Hans was the favorite son, and both he and his brother Ambrose were educated to be artists in their father’s studio. There they worked until 1515, when Hans and Ambrose journeyed to Basel, at that time a center of learning and art.
There Holbein’s chief occupation was the drawing of title pages for books. Erasmus, the great scholar, is said to have been his patron, and helped him in many ways. Another powerful patron was Jacob Meier, the first commoner who ever held the office of burgomaster of Basel, and under whose rule the reformation of the city laws was peaceably carried out. He was the original of Holbein’s first portrait painted in Basel, and for him, eight or nine years later, was painted the famous Meier Madonna.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 48, SERIAL No. 48
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
THE MEIER MADONNA—Holbein
DÜRER AND HOLBEIN
The Middle Years
FIVE
In 1517 Holbein left Basel on a journey of two years. No one knows exactly where he traveled. It is said that he did not go to Italy; but others maintain that he must have spent some time there. Anyway, in 1519 he returned to Basel, and in the same year his brother Ambrose died. The next year, 1520, was an important one in the artist’s life. Erasmus returned to Basel, and Holbein became a citizen of the town, and was admitted to the Guild of Painters. Also at this time he married. His wife was a widow with two children. She was some years older than the artist, and seems to have been somewhat of a shrew. It is said that it was her tongue that drove Holbein to England in the summer of 1526. More probably it was the usual desire,—to make more money than he was earning at Basel.