The original painting is lost; a copy by Richard Locky, dated 1530, is at Nostell Priory. The drawing was sent by More to Erasmus at Basle so as to introduce his family, for which purpose the names and ages were inscribed. In two letters to Sir Thomas and his daughter, dated 5 and 6 September 1530, Erasmus sent his enthusiastic thanks: 'I cannot put into words the deep pleasure I felt when the painter Holbein gave me the picture of your whole family, which is so completely successful that I should scarcely be able to see you better if I were with you.' (Allen, vol. 8, Nos. 2211-2).
Compare also Erasmus's pen portrait of Sir Thomas More in his letter to Hutten, pp. 231-9.
XXX. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS. Charcoal drawing by Albrecht Dürer, dated 1520. Paris, Louvre. Facing p. 239
Drawn at Antwerp, during Dürer's journey to the Netherlands. When he received the false news of the murder of Luther at Whitsuntide 1521, Dürer wrote in his diary: 'O Erasmus of Rotterdam, where art thou? Listen, thou Knight of Christ, ride out with the Lord Christ, defend the truth and earn for thyself the martyr's crown!'
XXXI. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS. Engraving by Albrecht Dürer, dated 1526. Facing p. 246
In his Diary of a Journey to the Netherlands, Dürer noted in late August 1520: 'I have taken Erasmus of Rotterdam's portrait once more', but he does not say when he took his first portrait. The earlier work is assumed to have been done one month before, and to be identical with the drawing in the Louvre (Pl. XXX). This drawing is mentioned by Erasmus himself in a letter to Pirckheimer of 1525 (p. 240); in an earlier letter to the same friend (1522) he says that Dürer had started to paint him in 1520. The second portrait drawing is lost; hence it cannot be proved that this second portrait was made in metal point—as is usually assumed—and not in charcoal, or that the engraving here reproduced was based on it.
XXXII. TERMINUS. Erasmus's device. Pen and ink drawing by Hans Holbein. Basle, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung (Print Room). Facing p. 247
Frontispiece: DECORATIVE PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS WITH HIS DEVICE, TERMINUS. Engraving by Hans Holbein, 1535.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For help in the collection of illustrations we are specially indebted to M. Daniel van Damme, Curator of the Erasmus Museum at Anderlecht and author of the Ephéméride illustrée de la Vie d'Erasme, published in 1936 on the occasion of the fourth centenary of Erasmus's death. For photographs and permission to reproduce we have to thank also the Frick Collection, New York (Pl. iv), the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basle (Pl. X-XI, XIV, XXV, XXIX, XXXII), the Library of Basle University (Pl. V-VI), and the Warburg Institute, University of London (Pl. iii). The photographs for Pl. II, VII, XVIII-XX and XXVI are by M. Mauhin, Anderlecht, those for Plates VIII and XVII by Dr. F. Stoedtner, Düsseldorf, and that for Plate IX by Fiorentini, Venice.