLAT OF TIRWAN”
Holbein and Nycolas were thus occupied at Greenwich for nineteen days, with the interval of one Sunday’s rest, having been kept at work during two other Sundays, when the ordinary workmen were taking holiday. Holbein’s daily attendance at the Banqueting House appears to have ceased on Sunday, the 3rd of March, though this was by no means the end of his connection with the decoration of the building. For the next month he was busily engaged either in London or at Chelsea in painting a large composition for the decoration of the back of the triumphal arch—the picture spoken of in such high terms by Hall, showing “how Tyrwin was beseged.” This picture was so far advanced by the 11th March that it and a number of other painted canvases were placed temporarily in position for the inspection of the King. Holbein had completed his particular share in the work by the 4th of April, when the picture was fetched from London by Lewis Demoron, who received 16d., “for his bote-hire to London for fetching of the plat of Tirwan.” The complete decoration of the building was not finished till the 5th May, on the eve of the festivities, and no doubt Holbein resumed his supervision, though it is not mentioned in the accounts. For his large painting, which occupied him for about three weeks, he received the payment of £4, 10s., which is equal to about £60 or £70 of modern money. The entry in the accounts runs as follows: “Paid to Master Hans for the payneting of the plat of Tirwan which standeth on the baksyde of the grete arche, in grete iiijl. xs.”—the words “in grete” meaning that he received a sum down for the work, instead of a daily wage.
Mr. F. M. Nichols first called attention to this work of Holbein’s in The Hall of Lawford Hall, published in 1891, and in the same year Mr. Alfred Beaver, in his Memorials of Old Chelsea, referred to some of the details in Dr. Brewer’s abstracts. Mr. Beaver was of opinion that the old picture of the “Battle of Spurs” at Hampton Court, in earlier days attributed to Holbein, was the very “plat of Tirwan” in question. This, however, is not correct. “The Battle of Spurs” was certainly not painted by Holbein, but by some much inferior artist. It has been attributed to Vincent Volpe and other of the minor foreign artists then in England, and probably was painted in commemoration of the victory shortly after the battle itself, which took place in 1513. It is on wood, and measures 4 ft. 4 in. high by 8 ft. 6 in. wide, whereas Holbein’s picture was on canvas, and was evidently much larger, for we learn from Richard Gibson’s accounts that it took twenty-four ells of fine canvas “for the lyning of the baksyde of the grete Arche wheruppon Tirwin is staynyd,” at a cost of 15 shillings. “It thus appears,” says Mr. Nichols, “that about 90 feet of fine canvas (which we may suppose to have been a yard or not much less in width) was required to cover the back of the arch, and the main decoration of this widespread surface of some 20 or 30 square yards appears to have been the picture in question.”
The two pictures differed materially in subject. It is to be gathered from Hall’s account that Holbein’s painting represented the actual siege of Terouenne, whereas the Hampton Court panel shows the pursuit of the French cavalry and their surrender to the English, though the town of Terouenne, with its fortifications and houses, is shown plainly in the middle distance. In any case the subject, the defeat of the French by the English, seems to have been a singularly inappropriate one for the particular occasion for which it was painted, the ratification of a solemn treaty between England and France, and there was little delicacy in Henry’s humour in pointing it out to his guests! Even Hall intimates that they were more pleased with the painting of it than with the remembrance of the incident. The subject may have been suggested by Guldeford, who was Henry’s standard-bearer at Terouenne, and knighted after Tournay. The picture itself has disappeared, like so many of Holbein’s large decorative works; not even a study for it has been so far discovered.