HANS HOLBEINat

Tnouen a German, we feel as if Holbein almost belonged to us ; so many great Etglish people were painted by him, and so much of his finest work is in our Royal and private collections. He was born at Augsburg, in 1497. Of this town Mr. Condon says, "Situated upon one of the highest spurs of the Bavarian mountains, her position, in a military point of view, was im- portant; and being on the high-road to the Alps and Italy, she enjoyed close and constant communication with the cultured Italians." Holbein's father was an admirable painter, as the Munich altar-piece alone would show. The figures of St. Barbara and St. Elizabeth are very beautiful, in quiet, dignified grace, and are very successfully represented in the small engravings in this life of the painter's son. But evidently Holbein the elder had not achieved success in the art of living. Up to the last, he was constantly being sued for miserable little sums of money,--once even by his own brother. He had two artist-sons,—the great Hans Holbein and Ambrosius. Both worked in their father's studio, and both visited Basel when Hans was about nineteen years of age, and were made citizens of that town. It was there, through the introduction of Froben, the celebrated printer, and the friend and host of Erasmus during his visits to Basel, that Holbein made the acquaintance of this great thinker of his age. Holbein illustrated his Praise of FolTy and. Martin Luther's edition of the Now Testament. But we must refer our readers to Mr. Cundall's book for the account ' of the his- tory of his works, and in what order they were invented. Suffice it to say that the number which every year seemed to bring forth ie almost incredible, when the care and finish of all are taken into consideration. It was during this early time at Basel that he executed several series of designs, all showing a marvellous exuberance of the creative faculty, and *T Great drags—liana lloUsO By Joseph Caudal London; Sampson anct Co. some a power of depicting the most heroic beauty, which power the circumstances of his life unfortunately did not give him the opportunities of developing as fully as did the circumstances of his great Italian contemporaries. Take, for instance, some of the drawings in the series of " The Passion," at Basel, not, we think, sufficiently praised by Mr. Cundall. (Photographs, fac- similes of these, can be bought at Basel, and are invaluable as lessons to the student.) What in Michael Angelo or Raphael can surpass the drawing of the Christ falling beneath the Cross in grandeur of composition, beauty of line, or complete- ness of drawing P And added to all this are a power and subtlety in rendering different expressions which are Holbein's own, and no other master's to the same extent. Mr.

Ruskin says of him Holbein is complete in interlect ; what he sees, he sees with his whole soul ; what he paints, he paints with his whole might." And in these early years he used this might and insight chiefly in designs and creations of his own brain; but there was sadly little encouragement for him to con- tinue doing so. He painted designs on walls all over Basel,— inside the churches, everywhere, apparently, where there was a wall to paint, for absurdly small payments ; but the finances of the town seem to have sunk lower and lower, till they could no longer allow of any money to be spent on de- coration. In 1526, Mr. Condon says :—" The distress of

the painters io painfully shown in an appeal made by

their Guild to the Council, that they might retain the. monopoly of devising the false beards required for the Carnivals, stating that so many painters had already been obliged to take to other businesses, that the city would soon be unable to boast of any artists at all." With the religious disturbances came the terrible destruction of all such art as offended the protesting spirit of the age, and many of Holbein's wall-paintings were destroyed before his death. The two great religious pictures, the Darmstadt and the Solothurn Madonnas, show what Holbein could do in the old religious spirit, and are fully described in this Life ; also the celebrated "Dance of Death," which, with other satirical drawings, belong to a more modern vein of thought. There are a series of single figures of women, probably done at this time, now in the Basel Museum, studies of costume, one of which has been engraved for' this book (not, however, the most beautiful one, we think), which are perfect, so. far as they go. They are executed in pen-and-ink line, shaded by washes of Indian ink. The feel-

ing and rendering of every smallest fold and ornament, by an incredibly small number of touches, teaches a valuable lesson,

by showing how far greater the effect is when the means used are of the simplest which the conditions require, and how much more nobility is suggested in a sketch by the simplest expres- sion of fade, than by any elaboration of touch or of texture' displayed for the sake of effect. We see this quality of sim- plicity and power combined in the splendid sketch of St. George and the Dragon, interesting also as being, we think, the

original of Guido's well-known picture in Rome. The figure. in this last is as good a, copy as a Guido could make of

a Holbein, the only intentional difference being that the folds of the drapery in Holbein's sketch are turned into most frivol- ous loops of ribbon, springing out round the waist of Guido's St. George, suggestive of a fancy-ball costume, or the silliest of French fashions.

