Another and still more elaborate design of a like nature, and of the same year, 1520, was made for Georg von Massmünster, Abbot of Murbach, of which the original glass painting is in a private collection in Basel.[[324]] The coat of arms which fills the centre of the panel is surmounted by a mitre between two croziers, and many small putti and other figures are introduced into the architectural setting.
COAT OF ARMS OF PETRUS FABRINUS
Another purely heraldic drawing may be mentioned here, although not intended for reproduction as a glass painting. It contains the arms of a compatriot of Holbein’s, Petrus Fabrinus of Augsburg, who became Rector of Basel University.[[325]] It is painted in gouache on vellum, and was done for insertion in the Matriculation Book of the University in 1523. The arms are placed in front of a Renaissance portico, supported by two columns of green marble, and with a triangular pediment, over which is a flaming brazier, while two naked cupids are seated on the capitals of the columns. In the angles of the arch are two medallions with antique crowned heads. A yellow curtain hides the whole of the lower part of the background. The left half of the shield shows three roses on a blue ground, and the right three fishes on black. It is crowned with a helmet, from which springs the figure of a Moor in parti-coloured dress, who holds in either hand, attached to ribbons from his turban, the three roses and the three fish.
Another heraldic drawing for glass-painting is of particular interest because it was designed by Holbein for Erasmus.[[326]] It represents the truncated form of the god Hermes as Terminus within an arch supported by single columns, standing in a wide, undulating landscape. The statue is turned three-quarters to the left, the head surrounded by rays, the eyes looking upwards. Over the head, suspended by ribbons from the arch, hangs a large wooden tablet for an inscription, placed slantwise, like the figure below it. The latter bears a considerable likeness to Erasmus himself. The setting is unusually simple, both pillars and arch being almost devoid of ornament, with the exception of a panel with roughly-indicated winged figures terminating in floriated scrolls, and two roundels with the customary heads in the angles of the arch. The background, which consists of some open fields, with a tree or two, one distant house, and hilly country beyond, the whole indicated with a few lines and touches of green colour, slight as it is, shows to advantage Holbein’s knowledge of landscape perspective. There is a freedom and simplicity in the drawing, a dignity of conception, and a fine sense of proportion, which indicate that it is one of the latest in date of his drawings for glass, and that it was most probably made shortly before his departure for England in 1526. Erasmus adopted Terminus, the god of boundaries and established ways, as his symbol after Alexander Stuart, Archbishop of St. Andrews, had presented him, when in Italy, with a gold ring set with a cornelian on which was engraved the figure of Hermes and the motto “CONCEDO NULLI”;[[327]] and this motto Holbein has placed in large letters across the sky of the drawing on either side of the head. Thus the design, by means of the symbols used, suggests the character of the philosopher himself, a man who in the opinions he held would yield to no man, and yet in his writings confined himself to established ways, and broke few boundaries. This drawing is in the Amerbach Collection.
In the British Museum there is a glass design representing a Wild Man of the Woods, drawn with the brush and washed with Indian ink and a slight colour wash.[[328]] It represents a naked bearded man, with a defiant look, his head and loins girt with forest leaves, holding an uprooted sapling in his hands, and with feet planted apart. He stands on a stone ledge forming the sill of a window, decorated with pilasters and garlands in the Renaissance style and opening upon a hollow among mountains covered with pines. It was purchased in 1895 with the Malcolm Collection, and is an exceedingly fine drawing. Sandrart appears to have possessed a copy of it.
“CHRIST ON THE CROSS”
Two glass designs, one in the Basel Gallery and the other in Paris, show that though Holbein at this period of his life was strongly influenced by North Italian art, yet the earlier influence of such German painters as Grünewald and Hans Baldung Grien, gained through a study of their great altar-pieces, had by no means been completely overshadowed. For some years at least after he had become a citizen of Basel these two divergent forces in his development both made themselves felt in varying degrees in much of his work, so that it is not at all easy to arrange in chronological order the large number of decorative designs and other works he produced at this time. This double influence can be easily traced in these “scheibenrisse” of “Christ on the Cross between the Virgin and St. John,” and “The Annunciation.” In the former[[329]] the influence of Grünewald is to be seen in the two standing figures, in both of which, and more particularly in that of St. John, the acute grief which overpowers them as they gaze on the crucified Christ is strongly, even violently, depicted. St. John, by the agitated movements of his whole body, his extended fingers, and his open mouth, shows how passionately he is suffering. The framework which surrounds them is over-decorated with a conglomeration of Renaissance motives. The side columns are covered, and their form almost hidden, by masses of plastic ornament, writhing snakes round the bases, and above them grotesque heads with long tassels hanging from their mouths; and, higher up, sculptured figures of a sphinx-like nature. In contrast to this, the background is filled with one of his naturally-treated landscape scenes, with a high rock on the right behind St. John, from which a tree is growing, and on the left a glimpse of a town by a lake, with mountains beyond and a cloudy sky overhead.
The “Annunciation” drawing, in the collection of M. Léon Bonnat, Paris,[[330]] shows so many points in common with Grünewald’s altar-piece at Isenheim, not only in the general arrangement of the figures, but in numerous details, that it seems evident that Holbein must have been well acquainted with it.[[331]] As his father was working at Isenheim for some considerable time, it is exceedingly probable that his sons, even if they did not accompany him directly there from Augsburg, as the first stage on their journey to Basel, paid him one or more visits, for the distance between the two places was not great. Holbein has placed the kneeling Mary on one side of a wooden chest on which rests a cushion with her book; on the other side the Angel of the Annunciation has just alighted, an imposing winged figure, very richly and elaborately dressed, holding a long sceptre in one hand, and the other outstretched towards the Virgin. The latter is by no means one of Holbein’s most pleasing representations of the Mother of our Lord; it is to the angel the eye turns as the centre of interest. The Romanesque pillar and frieze behind the Virgin is a motive taken from the crypt of the Minster of Basel, while the wooden barrel roof of the chamber at the back, in which the Virgin’s bed is placed, was common in Holbein’s day throughout Switzerland in council chambers, courts of justice, and other large rooms.[[332]] The architectural framework resembles that of the “Crucifixion” drawing in the lavishness of its somewhat incongruous ornamental details. The bases of the columns are sheathed with grotesque heads from which spring large foliated scrolls, supporting wicker baskets filled with fruit and leaves. Dr. Ganz gives the date of the drawing as about 1521 or 1522.
Vol. I., Plate 44.
