Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/471

 In Augsburg. 441 torical painting had he devoted his attention to that branch of art. He was the one German master, not excepting even Diirer, who freed himself entirely from the insipid con- ventionalism in the treatment of the human form which had so long prevailed, and his portraits have an individuality of character and clearness of colouring superior to anything of the kind ever produced in Germany. His Last Supper, in the Basle Gallery, the so-called Meyer Madonna, in the Darmstadt Gallery, of which a replica exists in the Dresden Gallery (Fig. 154), and the series of wood-cuts known as the Dance of Death (Fig. 153), — skilful reproductions of which may be seen in al- n x »st every public library, — are among his best known and most spirited compositions. The last- named is a noble work full of humour and po- etry, and has been chosen by Mr. Ruskin as a speci- men of the true use of the grotesque in art. As is well known, Holbein spent a great portion of his life in England, and our royal and private collections contain many authentic works from his hand. Of these we must name, as among the most remarkable, a portrait of Erasmus, and the so-called Ambassadors, both in the gallery of Longford Castle ; a series of eighteen portraits Fig. 153.— The Pedlar. By Holbein. From the ' Dance of Death.'