“A FIGHT OF LANDSKNECHTE”
Holbein made use of the Swiss landsknechte for other purposes than that of painted windows. One or two of his most masterly drawings depict incidents in the lives of these men, whose picturesque dress and gay and manly bearing made a strong appeal to him. The finest and most important of them is the large study in the Basel Gallery representing a fierce conflict between two considerable bodies of warriors (Pl. [53]).[[360]] It depicts the contemporary methods of warfare with the utmost vivacity and close adherence to truth. It is, according to Dr. Ganz, a work of Holbein’s last residence in Basel, probably made just before his return to England in 1532. In the foreground of the fight two men are at close quarters, one of whom, with sword whirling over his head, grips the hair of his opponent, who is striking at his throat with a long dagger. On either side of them two soldiers are forcing a space round them with enormous pikes, while behind is a great crowd of shouting, panting, and struggling men, whose lances, dashed in with a few hasty strokes, stand out against the sky with an extraordinary effect both of number and movement. In the hottest part of the fight one combatant uplifts a great double-handed sword, while another protects his face with his raised drum. Beneath their feet are many trampled bodies and shattered weapons. The composition is a very fine one, and the draughtsmanship of extraordinary vigour and vitality. One can almost hear the cries and yells, and the clash of the arms, so completely has Holbein realised the scene, and so vividly set it down on paper with rapid but unerring pencil.[[361]]
It is impossible to give here even a list of his many drawings, of which so large a number are in the Basel Gallery. In the Amerbach Collection there is a sheet with studies of a recumbent lamb and a lamb’s head,[[362]] both drawn with the utmost delicacy in silver-point and slightly washed with water-colour, most faithful renderings of nature, perhaps made as a preliminary study for some picture of the youthful St. John; and a second sheet with a drawing of the underside of a bat with outstretched wings,[[363]] carried out with the same minute care, the red veins, which show through the transparent membranes of the wings, being put in with water-colour. In the same collection there are numerous designs for jewellery, dagger-sheaths, cups and other vessels, for the use of silversmiths and metal-workers; but as much of Holbein’s best work of this kind was produced in England, discussion of them may be reserved until a later chapter dealing with his designs for the London goldsmiths.
CHAPTER VIII
PORTRAITS OF ERASMUS AND HIS CIRCLE
Portraits of Erasmus and Ægidius by Quentin Metsys—Copy of the “Erasmus” at Hampton Court and the original in Rome—Portraits of Erasmus by Holbein sent to London—The Longford Castle “Erasmus” and copies of it—The Louvre portrait, and the study for it at Basel—Holbein’s journey to the South of France—Drawings of the sepulchral effigies of the Duke and Duchess of Berry—The Greystoke portrait and the version at Parma—The Basel roundel—Woodcut portraits of Erasmus—Portraits of Froben—Melanchthon—Holbein’s drawing of himself at Basel.
THE portraits painted by Holbein prior to his departure from Basel to England were not numerous, even when allowance is made for the probable disappearance or destruction of several of which no trace now remains. There are less than a dozen in all, even when the three different versions of Erasmus are included. The Burgomaster Meyer and his wife, Benedikt von Hertenstein, Amerbach, Froben, Erasmus, and his own portrait almost complete the list, to which may be added the two versions of Magdalena Offenburg as “Venus” and as “Lais,” and the portrait at the Hague now said to represent his wife shortly after he married her. Considering the mastery he had already displayed in this branch of art, it is extraordinary that he did not receive more commissions for portraits from his fellow-citizens. He found a good patron in Erasmus, however, who was always ready to sit for his likeness. He was painted by several well-known artists, and employed Holbein on more than one occasion. He presented several of these portraits to friends and supporters in England and elsewhere, and as he had many admirers who were anxious to possess one, Holbein’s original pictures of him were copied a number of times both during the philosopher’s lifetime and afterwards.
Although Erasmus paid his first visit to Basel in 1513 for the purpose of making the acquaintance of Froben, who was about to publish several of his works, including his edition of the New Testament, and renewed this visit on several occasions, sometimes remaining there for months at a time, he did not make the city his permanent home until 1521. Both during these earlier visits and after he had settled in Basel, he made Froben’s home his own. This house, “zum Sessel,” was in the Fischmarkt, but after Froben’s death in 1526, Erasmus moved to the house of Froben’s son, “zum Luft,” now No. 18 in the Bäumleingasse, and it was in this latter house that he died in 1536. He was attracted by the freedom and independence of the life within the city, and the opportunities it afforded both for quiet study and daily intercourse with many learned men, and also by the number and fame of its printers and their presses.
PORTRAITS OF ERASMUS AND ÆGIDIUS