MILANESE INFLUENCE IN THE LAÏS

It is impossible to follow Mr. Davies in this attribution. Woltmann’s opinion, with which most modern critics are in agreement, that they are genuine works by Holbein in which Lombard influence is more strongly marked than in most of his other Basel paintings, is the correct one. The two panels are unmistakably the product of a northern painter working under some southern influence, and just as unmistakably the work of Holbein himself, as a close comparison with his other work of this period shows very plainly. This Milanese influence was the result of his visit to Lombardy, and is to be traced in a greater or lesser degree in all that he accomplished previously to his first visit to England. “Their warm, transparent technique and the realistic ungracefulness of the draperies,” says Mr. C. J. Holmes, speaking of the Laïs and its companion, “make them characteristic northern works, just as the Raphaelesque folds and cool opaque pigment of Cesare da Sesto in his later paintings—the small Madonna in the Brera, for example—are characteristically southern.”[[524]] Possibly for once in a way Holbein was making a conscious attempt to imitate the manner of some artist of the North Italian school whose work he had seen and admired, perhaps in Basel itself, so that the Lombard influence is more pronounced than in those pictures and designs in which he was less evidently making an experiment based upon what he had seen in Italy, and in which his own native genius was the predominating force. For the same reason it is very possible that in the Laïs and the Venus, Holbein, instead of following his model closely, gave play to his imagination, and attempted, as the type of face, with downcast eyes, and pensive, almost melancholy charm of expression suggests, to emulate the Leonardesque manner, so that at the best they are merely idealised representations of the notorious Magdalena Offenburg.

There is no doubt that during the summer of 1526, in spite of his reputation as a painter, he found it increasingly difficult to gain a living, and that, in consequence, he made up his mind to seek his fortunes in some other country, and finally decided to visit England. In those early days of the Reformation in Switzerland, when the ecclesiastical disputes were assuming so acute a form, and risings of the peasants and other violent disturbances were growing common, there was very little opportunity for artists to find remunerative employment, and Holbein suffered with the rest. The town authorities had no time for considering such important public works as the completion of the Town Hall decorations, and all that they could find for him to do was an ill-paid job or two at long intervals, such as the one already mentioned,[[525]] which in happier times would have been hardly worth his attention. Basel, indeed, no longer offered a means of livelihood to a painter with a wife, a stepson, and two children of his own to keep. Throughout this year, too, the plague was raging in the city, and this may have proved the last straw which definitely turned his thoughts in the direction of England.

Numerous legends have grown up around this journey of his, which for the most part have no foundation in fact. The commonest, first voiced by Van Mander, is to the effect that the Earl of Arundel, when passing through Basel on his way home from Italy some years previously, was so delighted with Holbein’s work that he urged him to try his fortunes in England. Later on, when Holbein had taken his advice, he was asked by Sir Thomas More, who it was who had suggested this course to him. Holbein replied that he had forgotten the nobleman’s name, but, taking up a piece of charcoal, he rapidly sketched a face, which the Chancellor instantly recognised. Another version gives the Earl of Surrey as Holbein’s adviser; but the tale is a pure legend, and has been told of more than one painter.

Another story, which has been often repeated, gives as the reason of his departure the desire to escape from the constant tempers of an ill-humoured wife, and that he therefore left Basel surreptitiously, without obtaining the necessary leave of absence from the Town Council. His earlier biographers all describe his relationships with his wife as not very cordial ones, but they merely copied from one another, and this again may be mere legend. Patin, in particular, whose account of Holbein is palpably exaggerated and often false, describes him as a drunkard, who led a disorderly life, and was always so poverty-stricken that Erasmus and Amerbach had frequently to come to his assistance—a statement entirely devoid of fact, and sufficiently disproved by Holbein’s brilliant performances in many branches of art. Patin also, when speaking of Holbein’s journey to England, makes use of another favourite story told of numerous artists. He says that on his way he passed through Strasburg, and called on the principal painter of the town, but found him out. An unfinished portrait stood on the easel, whereupon Holbein painted a fly on the forehead, and then left. When the painter returned he attempted to brush it away, imagining it to be a real one, and was so impressed by his unknown visitor’s skill, that he at once sought him out, but found that he had already left the town.

REASONS FOR LEAVING BASEL

It is, of course, possible that Holbein’s domestic relations by that time were not as cordial as in earlier days, and that his supposed connection with Magdalena Offenburg may have rendered them still less pleasant, and that this may have had something to do with his departure; but this again is mere conjecture, of which no actual proof is forthcoming. Want of work was undoubtedly the chief, and possibly the only cause of his journey, and no doubt it was largely the advice of Erasmus which finally decided him to take the step. Erasmus, who had already sent more than one example of Holbein’s skill as a portrait-painter to England, had a large circle of friends and patrons here, to whom he could recommend the artist. To Warham and More, at least, Holbein’s portrait of Erasmus had already provided an informal introduction, and they may have been aware, also, though this is less likely, that it was he who designed the title-page used in the edition of the Utopia published by Froben in 1518, signed “Hans Holb.” In 1525 a certain Thomas Grey and his youngest son were living with Erasmus in Basel, according to a letter from the latter to Lupset;[[526]] and Grey, too, may have advised Holbein to seek fortune at Henry’s court. “Grey,” says Erasmus, “reports that there is no disturbance in England,” and this news may have proved an added inducement to the painter to quit a country agitated with religious and civil contention for a more peaceful locality where the arts could flourish in peace.

Before leaving Basel, Holbein made one last attempt, as already recounted,[[527]] to obtain from the Antonine Abbey of Isenheim the painting materials which his father had left there some years previously. The strongly-worded letter, dated 4th July 1526, which the Burgomaster of Basel, Heinrich Meltinger, wrote at his request, is addressed to the “venerable Herr Vicar and preceptor of the Order of St. Antonius at Isenenn, our dear and gracious Master,” and runs as follows: “Venerable, gracious, and dear sir, receive our friendly and ready service. Hans Holbein, painter, our citizen, has proposed to us to paint an altar-panel, such as his deceased father painted in former years. He left some implements of an expensive kind, weighing about three hundred and two cubic measures, with you at Isenheim, which he, Hans Holbein, repeatedly during the lifetime of his father, and at his desire, and also after his decease, being his heir, demanded of you, but could never obtain; for what reasons he knows not. Thus the matter has been delayed to such an extent that the peasants, he is informed, have wasted these implements in the last uproar, and when he again desired them of you, as his father’s heir, you referred him, with his request, to the peasants, with whom he has nothing to do, and to whom he has intrusted nothing, and notified to him an appointment on the Saturday after the next Ulrici (7th July) at Ensisheim. We, having heard his business, and given credence to it, and being well inclined to further him, have not allowed him to keep such an appointment, or to make any demand of the peasants (with whom he, as we have heard, has nothing to do), but have firm confidence in you, that you will weigh the matter thoroughly, and hand over to him, as the heir of his deceased father, completely and without difficulty, the aforementioned implements, or, in case nothing of them now exists, compensate him for their loss, and so show yourself towards him in the affair, that he may feel that our intercession has been advantageous, and that no further steps are necessary. Such behaviour on your side we wish for him, to whom it is justly due.”[[528]]

This letter affords proof that Ambrosius Holbein was dead, for in it Hans is mentioned more than once as his father’s heir, and it also shows that the Basel Council were not so actively opposed to the painting of altar-pieces as other incidents of the time suggest. Nothing further is known of this altar-panel which Holbein proposed to paint for them.

ERASMUS’ LETTER OF INTRODUCTION