HOLBEIN.*
Pr the biography of a great artist is to be estimated favourably on account of the mass of detail, significant and insignificant, Collected together,the present work deserves to be commended. tar. Chamberlain has heaped up every conceivable historical fact and piece of documentary evidence, and, indeed, any- thing which can be said to have any bearing on Holbein. That such a process makes accessible in one place all the scattered information concerning the artist is true, but it Cannot be said that the result is a book in the best sense of the word. For instance, the English episodes in the career of the painter are of great interest, but they become wearisome in the extreme when their relation consists of quantities of trivial details, such as the pages devoted to the description of the construction of a temporary banqueting- hall at Greenwich made for Henry VIII. because the original bills contain the name of Mr. Hans, to whom payments were made, and who, there is good reason to suppose, was Holbein. The point is a curious one, but seven large pages seem too much to give to it. This instance is men- tioned because it is typical of the whole book, in which no sense of proportion is observed. The author no doubt considers that anything that can be discovered about so remarkable a personality is worth recording. But, even so, he need not have given us such minute accounts of the politics of Henry VIII. and of his later marriage affairs, merely because Holbein was called in to draw the various ladies' portraits. Most important of these commissions was that which resulted in the portrait of the Duchess of Milan. Holbein accompanied Cromwell's envoy Hutton to Brussels, and the latter, writing to his patron, thus admiringly describes the artistic tour de force "The next day foloyng, at wone of the cloke in the afternoon, the said Lord Benedike cam for Mr. Haman ; who having but three owers space bath :Amid hym self to be a master of that siens, for it is very perffight." This alludes, of course, to a drawing which has been lost, but the marvel remains that one of the greatest and most living of portraits in existence was founded on a three hours' study. What we miss in Mr. Chamberlain's book is any serious consideration of the art of Holbein. He is treated as he might have appeared in the eyes of one of his patrons, who required a portrait to be executed with skill and punc- tuality. We are asked to contemplate his goings and comings and his output of pictures rather than his genius. If this limitation is clearly recognized, we can admire the vast amount of industry which must have gone to the making of this book. Hen we can get an account of everything that is known about any given picture by Holbein, and also about a great ninny 'which are attributed to him without justification.
Hoag 16,1DA. tx. Bau.9., By Arthur B. chamberlain. 2 vols. London Iiirrxe Ansa sad CO. VS ea. Deal .
Numbers of illustrations show ne both the portraits and the drawings, among the latter being those made for gold- smiths' work, which fill one with amazement by their invention and perfection of line. How it was possible in a book of this kind to debase the work of the master by the terrible colour reproductions passes belief. That Mr. Chamberlain could allow his book to be defaced by such vulgarization is hard to explain. Can he be insensible to the beauty of colour and the quality of the paint surface of the master P
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