We must again refer our readers to Mr. Condall's Life. for a list of the portraits by Holbein ; we cannot help regret-

ting that these were so numerous, as the labour and finish bestowed on every inch of canvas, most beautiful and interest- ing as they are, took the chief strength of his life, and left little time comparatively for works of ideal intention. Such portraits as those of Erasmus and Sir Thomas More we cannot value too highly, but the great number he was forced

to paint in order to live, must have interfered with the creation of original designs. It is evident that he did not paint even the faces entirely from his sitters, but made

sketches, on which are often found written notes to recall the colour of the hair and eyes. He was rapid in taking a likeness.

One evidence of this is found in a letter from the Ambassador,

John Hutton, dated from Brussels, to Cromwell, who was advo- cating an alliance between Henry VIII. and the young widowed Duchess of Milan. Holbein had been sent over from London to. Brussels to take her likeness, for the King to see. There had been one already painted, by some one else. John Hutton's letter gives an account of the arrival of Holbein and of his in-

terview with the young Duchess, and continues The next

day following, the said Lord Benedict came for Mr. Hans, who, having but three hours' space, hath showed himself master of that science; for it is very perffect, the other is but slobbered in comparison, as by the sight of both your Lordship -shall perceive." Perhaps among the many excellences of Hol- bein's portraits, there is on6 perfection in his drawing which is his more than any other master's. We mean the great subtlety and variety of expression which he puts into the drawing of the centre line of the mouth, softening the edge of the lips sometimes till it almost disappears. When living became too difficult for Holbein at Basel, Erasmus, whose portrait he had more than once painted, sent him to Antwerp as his messenger, with letters and an introduction to Erasmus's friend, lEgidius, who, in his turn, introduced him to his great contemporary, Quintin Matsys ; and from Antwerp to London, with letters to Sir Thomas More. It was not till ten years after his arrival in London that he became Court painter to Henry VIII. On his first arrival, he seems to have been the constant guest and friend of Sir Thomas More ; and these years, we should think, were the most delightful in his life. Erasmus compared More's family to a "second.. Republic of Plato," but added, "that is too small a comparison. With more justice, we might call this house a school of Christian feeling"

"Evidence," Mr. Candall continues, "of the purity of Holbein's life and conduct is found in his admission to such a household ; and he probably sympathised with the family in all their pursuits and studies, with the one exception of their religious exercises. More was a staunch Roman Catholic, and Holbein must have been forced to con- .ceal his predilections for the doctrines of the Reformation One of his [Sir T. More's] favourite maxims was that every one ought to be as agreeable towards others as possible. King Henry valued his counsels, and often sent for him to consult with him privately on affairs of State, or to discuss difficult and abstruse questions with him. More than once Henry visited him in his own home, and on such occasion may have heard of Holbein, if he did not actually meet him."

Every member of More's family played some musical instru- ment, and this life at the house in Chelsea must have well agreed with Holbein's artistic nature, coming, as it did, after the struggles and agitations at Basel. But no ease or pleasure lessened his industry. In the Windsor Castle collection, the property of the Queen, " are eighty-seven portraits drawn on tinted paper with coloured chalks, the effect in many cases being heightened by shading in Indian ink. Many of these sketches are as large as life, and some are covered with pin-pricks, proving them to have been used for tracing." These were done during the first years of his life in London. The portrait of Sir Thomas More, exhibited in the loan collection in South Kensington in 1866, was probably Holbein's first work in London, and is a most pre- cious record of the most refined nature of the time. Mr. Cun- dall gives an account of all that is known of Holbein's residence in London, his employment as Court painter, and his death when in the prime of life, probably from the plague. We must refer our readers also to their recollection of the splendid col- lection of Holbein's drawings in last winter's Burlington House exhibition. One colossal piece of work exhibited there, and of which there is a good engraving in this book, cannot be recalled without enthusiastic admiration. We mean the remnant of the drawing belonging to the Duke of Devonshire which was half- burnt, but still contains the life-size portraits of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. This is the grandest style of work,, and the figure of Henry VII. is beyond all praise.

