Done for the wedding of Hans Bär, in Basle. Decorated with pictures of the amusing legend of St. Nobody, blamed in all households as the real cause of all accidents; and letters, a pair of spectacles, and other objects on the top, with the intention of deceiving the spectator.
MINIATURES AND DRAWINGS.
Holbein undoubtedly painted a number of miniatures, but very few of these remain, although many are ascribed to him. Among the best are those of the two sons of the Duke of Suffolk, Henry and Charles Brandon, Catherine Howard, and Lady Audley, all at Windsor; others of Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour, belonging to the Seymour family; and a portrait of Holbein in the Wallace Collection.
The finest collections of drawings are those in Windsor Castle and the Basle and British Museums. Some good designs for jewellery will be found at Chatsworth.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE ARTIST’S LIFE
| 1497. | Born in Augsburg. |
| 1514. | Left Augsburg. Date of his first known picture. |
| 1515. | Settled in Basle with his brother Ambrose. |
| 1517. | Living in Lucerne. Visited Altdorf. |
| 1518. | Painted Hertenstein’s house in Lucerne. |
| 1519. | Back in Basle. Admitted to the Painters Guild. |
| 1520. | Paid his fees as a burgher of Basle. |
| 1521-22. | Decorated the interior of new Town Hall. |
| 1526. | Painted The Meyer Madonna about this time. Left Basle, and reached England before the end of the year. |
| 1528. | Returned to Basle in the summer, and bought a house. |
| 1532. | Returned to England, and lived with the German colony in London. |
| 1536. | In King Henry’s service. |
| 1537. | Painted the fresco in the Privy Chamber at Whitehall. |
| 1538. | Went to Brussels to paint the Duchess of Milan. Made a second journey to “Upper Burgundy” in December, and spent a short time in Basle. The Dance of Death and Old Testament woodcuts published. |
| 1539. | Went in August to Düren to paint Anne of Cleves. |
| 1542. | Began the large picture in Barber Surgeons’ Hall. |
| 1543. | Died, probably of the plague, on some day between October 7 and November 29. |
CHIEF BOOKS ON HOLBEIN
Blanc, Charles. Jean Holbein (dit le Jeune). Histoire des Peintres de toutes les Ecoles. 1860.
Cust, Lionel. Dictionary of National Biography.