Hans Holbein

by Arthur B. Chamberlain

There is no doubt that he decorated a number of houses in Basle in a similar manner, though we have records of only one of them; but drawings of several elaborately ornamented façades are preserved in various collections, which show that he was often occupied with this kind of work in his younger days. The most famous of these decorated buildings was, as already stated, known as The House of the Dance, from a broad frieze running across the second story, which represented a number of peasants boisterously dancing to the music of the bagpipes. The whole front was embellished with painted Renaissance architecture. The great variety of subjects he included, and the elaborate details, may be studied in a sketch preserved in the Basle Museum.

The subjects chosen for the interior decoration of the Basle Town Hall were also from classical antiquity. Richly ornamented columns divided the walls into a number of spaces, which were filled with paintings representing the vital importance to a community of impartial justice. Holbein’s subjects were Charondas, the Lawgiver, plunging the Sword into his own Heart; Zaleucus ordering his own Right Eye to be torn out instead of his Son’s; Curius Dentatus sending back the Ambassadors of the Samnites; and Sapor, King of Persia, using the Body of the captured Emperor Valerian as a step from which to mount his Horse. The smaller panels were single figures, such as Christ, David, Justice, Wisdom, and Moderation. The remaining wall in the Hall, painted in 1530, was covered with two large Biblical subjects—Rehoboam dismissing the Messengers of the Israelites with fierce threats, and The meeting of Samuel and Saul, when the Prophet angrily reproves the King for having disobeyed the command of God in sparing the Amalekites. The original sketches for both these compositions still exist, and are sufficient to prove how fine the completed pictures must have been. The vehement gesture of Rehoboam is well conceived, and the composition of the Samuel and Saul is masterly.

The two large allegorical friezes for the banquet-room of the Steelyard merchants in London must have been equally fine. The original sketch for The Triumph of Riches (Louvre) shows how easily the genius of the artist adapted itself to this kind of work. The figures in these two compositions, which were done in tempera on canvas, were life-size. They soon became famous, and in 1574 were copied by Zucchero, who, according to Carl van Mander, declared they were as fine as anything accomplished by Raphael. Such triumphal processions as these were, of course, a favourite method of decoration in his day, of which Mantegna’s Triumph of Cæsar was the most famous. In The Triumph of Riches he depicted Plutus, God of Wealth, seated in a car drawn by four horses, with Fortune in front, her veil flying behind her, scattering gold among the accompanying crowd, which is made up of many men of antiquity famous for their wealth, luxury, or avarice. In The Triumph of Poverty Poverty herself, an ancient and miserable hag, and her comrade, Misfortune, are drawn in a poor barrow by two asses, Stupidity and Inactivity, and two oxen, Negligence and Sloth. The vehicle is driven by Hope, who is accompanied by Industry, Memory, and Experience, who distribute axe or hammer, spade or flail, symbols of work, among the poverty-stricken people who crowd round.

In all these large decorative works Holbein displayed the greatest fertility of invention, and a power of composition of a very high order. The sense of life and movement in all the figures, and the appropriateness of the gestures, are alike admirable. In some of his wall-paintings he showed a keen sense of humour; and that joy of life, as felt by the Teuton of his day in his moments of relaxation and merriment, is admirably expressed. There is, too, an exuberance of invention in the architectural and ornamental details which is one of the most striking features of this side of his art, showing how quickly and completely he had made the new ideas of the Renaissance his own.

RELIGIOUS PAINTINGS.

Holbein’s religious pictures almost all date from the earlier part of his career, and few remain which are works of his maturity. More than one of them perished, there is little doubt, during the stormy days of the Reformation in Basle. His earliest known picture is a small panel of The Virgin and Child, dated 1514, a work of great promise for a youth of seventeen. It displays a real, though naïve, charm, and the tender attitude with which the Virgin holds the Child is very attractive. She is dressed in white, with a black cloak, and her long, fair hair falls over her shoulders, and Holbein seems to have taken an especial delight in the careful painting of it. This little work, tentative as it is in many ways, gives signs that the hand which painted it was soon to become that of a master. Other early works of a similar character are The Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist, quarter lengths, seen against a blue background, which remained the artist’s favourite setting for his heads throughout his life. The series of five pictures on canvas, taken from The Passion of Christ, need not detain us. It is probable that they were hastily painted for some church decoration or religious celebration. Among the numerous designs for glass-painting which he made in Basle, the most important is a series of ten designs illustrating The Passion of Christ, each one set in a background of elaborate architectural structure. The scenes are simply treated, but with great dramatic power, if not with great depth of feeling. The action in most of them is finely conceived, and many of the figures have both dignity and beauty.

Holbein took the same subject, The Passion of Christ, for an altar-piece consisting of eight small panels (Basle Museum). For more than 200 years this work was considered to be the artist’s finest achievement, and it was preserved in the Basle Town Hall until 1777, when the Town Council presented it to the Museum, and had it thoroughly restored before handing it over, with most disastrous results. The abominably gaudy colours which were then daubed upon it have taken away most of the charm which graced it when it first left the master’s hands. It is still possible, however, to form some judgment of its composition, and to see how skilfully the artist has managed the light and shade. The eight scenes are combined in one frame in a very effective and harmonious manner, forming one picturesque whole. Each little picture, taken by itself, is a work of art and of real beauty. Two other panels in the Minster of Freiburg, somewhat similar to the above in the exceptionally successful and picturesque arrangement of the lighting, form the wings of an altar-piece, of which the centre panel has disappeared. They were painted for Hans Oberreidt, one of the Basle Town Councillors, and represent The Nativity and The Adoration of the Magi, with the donor and the numerous members of his family kneeling below. All the figures are small, while the backgrounds are large and imposing. Another little work of great beauty, and important as being the only sacred painting by Holbein now in England, is the Noli Me Tangere at Hampton Court (see p. 58).

A very remarkable picture of The Dead Christ (Basle) was painted in 1521. The nude body lies in a narrow tomb of marble, open at the side. Except for the stigmata, there is very little religious signification in it. The painful subject has been in no way idealized; it is, on the contrary, one of the most vividly realistic paintings of a dead man ever produced by a great painter.

The picture known as The Solothurn Madonna, painted in the following year, is one of Holbein’s two finest religious paintings. It is now in the possession of Herr Zetter, but was, no doubt, originally a commission for the Minster of Solothurn. It represents the Virgin and Child between St. Martin of Tours and St. Ursus. The Virgin is seated with the Child on her knee under an open arch, and her figure stands out against the blue sky which is seen through it. Her face is very sweet and sympathetic. The naked Child, with its little arms stretched out, is a delightful piece of portraiture, while the two saints are magnificent figures. This picture, deeply reverent in feeling, is conceived with great simplicity, but is very noble in sentiment.

The Meyer Madonna, in Darmstadt, Holbein’s greatest masterpiece of religious painting, and one of the finest sacred pictures in the world, is fully described on p. 44.