Though the times in which Holbein lived are as interesting as any of the most eventful in history, they were not those, we think, favourable to the production of the highest kind of art. The spirit which inspired the Reformation was created as mach out of a sense of injustice as from a longing for a purer religion, —a sense outraged, doubtless, by flagrant inconsistencies and abominable vices ; but, in its turn, the violence of Protestantism outraged the sense of reverence for beauty, and respect for the inheritances of beauty left to us by the past. The serenity of the religious atmosphere in which the sublime thoughts of the earlier Italian painters found such inspiring suggestion, did not exist for Holbein. Every sense in the moral and religious feel- ing of his world was being stirred by doubt and change, and in the change the feelings of even great men assumed suspicious, self-asserting, unlovely fierceness. We must take this state -of things into consideration before we can estimate what a very great man Holbein really was. He lived but forty six years, and most of his greater works have been destroyed,

and yet how much remains ! Tremendous as was his industry, and grand as was his genius, we cannot help feeling that he would have done more of what he did best, and what alone the greatest men can do, had he lived as the old Italian masters lived, in the quieter thoughts of a more settled faith, surrounded by the stately dignity of the lives of the great people of an Italian city —the lives that surrounded Raphael, Michael Angelo, Titian, and Tintoretto—where leisure and art seemed a natural part of every-day life. That Holbein was made Court painter at 00 a year to Henry VIII. was hardly an equal advantage to his art. The vulgarity which showed itself in a love of display on all occasions, and the brutality which showed itself whenever it was necessary for the accomplishing of his desires, must have made the King's influence, however much Mr. Froude may find to defend in him, anything but a refining one in his Court. Splen- dour and picturesqueness there must have been in profusion, but elevation and serenity were incompatible where such a violent and wilful nature ruled supreme. The one serene atmo- sphere which surrounded, and was worthy of, the highest side of Holbein's art genius was soon destroyed, and the centre of it sacrificed to the turbulence of a party spirit. Such tragedies were of every-day occurrence, and must have bruised and de- pressed the sensibilities of any fine, artistic nature. We find, moreover, in all Northern countries, in all ages, that life is more complicated and less inspiring to the artist's sense of beauty ; that the difficulties and discomforts of living being greater thim in the South, the artist has greater money difficulties. The beauty of life in the South is there, without being bought. The sun is a happy element of life in itself to the artist, and warmth adds materially to the beauty of form, as well as of colour. In the more northern countries, we find the intellectual qualities of the artist developed at the expense of the more purely artistic, and the disturbed, eager state of the society in which Holbein lived added materially, we think, to this developmentof the side of life which finds a more legitimate utter- ance in writing, than in painting or sculpture. The beauty of his art suffered from the intellectual struggles of his times. How- ever interesting the art may be which has a value independent of beautiful form and colour, it must not be forgotten that beauty is the reality in nature which it is the artist's chief mission to reproduce. Holbein, doubtless, was influenced by the great Italian schools of art,but unlike the genius of the Italian masters, his owed nothing to Greece directly, and if anything indirectly, only through the influence of Italian work. There is not a trace in his work of any direct study from Greek art, nor is there a trace of any beautiful type of woman having had such an influence over his mind that, consciously or unconsciously, one face and figure recur frequently in his paintings, as in the case of nearly all the first artists' work. His wife, though suggesting the Madonna's face in the Darmsta,dt and Solothurn pictures, was, to judge from his portrait of her, very homely-looking ; moreover, he bore his separation from her with apparent equanimity, when he was living in England and she at Basel. The town authorities there made several attempts to recover him as a resident, offer- ing most generous terms, considering the times, but he did not re- turn, except on short visits. Though little is known of his intimate relations, it is quite certain that wherever he found himself, it was with the intellectually superior minds that his nature frater- nised, and it was among the really great men that he found his friends. This fact, as his biographer says, is quite sufficient, as a denial to the stories told of his drunken habits.

We are grateful to Mr. Cuudall, not only for this careful account of Holbein and his works, but as the editor of the whole of this delightful series of painters' lives. And we owe him special gratitude for producing them in so complete, interesting, and cheap a form.